#clarkson ficlet

[shares-a-vest]

Prompt: Bringing someone home (Discord Drabble) @bowtieandflannel I fear I have a resurging case of Clarkson brainrot. Also yeah, sorry to the stwg but this is once again probably not a drabble.

Eddie shuffles into the kitchen, bleary-eyed and needing a caffeine hit (or three). He blinks hard and rubs his eyes, vision clearing enough to see a figure standing at the stove. His mouth waters at the smell of bacon, praying that his uncle has save him some.

"Hey, Wa-ay – AHHHH!"

He screams and claps a hand over his mouth at the sight of Scott Clarke, funky bowtie-wearing middle school teacher and all-around dork of a science nerd, standing in his kitchen making breakfast.

"Oh, gosh!" Scott says, dropping the egg slider in the pan as he jumps back and clutches his chest, "Wayne said you weren't home!"

"I am," he takes a moment to frown before going back to gawking to the point his eyes might fall out onto the cracked linoleum.

"He's um..." Scott looks out the front window.

"I need to..." Eddie thumbs to the door.

"Yeah!" Scott agrees with great enthusiasm.

Eddie whips around at break-neck speed to fling open the front door and the accompanying fly screen, thoroughly testing the hinges. He's sure he will receive a scalding from Wayne soon enough.

He braces himself, perhaps not nearly as much as he typically would because Scott cries out, "Oh golly, the toast!" as the fly screen smashes shut again, the metal frame rattling away.

"Oh, shit!" Wayne cusses, looking uncharacteristically spooked as they make eye contact.

See, it's things like this that are bolstering Eddie's growing assertion that Scott Clarke should one-thousand percent not be cooking in their kitchen in a pair of boxer shorts and one of his uncle's flannels, saying things like "gosh" and "golly".

Wayne meanwhile, looks as shocked as he oughta be, sitting on the edge of the second-hand couch they have out on the porch.

Eddie opens his mouth to speak but again, he has nothing.

"Boy," Wayne says, stern with a warning finger, "Don't you start!"

"Why is Scott Clarke in our kitchen!" he shrieks, promptly smacking his mouth shut when his uncle shushes him.

"You told me you wouldn't be home."

"I wasn't. But then... Steve... work... eh!"

He gives up on the whole speaking words thing and pinches his nose. Maybe if he applies enough pressure, his brain will explode and he won't have to think about his uncle waiting on bated breath for him to leave the house, giving him the all-clear to bring a goddamn date home.

A date...

He winces.

"Darn it, Eddie!" Wayne says as he rubs at the back of his neck, "I guess I should'a told ya. This whole thing is..."

He stops and nods, grumbling as he looks down at his worn grandpa-like slippers. Eddie's heart sinks. That's the same look he's seen on his uncle's face many times. And each and every time that look has had something to do with Wayne feeling like he screwed up as Eddie's parental figure.

"I just need..." he struggles.

"Time to think it all over?" Wayne asks.

He nods meekly, flopping down to sit with his uncle. Wayne pats him on the knee, neither of them saying anymore.

That is until the fly screen squeaks and they both look up to find Scott fully dressed and gesturing inside.

"Uh..." he hums and Eddie looks down, forgiving of his awkwardness - he feels like an asshole, now, "Breakfast is ready."

He hums to himself and looks towards Wayne's truck.

But Wayne stands and steps towards him.

"You're staying," he insists before turning back to Eddie, "And you're coming inside too."

"Can I um..." he really does feel like a goddamn kid again, "Can I eat in my room? I, uh... I just need to think about things."

"Thought is essential to our growth as human beings," Scott muses.

[unclewaynemunson]

After Eddie and Max were brought into the hospital, the waiting room was packed with people. But as time passed by, it got quieter. One by one, worried parents came by to pick up their kids.

“Are you sure you don't wanna come with me?” Robin asked Steve when her mother arrived.

Steve nodded. “Go home, Rob, it's okay. Just wanna make sure Max's mom and Eddie's uncle get here.”

She shot him a worried look, but she knew him well enough to recognize when she wouldn't be able to persuade him – and Steve in turn knew that there was no way Mrs. Buckley would leave the hospital without Robin, after all that had happened that night.

So Steve stayed and waited with Lucas in Max's room for Mrs. Mayfield. When she arrived, he decided to give them some privacy and wandered over to Eddie's room a couple of doors down the hall.

He hesitated for a moment, wondering if Eddie would already have returned from the operation room – and if so, if it would be good or bad news waiting for him on the other side of the door.

He swallowed. Waiting motionlessly in the corridor wouldn't change what he'd find. So he raised his hand and slowly pushed the door open.

Eddie was inside, leaning against a pillow in his bed. He was as white as the sheets around him and he had large stitches in one of his cheeks, but other than that, he looked – alive.

“Eddie,” Steve breathed out while an overwhelming wave of relief washed over him.

It was only then that he noticed the other people in the room and stopped in his tracks.

Eddie's uncle was sitting at his bedside, wearing sweatpants and only an undershirt underneath his denim jacket. He looked exhausted, but just as relieved as Steve felt.

But that wasn't what had sparked Steve's surprise. No, the thing that Steve couldn't make sense of, was the man who was sat in the chair next to Wayne Munson. It was Steve's old middle school science teacher, Scott Clarke. He was dressed in a plaid flannel that seemed more Mr. Munson's style than his own, buttoned askew on top of a pair of striped pajama pants.

“Mr. Clarke? What are you doing here?” The question tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

“Who are you?” Mr. Munson asked Steve before Mr. Clarke could say anything. It sounded defensive on the verge of being aggressive, but Steve couldn't really blame him for that, considering what the majority of Hawkins currently thought about Eddie.

“Steve Harrington,” he said, holding out his hand.

The lines on Mr. Munson's forehead deepened.

“He's my friend,” Eddie said. His voice sounded hoarse and weak, but Steve still felt a rush of warmth course through his whole body because of the words he said. “He saved my life.”

“Oh.” Mr. Munson's eyes widened slightly and he finally took Steve's hand. “Wayne Munson. Eddie's uncle. Pleased meetin' ya.”

“It's good to see you again, Steve,” Mr. Clarke remarked. “You've grown a lot since the last time I saw you.”

“I didn't expect to see you here, Mr. Clarke,” Steve noted, still trying to make sense of what exactly his old science teacher was doing in this room.

“Uncle Scott is also my uncle,” Eddie explained.

Steve looked back and forth between Mr. Munson and Mr. Clarke, trying to find any kind of resemblance between the two of them.

“You're brothers?” he couldn't help but ask, unable to keep the astonishment out of his voice. He would never have guessed that those two men were related to each other.

“Steve, no...” Eddie's voice was almost a whisper and had an undertone of something that sounded an awful lot like exasperation. Steve knew that tone all too well; he had never been good at restraining himself from asking stupid questions, after all.

He noticed how the two men exchanged some kind of meaningful glance with each other.

“Um, I think we should go get some coffee, Wayne,” Mr. Clarke said. “Leave the boys to catch up.”

Mr. Munson nodded, but before he got up, he looked at Eddie. "You'll be alright?" he asked, a worried frown on his face.

Eddie nodded. "It's fine, Uncle Wayne." He said it softly, like he was trying to reassure his uncle, and only after Eddie gave him another emphatic nod, Mr. Munson started following Mr. Clarke out of the room.

Just when Steve realized Mr. Clarke must be Eddie's uncle from his mom's side while Mr. Munson had to be his dad's brother, Wayne let his hand linger on the small of Mr. Clarke's back. It was a tiny moment, that only lasted a second right before they went through the door, easy to miss if one weren't paying close attention. But it was still enough for Steve to understand the exasperation in Eddie's voice and the unease on his uncles' faces. That one touch told Steve all he needed to know: there was this casual, easy kind of intimacy behind it that only long-term partners shared. He had seen his parents act like that, and Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair...

“No fucking way,” he breathed out at the moment the door quietly shut behind Mr. Munson. He turned back to Eddie with wide eyes and his jaw dropped.

“Your uncle is – and he's with Scott Clarke?”

Eddie's jaw clenched. “You got a problem with that?”

In his pure astonishment, Steve barely even registered Eddie's question.

“That's impossible!” he all but exclaimed. “Here – in Hawkins? How?!”

Eddie looked slightly past Steve's face, to the bare white wall behind him. “Jesus Christ, Steve,” he said. “You've seen dozens of hell monsters and walked through an alternate dimension to fight an evil sorcerer, and this is what you decide is impossible?”

“Well, it is,” Steve stubbornly said.

He remembered how he once felt about his teammate Thomas, back in his freshman year, remembered the ache in his chest exactly because of how impossible it was. He remembered Robin talking about Tammy Thompson in that bathroom stall filled with the scent of their puke. But Tammy Thompson is a girl, he had said, in his instinctive and perhaps naive confusion - not because he deemed it impossible for Robin to feel that way about a girl, but because up until that point, he had deemed it irrelevant. He knew better than anyone that those kind of feelings would flare up from time to time around certain people, but as far as he was concerned, it didn't matter. There was no way to act on it, no point in lingering on something that was impossible to have anyway.

“They've been together for over a decade,” Eddie said. His voice suddenly lacked its usual warmth; a warmth that Steve had gotten used to over the past few days; a warmth that left a weird feeling of loss behind in Steve's chest now that it wasn't there. “They make each other happy. They don't hurt anyone with it. So don't fucking tell me it's impossible, man. They love each other, and if you're gonna be a dick about that, I'm gonna have to kindly ask you to fuck the hell off.”

“Woah, woah, woah, wait,” Steve hurriedly sputtered. “I'm not – I didn't-” The words got stuck in his throat, somehow. He didn't quite know how to explain the storm that was raging inside of him, the many emotions he felt upon discovering that there were two men happily sharing their lives together, who lived in the same town as he did. Two men who were just like him, who had figured out a way to not hide away, who had somehow found their way to each other, and who had fallen in love without it being something they needed to repress.

“I didn't know – that it could be like that,” he finally managed to stutter. “I never even imagined a future like that for myself. I didn't know – I thought we were just supposed to pretend like those parts of ourselves don't exist and marry a woman. I never met anyone who did it differently.”

Finally, Eddie averted his gaze to look at him again. His eyes were a little bit wider and he was staring at him so intensely that Steve felt something stir deep in his stomach.

“Stevie,” he said, his voice quiet and so much warmer than before in a way that sent a shiver down Steve's spine. “Jesus, I'm sorry, I had no idea. I thought you were saying..." He cut himself off and inhaled deeply, slightly shaking his head. "Listen, man, there's always a choice. I'm not saying it's easy; my uncles have to hide a lot of what they mean to each other when they're in public. They're risking Scott's job, and maybe even a whole lot more if the wrong people find out about them... But there is always a choice. They're much happier together than they would've been if they had chosen to hide and marry a woman, or if they'd spent their whole lives alone.”

Steve had to take a moment to let Eddie's words sink in. Eddie merely kept looking at him, not making a single sound, patiently waiting for him to get his thoughts straight again.

“Are there more people like them, here in Hawkins?” Steve finally asked.

“Not many,” Eddie answered. “Most people who are different move to the bigger cities, where you're a bit more free to be yourself. But they're friends with this lesbian couple who lives a few streets over. And they know some people in Indy, but Wayne refuses to move there. He's too much of a small town boy, he says.” Eddie rolled his eyes at that last part, as if he could in no way comprehend the thought of preferring Hawkins over a big city like Indianapolis.

But Steve did comprehend it. Hawkins was his home. Even after everything that happened to him here, it was where he belonged. It was where everyone he cared about was. He wasn't naive, he knew that that was bound to change at some point, but he had never dared to dream about going someplace else himself. He had never even dared to dream about being someone else. Yet here he was, sitting at the bedside of a boy whose eyes he hadn't stopped thinking about for days.

Maybe it was about time to change his perception of what was possible and what wasn't.

“I know one person who's like – like me,” he admitted. He wanted to tell Eddie about Robin. He knew that there was nothing to worry about – but he also knew it wasn't up to him to share her secret. “I don't know if this is a weird idea," he continued, "but maybe we could all, like, get together sometime. Your uncle, mister Clarke, their lesbian friends...” The idea of it made him feel weirdly excited. He couldn't really imagine what it would be like, to spend a whole evening surrounded by people he had this one thing in common with.

“Not a weird idea,” Eddie told him, that soft look still shining in his big brown eyes. “Sounds awesome, actually.”

“If we do something like that...” Steve hesitated for a moment. “Would you be there too?”

Despite the stitches in his cheek, Eddie managed to smile, dimples and all. He raised a pale hand and pulled a strand of his hair across his face, like he was trying to hide something written on the skin around his lips. “I thought that was obvious,” he said with a chuckle.

Steve chuckled as well. “Just needed to be sure,” he admitted.

He stretched out his hand and put it on top of Eddie's, where it was resting on top of the sheets. It only took a few seconds: he gently squeezed Eddie's hand, then pulled back again, still nervous and not quite knowing what exactly they were headed towards. But no matter how short, the touch still sent sparks through his whole body.

“I'm glad you're alive,” he said, softly.

Eddie's smile became just a little bit wider, and a faint blush colored his pale cheeks. “Me too, big boy. Believe me, me too.”

(I wrote this bc this post by @boldlyvoid refused to leave my brain for literal months)

[flowercrowngods]

dio. 🤍

ao3 • writing tag • time travel au tag (stories & snippets) steddie drabbles & microfics ☕️ ko-fi vibes only. mostly steddie, sometimes clarkson.

🌷 WIPs & multi-chaptered stories

➤ i’ll try. i’ll try. (but i couldn’t be better) WIP M | 74k | 12/? | time travel au, angst, steve whump Sent back to 1983, Steve tries to save his friends from everything that's coming and takes on the battle against the Upside Down alone with El by his side.

➤ nice to meet you, where you been? T | 12k | 3/3 | tattoo shop au, pure fluff, trans eddie Chrissy sends Eddie to check out a tattoo shop. Little does he know it belongs to Steve Harrington, or that they’ll both be falling for each other at lightning

➤ untitled knight!Steve / bard!Eddie WIP T | 10k | 2/? | tumblr: part 1 | part 2 | ... regency au (freeform), enemies to lovers Eddie is a bard of great renown who returns to Hawkins ready and willing to spite the people who cast him out all his life. He is in search of his muse: the knight Dustin has been writing to him about who has inspired his greatest ballads and poems. Dustin’s Sir Steve is nowhere to be found, but Lord Harrington seems to hold a grudge against Eddie and he wants to find out why.

➤ see the stars shining through the cracks of my broken heart | steddie week fic T | 14.7k | 3/3 | tumblr: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 in which Eddie and Chrissy get engaged and Steve is heartbroken. yearning ensues. a story about love requited and unrequited, breaking and healing, and hope (steddie & buckingham)

➤ shattered on the cliff’s edge, trapped by the tides WIP M | 5.8k | 2/7 | tumblr: part 1 | part 2 | ... A steddie ghost story. Steve Harrington, disgraced and disowned by his father for moral insanity, has been haunted by eerie dreams of a mysterious lighthouse ever since he was a little boy. His lighthouse quickly turns from recurring night terror to gruesome reality when his superior delegates him to fix the broken light and be the new keeper. But he soon finds out that it is he who is being kept.

➤ tales of blue | who did this to you? WIP M | 13k | 3/4 | tumblr: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | Eddie POV, pre-s4, injured Steve, hurt/comfort One summer's day in 1985, Eddie finds a very injured Steve in the boathouse, and even though he doesn't want the kind of trouble that this might bring, he can't just leave him there. So, scared though he is, he takes Steve to the one person he trusts to always make everything better.

➤ untitled kas!eddie / steve WIP M | 5.3k | 1/? | tumblr: part 1 | post-canon, hurt/comfort, enemies steddie The extent of his brain injuries and the intensity of his migraines is something Steve has been keeping secret from everyone. When he goes to Kas to let him feed, however, the sudden blood loss gives him a migraine. Kas decides to take care of him.

one shots & ficlets under the cut (ao3) -> ao3 link in the tumblr fic post

🌷 fluff & floaty

floor time fic (ao3) Eddie POV, falling in love, fluff, neurodivergent steddie

eddie likes Good Words (ao3) Steve POV, stablished relationship, neurodivergent steddie, echolalia

rambly Steve in love Eddie POV, established relationship, love confession

soft insomniacs (ao3) Eddie POV, short trans Eddie, soft Steve, bickering, established relationship

3 am phone call (ao3) Steve POV, soft, pre-relationship

car ride in love Eddie POV, floaty, boys in love, Andante, Andante

stargazing Steve POV, floaty & soft, boys in love

sick fic Eddie POV, domestic fluff & silliness, steve is sick, eddie is in love

first kiss Eddie POV, floaty, boys in love

loving eddie munson (is a full body experience) (ao3) Steve POV, floaty, boys in love, introspection, love confessions

floaty steddie date hours Eddie POV, established relationship, date night, marriage proposals, softness, dancing in the rain

sick fic 2 (woollen bat hat) Eddie POV, sick!Steve, soft boyfriends in love, cuddling, Eddie reads Momo to Steve

🌷 yearning

✨yearning hours (a-side) (ao3) Eddie POV, heart-wrenching yearning, light imagery, (mis)communication, vulnerability, first kiss

✨yearning hours (b-side) (ao3) Steve POV, insecurity, trauma, darkness imagery, vulnerability, first kiss

✨yearning hours (bonus track) (ao3) Eddie POV, light imagery, vulnerability, getting together

summer nights were made for steve (ao3) Eddie POV, yearning, getting together, the stars are pretty but steve is prettier

✨yearning hours (hidden track) (ao3) Steve POV, floaty music, getting together, sudden love confession, pining, A Flock of Seagulls

✨ high yearning make-out fic (smutty) (ao3) Eddie POV, recreational drug use, dry humping, coming in pants, so much yearning, so much kissing, spicy six as friends

🌷 hurt/comfort

insomniac eddie & human weighted blanket steve Eddie POV, developing relationship, comfort

Eddie being inexperienced at relationships Eddie POV, established relationship, dramatic eddie, boys in love, cuddles

spiralling writer eddie Eddie POV, established relationship, comfort, emotionally intelligent steve

‘You’d be a great dad’ Eddie POV, established relationship, insecure Eddie, comfort

steve has seizures (ao3) Steve POV, angst, self-isolation, seizures, post-s3, found family, background steddie

nonverbal steve gets a hug (ao3) Steve POV, established steddie, nonverbal steve, caring eddie, touch starved steve

sensory overload steddie Steve POV, soft boys, building relationship, nonverbal steve, touch-averse eddie, floor time as the cure

🌷 angst & hurt/no comfort

spiralling steve Steve POV, traumatised steve, nonverbal steve, established steddie, eventual comfort

breakup Steve POV, steve is not okay, breaking up

My Boy Steve POV, major character death, post-s4, inspired by My Girl funeral scene

memory wipe musings Steve POV, post-canon, established relationship, breakup-ish

post-breakup steddie Steve POV, a follow-up for @steddieas-shegoes prompt-fill | years after breaking up with steve eddie writes him a letter and they talk, mentions of drug abuse and rehab, starting over, 2nd chances (it's hopeful but it's kinda really sad)

knightmærs Eddie POV, prince!steve, traitor!eddie, lovers to enemies who are still lovers but it's intrigue, brainwashing, torture, eddie whump, manipulation, open ending, violence & threats of death

🌷 smut(ish)

steve wants to hear eddie Eddie POV, established relationship, anal sex

sexytimes in a tent Steve POV, trying not to get caught, established relationship, hand jobs

sub!kas eddie (drabble) (tag for more) Steve POV, good boy kas, soft dom steve

school reunion sex Eddie POV, chubby!steve, dom-ish top steve, belly kink, light degradation kink, multiple orgasms, semi-public sex, reunion sex, good boy eddie

misc. & gen

steve and nancy finally have A Talk Steve POV, apologies, communicating like adults, making up, platonic stancy

steve and mike coming out to each other (ao3) Steve POV, bisexual lighting, established background steddie, mike & steve sibling relationship

why'd you jump? (ao3) conversation at the quarry, coming out (kinda), working through trauma together, steve & mike sibling relationship, big brother Steve | cw: could read as suicidal tendencies or intrusive thoughts

a study in grief: steve and mike talking about barb (ao3) Steve POV, Barb's death anniversary, Barb was Mike's friend, grief, mourning, big brother Steve, Mike character study

stobin arsonist tendencies (drabble) Steve POV, robin wants to burn down steve's car and house, fucked up platonic besties, neurodivergent swag

🌷 i'll try-verse (time travel au) oneshots

steve takes el to see her first meteor shower

el calls steve magic

eddie finds nonverbal steve

tina's party steddie hug

steve meets wayne

clarkson fics

meet-sweet | kids duty (ao3) clarkson origin post with @unclewaynemunson. Wayne POV, first meeting, slow burn, pre-relationship, soft

coursework, caffeine and cuddles (ao3) teacher student!steve, domestic fluff, established clarkson & steddie, found family

if i fell in love with you (ao3) Scott POV, soft, established relationship, domestic fluff, If I Fell

home. (ao3) Scott POV, comfort, floaty, established relationship, after-school car ride, domesticity

quiet. (ao3) Scott POV, hurt/comfort, domesticity, established relationship, wayne doesn’t like how quiet scott’s house gets

don’t let go (i won’t) (ao3) Scott POV, hurt/comfort, found family, post-s4, shared trauma, steddie, established relationship, wayne gets a bad flashback and scott calls steddie for help

ronance fics

snow angels for @thefreakandthehair's spicy six winter fic challenge, Nancy POV, pining, first kiss, getting together

yearning hours (ao3) Nancy POV, pining, yearning, realisations, pre-relationship, semi-floaty

[puppy-steve]

🦌 cj. 26. he/him. 🦌

writer's tag | steddie ficlets | fic recs | wip posts | answered asks | playlists | ko-fi

18+ only. minors do not interact. blank blogs, harry potter blogs, and spam likers will be blocked.

❄️ ao3 fics ❄️ (registered users only)

🎁 haunted by the ghost of you (take me back to the night we met) - T, 2k, vamp eddie

🎁 the magic that we'll feel is worth the lifetime - M, 7k, est. relationship, post season 3/pre season 4

🎁 silent spark - G, 4k, animal crossing au, aspec steve

(more on ao3...)

❄️ tumblr ficlets ❄️

🎁 nurse steve (modern au)

🎁 it takes a village (steddie dads)

🎁 can't you hear that scratching (vamp eddie)

🎁 [ hiraeth; ] (appalachian eddie masterpost)

(more ficlets...)

☃️ the besties ☃️

@hammity-hammer @yournowheregirl @corrodedcoughin @scarcrossdlvrs | @starrystevie @inairbinad @courtjestermunson @flowercrowngods @judasofsuburbia @steves-strapcollection @fireandgrimstone @starryeyedjanai @legitcookie @matchingbatbites @corrodedbisexual @wewilllivehappilyandstrong @thefreakandthehair @steddieas-shegoes @theheadlessphilosopher @stobinesque @potentialheartofdarkness @sidekick-hero @patchworkgargoyle @sentient-trash @vecnuthy @wormdebut @wynnyfryd

❄️ tag masterlist ❄️

eddie | steve | robin | nancy | jonathan | argyle | the party | hopper | mike | dustin | will | lucas | erica | el | max | jonathan & will | will & el | eddie & robin | robin & steve | lucas & erica | dustin & his brothers | steddie | ronance | jargyle | buckingham | eddie & chrissy | spicy six | emma munson | uncle wayne | chrissy | clarkson | ftm eddie | ftm steve | ace eddie | ace steve | corroded coffin | hellfire | punk steve | jezebel munson | scoops troop | bat eddie

dividers & banners by: @saradika updated: 11/23/23

[just-two-blokes]

Comfortember day 17: Falling asleep on someone - A Thomas Barrow x Richard Ellis Ficlet

In search of a Fic idea I looked at the prompts of the last comfortember event for which I have also written some Thomas x Richard fics in the past. And I came across this prompt as well as an other one that I haven't written for and that I really like.

So here we are, my first Tumblr Fic after a long break. A little feel-good ficlet, that helped me process some feelings and emotions that are spinning in my head at the moment.

---

When Thomas unlocks the door to their cottage that evening, Richard instinctively notices that something is wrong. Even though Thomas' waves off his concerned enquiry in an exhausted gesture and assures him several times that he is fine, Richard has known Thomas long enough to know when the butler is lying. Because if there is one thing Thomas Barrow is not good at, and Richard Ellis thinks Thomas really is good at just about anything, it is lying.

And incidentally, the dark and deep rings around his eyes and the tense posture with which he strides into the cottage also give him away.

But Richard also knows that Thomas can't stand being pushed and so Richard vamooses in the kitchen to prepare dinner, as well as Thomas' favourite dessert (dark chocolate cake).

Dinner is a rather depressing affair. Thomas' chews listlessly on his roast and Richard feels they are tiptoeing around an issue that will inevitably reveal itself sooner or later.

And finally, when Richard himself is almost finished eating, Thomas finally blurts out.

'This day… has been horrible.'

Richard raises his eyebrow and gives him an encouraging smile.

After a moment's hesitation, Thomas' continues.

'First Andy almost fell down the stairs and broke twenty plates of silverware. Well, better the crockery than Andy's bones, but Lady Mary wasn't too pleased about it.

Then Mrs Patmore spilt boiling water over her hand while cooking a stew and I had to ask Dr Clarkson to come in on an emergency basis. So in the end I had to help with the cooking myself, as Mrs Patmore was of course no longer fit for anything.

And Andy has asked for a day off, and I feel bad because I really can't give him that now. Not with all the chaos that's going on at the moment.'

Richard, who has been listening attentively the whole time, gives Thomas a sad look before he finally stands up, circles the table and takes Thomas in his arms.

Thomas lets himself fall into the embrace and snuggles close to the valet, while his eyes keep falling shut from exhaustion.

Encouragingly, Richard takes Thomas by the hand and leads him to their shared bedroom. Once there, Richard re-drapes the pillows on the bed and gestures Thomas to lie down.

'But', Thomas wants to reply, but Richard nips his protest in the bud.

'No arguments', a sly grin steals onto his face, 'You've earned a break'.

With these words he leaves Thomas standing in the small bedroom and disappears into the kitchen. Sighing, Thomas surrenders and drops onto the bed, exhausted. His field of vision is blurred and everything seems to spin around him.

After a few minutes, Richard reappears in the doorway with a fluffy woollen blanket, a large piece of chocolate cake and a steaming cup of tea. There is an affectionate smile on his face and he motions for Thomas to move a little to one side.

For a few seconds Thomas just stares at him, stunned and overwhelmed, until finally he hesitantly slides a little to the side and Richard drops down beside him on the bed. Then he holds out the tray with the tea and cake to Thomas and carefully spreads the blanket over their legs.

Thomas still looks completely perplexed until he finally finds his voice again with a brief clearing of his throat 'I… why…?'

Richard just smiles at him with that stubborn grin that drives Thomas crazy every time.

'Because you deserve a nice, quiet and cosy evening', Richard replies and gives him a gentle kiss on the forehead before fishing a small storybook from his bedside table and opening it.

'Good night story?'

Thomas' eyes light up and he nods mechanically.

Richard taps on his chest and Thomas lies down, resting his head on Richard's chest as Richard tells him the tale of the Seven Little Goats.

As Richard closes the book at the end of the story, he realises that he hasn't heard from Thomas for a while. Only the weight on his chest has grown heavier with each page read aloud, and when Richard finally puts the book down and looks at his chest, he realises that Thomas has probably long since drifted off into the realm of dreams, his head resting on Richard's chest, his arms crushed uncomfortably beneath him.

Richard gives Thomas an affectionate smile as he wipes a few dishevelled strands of hair from his forehead and finally manoeuvres him carefully from his chest onto the pillow.

Thomas turns onto his side in his sleep and smacks softly, eliciting an imperceptible giggle from Richard. Gently, Richard covers Thomas' sleeping body with the duvet and gives him a gentle kiss on the forehead.

Thomas mumbles something in his sleep and Richard rises with a smile to put the tray in the kitchen and get into bed as well.

The washing up can wait until tomorrow.

They have definitely done enough work today.

[bluiex]

When writing that oneshot I wanted a theme.

Strength and moving on.

My best friend is currently going through a cheating break up. He’s not doing too well.

So I put a lot of his personality into Scar.

Eventually we all emotionally check out. We stop caring because it hurts too care. Scar isn’t a completely vengeful type, never could be with Grian.

So he opts instead to move on, he picked up the pieces of his heart on that lonely mountain in Last Life. And put the shattered remains back together. For a long time he was resentful and better in his own isolation.

But then he came to accept it. Emotionally there was nothing left between him and Grian. And finally saying those words out loud to himself, made all the difference for his heart and mind. The words felt like a breath of fresh air.

Scar knows now, in Double Life, his own worth. And can be happy for Grian because he knows that he doesn’t have to let it get to him anymore. Grian is allowed to be happy too.

Songs like

Piece by Piece - Kelly Clarkson.

Stronger - Kelly Clarkson.

Fighter - Christian Aguilera

Survivor - Destinies Child

These were the vibes I was listening too. Scar became stronger without Grian, and took care of himself. He doesn’t need him to survive anymore.

For Grian, well, we never know how precious something is. Until we lose it. So what’s worse? Knowing they can be happy for you? Or knowing they are happy without you?

Ough JAAAADE that's so perfect qoq it's literally how I went through my own cheating break up. (It's why the ficlet I related to so hard and did tear up a bit) And it's so freeing to be just over it and uncaring now. Cuz ykno fuck that person! I know my worth-- and jade you expressed it SO bloody well in the ficlet <3

[speeed-and-power]

new fic page + fandom statistics

continuing on my quest to make my blog generally more accessible and generally better all round, I’ve updated the page where you can find all the fics I’ve written. it has filters so you can sort by pairing, rating, and genre, and is infinitely more readable than my last one!

it’s also allowed me to do some ~fun fandom fic statistics~ which my autistic self loves! I’ve put them below the cut because they’re dull.

Pairings

I’ve written 22 fics about Clarkson, Hammond and May, but for the purposes of these statistics I’m excluding my dribble/drouble/drabble roundup fic because I can’t be bothered including those 12 or so little ficlets. So, of the 21 fics:

Je/R was the first pairing I wrote

it was obviously my favourite for a while, because 10 of the 21 fics are Je/R

7 are J/J

3 are OT3

1 is Ja/R

I find this interesting—I like reading all pairings equally, and in theory like the idea of writing all pairings, but clearly I find myself drawn overwhelmingly to Je/R and J/J. I adore OT3 but find it tricky to write, and I also enjoy Ja/R but it doesn’t come as easily to me as anything with Jeremy in, so that’s why I think I’ve neglected it up until now.

This compares interestingly to the fandom overall, where the most popular pairing differs by platform! I’m just focusing on the main four pairings here (sorry Andy, Stig, and others D:) in order to more easily compare to my own writing.

On dreamwidth (which includes aggregate posts from the old LJ comm):

Ja/R leads with 1,551

J/J comes second with 1,455

OT3 is third with 1,109

Je/R is last! with 1,003

On ao3 under the Top Gear (UK) RPF tag:

J/J is first with 746 fics

Ja/R is second with 540 fics

OT3 is third with 442

Je/R is last again with 396

It’s fascinating to me that clearly the LJ comm was the place for fics, even though ao3 has been around since 2007. Although in saying that I believe it only really started to get popular from 2010 onwards (the first thing I ever posted on there was in 2013, a since-orphaned, really bad James Bond/Raoul Silva fic that I wrote when I was 16 LOL) and I know the comm has been active at least back to 2008.

Lastly, on ao3 under The Grand Tour (TV) RPF tag:

J/J is first with 200 fics

Je/R is second with 146

Ja/R is third with 125

OT3 is last (just!) with 124

Obviously we can’t take these numbers as being set in stone because fics may have multiple pairings and thus multiple tags (and I know most people tag both fandoms on ao3, which doubles up the numbers), but they do give us a good idea. What’s consistent about all three platforms is that J/J is at the top or very near the top (this doesn’t surprise me; anecdotally I always thought it was the most popular pairing) and OT3 is at the bottom or near the bottom. It’s also interesting to me that in recent years Je/R seems to have leapt in popularity, and I wonder why. Were there a bunch of primarily Ja/R writers back in the day who have since left fandom?

Moving on to...

Ratings

When it comes to my fics (and keep in mind I’m using the Australian rating system of G/PG/M/MA/R here) it’s not an exact science and I’m not very good at rating but I’ve done my best:

9 are G/PG (maybe a little smooching)

3 are M (perhaps some over-the-clothes action, or more mature themes)

1 is MA (slightly smutty without being explicit)

7 are R (smut)

I’m surprised at this, because I didn’t realise I’ve written that much smut. Of those rated R fics, though, 3 are Je/R, 2 are OT3, one is J/J and one is Ja/R. So I’m at least a somewhat equal opportunity porn provider.

To make it confusing, both ao3 and the DW comm use different rating systems to each other and to me (the DW one I think is the american system and is thus incomprehensible to me, and ao3’s has always seemed vague), but let’s look at them anyway:

dreamwidth

rated G - 178 uses - 5th

rated PG - 272 uses - 3rd

rated PG-13 - 329 uses - 2nd

rated PG-15 - 133 uses - 6th

rated R - 228 uses - 4th

rated NC-17 - 505 uses - 1st

I find it interesting that these numbers don’t correspond to the amount of fics with pairings that are listed in the comm, meaning I guess a lot of fics on there aren’t tagged with their ratings. I’m thus not too sure about the accuracy of these numbers—but regardless, of what’s tagged, the people want smut it seems! LOL

ao3 - Top Gear (UK) RPF

General Audiences - 618 uses - 3rd

Teen & Up Audiences - 736 uses - 1st

Mature - 525 uses - 4th

Explicit - 668 uses - 2nd

Not Rated - 155 uses - 5th

ao3 - The Grand Tour (TV) RPF is largely the same, except General Audiences and Explicit switch places:

General Audiences - 197 uses - 2nd Teen & Up Audiences - 225 uses - 1st Mature - 146 uses - 4th Explicit - 177 uses - 3rd Not Rated - 80 uses - 5th

I find it interesting that Mature is as unpopular as it is, but otherwise, I’m not too sure what else to glean from these statistics. Moving on to my final data point...

Genres

This was nearly impossible for me to quantify because I am good at tagging my fics but a lot of the tags I use are quite specific (“First Time”, “Episode Related”) so I find it hard to fit my fic into the commonly-accepted overarching ‘genres’ of fic: fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, and smut are the four that first come to mind. A lot of my fics ended up being fluff, a few smut, one or two angsty, but there are more than a few that I left untagged completely when it comes to genre because they’re kind of nothing! If anything they were maybe fluffy, but fluff to me implies tooth-rottingly sweet and these pieces didn’t really scream that to me.

smut (everything rated R basically): 7 fics

fluff: 6 fics

untagged: 5 fics

angst (but it’s weak angst by my standards, ‘minor conflict’ or ‘morose pining’ would probably be a better tag, LOL): 4 fics

double tagged (fluff/smut, smut/pwp x2, angst/smut): 4 fics

porn without plot: 2 fics

alternate universe: 1 fic

Let’s look at dreamwidth first. It has a lot of tags, which is excellent for my purposes! I haven’t included all of them; I limited myself to the top 7, an arbitrary number just cuz.

alternate universe: 428 uses

humour: 317 uses

fluff: 159 uses

gen: 150 uses

dribble/drouble/drabble: 144 uses

established relationship: 138 uses

angst: 111 uses

I suspect we’re looking at the same issue we had when examining the ratings (where people in the past have tagged their fic with the pairing but nothing else). I also suspect AU leads the pack because there’s no corresponding ‘not AU’ tag, but in all honesty I’m surprised by those numbers. Keep in mind, though, I don’t really read AU fic and don’t tend to write it (with one exception) so of course that would surprise me LOL. Humour is kinda a given with these boys, and I’m not surprised fluff is up there either. Now onto ao3!

ao3 - Top Gear (UK) RPF

Fluff: 317 uses

Established Relationship: 226 uses

RPF: 174 uses

Angst: 163 uses

Hurt/Comfort: 157 uses

Slash: 134 uses

Episode Related: 126 uses

ao3 - The Grand Tour (TV) RPF is quite similar with one amusing tag added:

Fluff: 133 uses

Established Relationship: 83 uses

Hurt/Comfort: 83 uses

Angst: 60 uses

Friendship: 46 uses

Not Beta Read: 44 uses

RPF: 39 uses

The addition of ‘Not Beta Read’ made me lol because I can identify with it a lot, but I didn’t expect it to show up in the tags! Hey, if anyone needs a beta, let me know—I love doing that shit. :D

But let’s not get bogged down with ‘oo didn’t beta ‘oo, I find the fact that RPF is on both lists to be interesting because I’ve never bothered tagging for RPF (especially as it’s already in the fandom tag). I guess it’s polite to, I just hadn’t thought of doing it! Otherwise, unlike dreamwidth, the denizens of ao3 largely seem to shun AUs (it does not appear on the list of tags at all for Top Gear (UK) RPF, and appears last in the list for The Grand Tour (TV) RPF), but we can see that fluff is right up there just like in the comm.

Conclusions

I found it interesting how the tastes of the fandom mirrored or differed to my own when it came to my writing. I found the pairing breakdowns especially fascinating with how they seem to have changed over time!

More personally, looking at my back catalogue, I truly think that anything written pre-2017 (published before of sunlight and smoke; I had my fics on a pseud of one of my kpop accounts before I deleted them all and reuploaded them on my current ao3 account which is why the dates are all a bit shonky) is a bit shit. The titles are meh, the descriptions all end in ellipses, and I just don’t think the writing is all that good.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing egregiously wrong with them. They’re just not particularly memorable; they don’t have strong plots or story beats and most were written as prompt fills. There is NOTHING wrong with prompt fills—I still love writing prompt fills—but a lot were written to fulfill a purpose (fill the prompt) and as such I didn’t have complete creative control and didn’t desire to expand on them any more than I had to. And I’m not saying my most recent works have groundbreaking premises either, but at least I can read through them and not cringe, LOL!

Anyway, if you’ve read this far, feel free to expand upon these stats yourself! I’d love to see how your writing compares, or see your own hypotheses about why the pairings have shifted so much in popularity over time!

[scoops-stevie-archive]

stranger things | cast

eddie | steve | robin | nancy | jonathan | argyle | gareth | jeff | will | mike | el | lucas | dustin | max | erica | joyce | hopper | steddie | ronance | jargyle | jancy | byler | lumax | elmax | elumax | fruity four | spicy six | hellcheer | derica | stobin | jopper | stancy | bandqueen | corroded coffin | hellfire | will/el | byhop sibs | byers bros | byhop fam | steve/robin/eddie | robin/eddie | steve/eddie/dustin | joseph quinn | joe keery | | st 4 bloopers | st 5 | bat!eddie | jezebel munson | clarkson | appalachian eddie | punk steve | eddie munson tiktok saga | uncle wayne | steddie ficlets

[642stories]

Story #35, The X-Files Winter Ficlets 6/28

"A Christmas tree"

Read it on AO3

“Scully, no.”

“Mulder, yes.”

“I’m begging you. Don’t.”

“Now we’re definitely gonna do that.”

“I don’t do Christmas.”

“It will be fun.”

“… and I sure as hell don’t do Christmas trees.”

“I’ll do it with you.”

“… and that crazy shit with stockings and….”

“Please.”

“You’re not gonna drop that?”

“Oh, you know me so well, sweetheart.”

And just like that, he finds himself sitting in his living room, on the floor, cross-legged, surrounded by ornaments, tinsel, and garlands, and god knows what else is in those boxes she brought. Scully is right next to him, untangling endless cords of Christmas lights. A glass of red wine is on the coffee table in front of her.

“I’m gonna put these on the window.”

“No way, Scully,” he’s mortified at the prospect and doesn’t pretend to hide it. “I'm not gonna let you turn my apartment into a fucking Coca-Cola truck.”

“Honey.” She drags lazily, taking another swig from her glass and Mulder blinks stupidly. Scully does it a lot lately, calling him with all these endearments, and he’s not sure what to make of it. He’s confused and hopeful at the same time. 

“You know that Christmas is my favorite holiday,” she says calmly, diving into a box of chocolates lying at her feet and popping one into her mouth.

This is surreal, Mulder thinks. Dana Scully is sitting in the middle of his living room wearing an oversized fluffy white sweater and black leggings, feasting on chocolate and red wine. Her hair is in a messy ponytail and her face is scrubbed clean of make-up, freckles and all. She looks domestic and absolutely gorgeous. 

Smiling like a Cheshire cat, Scully continues, “You can’t stop me, Mulder. We’re going the whole nine yards with Christmas this year.”

Mulder signs defeatedly.

“Remind me again, please, how did you talk me into that?”

Scully grins, exposing a row of straight white teeth, and pops another chocolate into her mouth.

“You told me that you never had a Christmas tree. Not since…, you know. ” She reaches for his hand and gives him a light squeeze.

During their first year together as partners, he told her that he never celebrated Christmas. Not since Samantha had been abducted.

“I don’t say you should forget about it. But you don’t have to carry these memories around all the time.  You can let it go sometimes, at least for a while. So we would have space to create some new memories for this day. Together.” She whispers, her eyes pleading with him.

He pouts his mouth and Scully finds herself fixed on his plump lips. He’s absolutely adorable. So adorable that she wants to climb into his lap and make out right under the goddamn tree. One day these puppy eyes of his will be the death of her. Maybe it’s just the wine talking in her. She probably should stop drinking. Wine makes her resolve waver. Scully clears her throat and adds:

“It’s for you. For us.”

It’s quite likely that she didn’t really mean it the way he hoped she did, but he loves the sound of it nonetheless. Us. There are us, he thinks. 

So maybe Mulder doesn’t do Christmas, but Mulder and Scully do Christmas. He can live with that.

She watches him rise to his feet, and then he disappears somewhere in the confines of his kitchen. When Mulder returns in a couple of minutes with a stepladder, Scully thinks that, wine or not, she loves every minute of it.

“OK, give me the lights.” 

And she does.

And he’s smiling.

And she’s glowing.

And his eyes are sparkling.

And her head is spinning.

And as she gets back to her tangles of cords, he takes a ball ornament from the closest box and puts it on the tree.

____

Soundtrack "Christmas come early" by Kelly Clarkson

[thnxforknowingme]

The Feeling's Plain to Me (1/14)

Summary: Ficlets set in the same ‘verse as It’s Who I’m With. What did Kurt and Blaine get up to in between Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day? (for the Klaine/CC Valentine's Challenge 2022)

Rating: T

Notes: This opening prompt was literally so perfect, I was so inspired (and insomniatic) that I wrote the chapter in bed, on my phone, at 2AM (worry not, I've edited for typos). Later chapters will probably be wildly out of chronological order.

1: Start of Something New - High School Musical

December 31

It was the final night of the year, and the first time Blaine had seen Kurt get drunk.

Kurt had been his usual, gorgeous, put-together self when Blaine arrived at his apartment that evening. Kurt had quickly slipped out into the hallway when Blaine knocked on the door, cutting off several shouting voices from inside.

“Rachel and Santana are back,” Kurt explained with an eye roll, starting down the staircase.

“You’re not going to introduce me?” Blaine asked as he followed.

Kurt paused on the landing, reaching out to take Blaine’s hand. “I’m not embarrassed of you,” he reassured, “I’m embarrassed of them. I’m just prolonging the brief, blissful period in which you are not exposed to the crazy people I live with. You’ll meet them soon enough.”

Blaine had smiled, pressed a kiss to Kurt’s cheek, and then cheerfully headed down towards the entryway.

Now, in an apartment several neighborhoods away, Blaine was cheering as Kurt sang Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone, duetting with one of Blaine’s college friends along with a karaoke track. Kurt was many drinks in at this point, and although his singing talent wasn’t impacted, he looked much more disheveled - some of his hair falling out of place, several buttons of his shirt undone, a pink flush on his cheekbones. Blaine was enjoying finding out what kind of drunk his boyfriend was - happy, bubbly, outgoing and energetic.

Blaine wasn’t entirely sober himself, and he could feel his own drunken tendencies coming out - his body was looser, he was more talkative, and most crucially he was very clingy.

“You were amazing,” he said as Kurt returned to him after the song. He wrapped his arms around Kurt’s waist, wanting him as close as possible.

“I love your friends,” Kurt exclaimed.

“You just love karaoke,” Blaine said, pressing his face into Kurt’s shoulder.

“And your friends sing karaoke,” Kurt insisted. “So I love them, too!”

It felt so right to be here, in Kurt’s arms, at a party mostly full of music majors getting drunk and singing loudly to ring in the new year. He and Kurt had only been dating for a week and a half, and everything about it was new, but it was also fantastic. Every time he saw Kurt his heart leapt, and every word they exchanged further convinced Blaine that they were right for each other, that this was just the start of something life-changing.

Midnight grew closer, and plastic cups of champagne were distributed throughout the party. Blaine kept an arm wound around Kurt as everyone counted down the seconds. At twelve o’clock he leaned in and kissed Kurt, both of them smiling, their lips sticky with champagne. Around them people cheered and drank, and the loud staccato of firecrackers could be heard from the street. It was a brand new year, full of potential, and Blaine couldn’t wait to see what it would bring - especially with Kurt by his side.

[shares-a-vest]

A little Clarkson ficlet for @unclewaynemunson's birthday. Happy Birthday! 💖💖💖 The little Clarkson hive is absolutely one of my favourite things in the ST fandom. Just a quick exchange where Scott and Wayne flirt excitedly talk about Hawkins mysteries like they are about to go become a ghost-hunting duo.

Scott chuckles, "Y'know, those boys have asked me some very strange questions over the years."

Wayne almost spits out his coffee, slurping at the rim of his mug. Today he'd chosen his California mugs (which he has a matching pair of), perfect to share with Scott on a warm and sunny Spring day.

"Who, Eddie?" he scoffs, incredulous.

"Eddie was a perfectly fine student, though a bit of a handful for a new teacher," Scott remarks, giving the same overly enthusiastic (and not at all true) academic appraisal of Wayne's nephew he always takes the time to give.

Scott raises his mug to his lips to cover a smirk.

Wayne shakes his head, looking over to the grassed area in the middle of the trailer park where Eddie is sitting very close to Steve ("leave me alone, Old Man, he's not my boyfriend") Harrington. The poor boy looks bored stiff, practically falling asleep on his nephew's shoulder as he excitedly debates Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler and Lucas Sinclair over god knows what.

"The others," Scott clarifies. "Not Steve, I think he spent most of his time at the back of my science class talking to girls. No, the boys have asked me so many questions over the years - that I'm happy to answer, of course. But it seems interesting to me that bombarding me out of class time, even coming to my home over the summer, coincided with all sorts of things."

"Scott," Wayne can’t help his warning tone.

Scott shifts on the park bench, his feathers thoroughly ruffled at the thought of not being able to talk about something. Wayne sighs and gestures for him to continue.

"What?" he says, excited as he leans in. "Don't you read the Weekly World News? Or any of the reporting about the 'earthquake'," he uses air-quotations just like Eddie does, "I mean, those letters in the paper…"

He bumps his shoulder and wiggles his eyebrows. Since last Spring, the remaining residents in Hawkins have relentlessly questioned the state of the town and the supposed earthquake that nearly destroyed it. Though Wayne grumbles, thinking about the sprinkling of letters directed at Eddie.

"I thought you were a man of science?" he asks, cocking his head, egging him on.

"I am," Scott starts, cautious. "But I can also correlate evidence together to posit a theory that at least holds enough merit to warrant a discussion."

Wayne smiles, "That copy of the Weekly World News isn't mine, y'know."

They exchange a look and laugh. Wayne catches Eddie talking loudly about Bilbo Baggins so he settles in, resting his chin on his hand. This conversation is going to go on for a while yet - not that he minds, of course.

Scott glares with a teasing glint in his eye.

"Fine," Wayne admits. "I might glance at it occasionally. But I still think Elvis is well and truly dead."

"Sure," Scott nods. "Want to join me in a little research session in the library archives?"

"I'd better go find my library card," he enthuses, fishing in his flannel pocket for his glasses.

[unclewaynemunson]

It's October when the autumn chill officially dawns over Hawkins. Wayne wakes up to fogged-up windows, and his bones protest loudly when he stretches to get up and make himself some warm coffee. It's too early in the year to turn on the heating; if they start that now, they'll be bankrupt before it's even January. So while the coffee is brewing, he shrugs off the old shirt he uses as a pajama, and puts on as many layers as he'll need to keep himself warm: first an undershirt, then a soft flannel, and then a faded brown sweater that's been sitting uselessly in his closet all through the summer. It's patched up at the elbows to conceal the holes that have fallen into it, but still warm and comfortable, which is all Wayne can really ask for.

'Ed, got coffee for ya!' he calls out when he's changed into his jeans and the coffee is almost ready.

Some muffled noises sounding vaguely like 'lemmesleeeeeep' emerge from the other side of the thin wall.

Wayne chuckles as he turns on the gas, deciding he might as well make scrambled eggs for breakfast; a thinly-veiled excuse to heat up the trailer by using the stove.

'And eggs in a minute!'

Another string of muffled sounds emerges from Eddie's bedroom, 'stoocold' being the only semi-decipherable one.

For a moment, Wayne feels guilty. He knows, deep down, that this is nothing more than his Eddie being dramatic. But that doesn't change his wish that he could simply turn on the heat without giving it a second thought and make Eddie's Sunday morning just slightly more comfortable. He doesn't care about the chill in his own bones, he's had worse. He doesn't care about the condensation on the windows, that is now changing into thick droplets that are gliding down to the windowsill, leaving traces of soot in their wake. He's not even sure if he'd ever want to live in a real, proper house. But the one thing he does want, is to get his nephew through the season warm and comfortable without having to count every penny.

Eddie finally emerges from his bedroom, with only his head peeking out of the blanket he has wrapped himself in, and a sleepy look in his eyes. The phone starts ringing just as Wayne greets him, and Eddie, who's closer to it, shuffles towards it.

Almost immediately after he picks up, his eyes shed their drowsy look and light up in a way that Wayne has come to know all too well, while his mouth curves into a wicked grin.

'No, sir, he's not here,' Eddie says into the phone, his eyes wide and innocent. 'When he didn't come home last night, I assumed he'd be spending the night with you. I guess he must have a secret lover we both don't know about.'

Wayne abruptly turns off the gas and barges towards Eddie, who barks out a laugh while he jumps back as far as the phone cord allows him.

'Just joking, Mr. Clarke, he is here!' he calls out in an annoyingly triumphed tone. 'And he can't wait to talk to you, here he is!'

Wayne playfully shoves Eddie against the wall as he takes the phone from him.

'Sorry for my menace of a nephew, Scott,' he says.

He hears a chuckle on the other side of the line, slightly distorted through the horn. It's as if his hand has a will of its own, clenching around the phone and pressing it almost painfully close to his ear; like he'll be able to catch the sound of Scott's laughter better if he could only press himself tighter to his phone.

'Luckily I'm used to middle schoolers, nothing I can't handle here.'

Wayne snorts and turns towards Eddie, who is now shamelessly staring at him from above his blanket-cocoon a few steps away from him.

'Scott says you should stop behavin' like a damn middle schooler,' he grumbles.

'Yep, that sounds exactly like something sweet Scott Clarke would say,' Eddie remarks, that devilish grin still plastered on his face.

'What can I do for ya, Scott?'

'Well, I just came downstairs for breakfast, and when I looked outside, I realized this is our first proper fall day.'

Wayne directs his gaze to the wet kitchen window. He hadn't even thought to look through the droplets on the glass; but now that he does, he realizes Scott is right. The trees around Forest Hills are definitely showing more yellow and orange than they did yesterday, and some patches of fog are still lingering a few feet above the wilted grass and muddy roads. The skies are a light shade of gray, telling Wayne that even though it'll be cold, it won't likely start raining anytime soon.

'I was wondering if you have any plans for today?' Scott's continues in his ear. 'We could go for a walk in the forest, admire the colors, see if we can find some cool mushrooms... What do you think?'

Wayne wonders whether he's imagining the nervous edge to Scott's voice, merely hearing in there what he wants to hear.

'I'm free all day,' Wayne says. He clamps the phone between his ear and his shoulder, needing both his hands to fumble around in his chest pocket and find a cigarette and a lighter. 'You wanna come over after breakfast? I can make a thermos of coffee and we can head into the woods here, I know a nice path around Lov- around the lake.' He can feel Eddie's gaze burning on him, but he refuses to look at his nephew, instead closing his eyes as he places the cigarette between his lips and lights it.

Scott is kind enough to pretend like he didn't notice Wayne's unfortunate stutter.

'A walk around the lake sounds perfect,' he says instead, his voice still as chipper as ever. 'I'll be at yours in an hour. Enjoy your breakfast with Eddie.'

'Real smooth, Uncle Wayne.' Eddie's amused voice cuts through the silence as soon as Wayne has hung the phone back on the hook.

'Don't be ridiculous now, boy,' Wayne grumbles. 'He's my friend.'

'With whom you're gonna hang out at Lover's Lake. Like friends do.' The sarcasm is dripping from Eddie's voice.

'I liked you better when you were still asleep in your bed,' Wayne remarks.

Eddie laughs loudly. 'You shoulda thought about that before you made me come out of it to freeze to death.'

Wayne crosses his arms and shoots Eddie an unimpressed look. 'Are you gonna do anything today or just spending your whole day makin' fun of me?'

Eddie shrugs – or rather, that's what Wayne supposes is happening underneath the moving blanket. 'I'm gonna take the kids to the pumpkin farm with Steve.' He lowers his voice and leans closer towards Wayne, continuing in an conspiratorial voice, 'We call that a date. Maybe you and Mr. Clarke should stop being cowards and come join us. Make it a double date.'

Wayne doesn't say anything; he simply rolls his eyes and walks back to the stove, lighting the gas underneath the frying pan again so he can direct all his attention to his eggs.

---

An hour later, Eddie has left – with a pit stop at the Mayfields' trailer – to pick up Steve. Wayne has done the dishes, dried the windows and filled a thermos with fresh coffee. By the time Scott parks his car in the spot where Eddie's van had been earlier, most of the fog outside has disappeared. Wayne watches him get out of his car through the kitchen window, but he doesn't come outside just yet, afraid it'll make him seem too eager.

Scott knocks on the door and then lets himself in, like he's done many times over the summer that now lies behind them. He's wearing a woolen coat in a dark gray color, with a simple black scarf around his neck.

Wayne feels his hands twitch with the desire to wrap themselves around Scott's waist, to tug him close and bask in the warmth of his body. Would his scarf feel as soft as it looks? Would he smell like fresh autumn air? Would his touch be as warm as the quilt on his couch?

'Oof, it's chilly in here,' Scott remarks, rubbing his hands together.

'I don't get cold that fast.' It's only partly a lie.

'I like the sweater.'

The easy and earnest compliment catches Wayne off-balance; he doesn't know what to do, where to look, where to keep his hands. He wants to escape Scott's approving gaze and hide away somewhere no one can perceive him.

Instead, he clears his throat and thanks the heavens for the fact that Eddie has already left.

'Ready to go?' he asks.

They head into the woods and Wayne leads the way as they stray further from the trailer park. Their feet easily find a rhythm that feels natural to both of them, avoiding the bigger puddles on the path and stopping every now and then to admire toadstools, dewy cobwebs, and fallen leaves in beautiful colors.

As they make their way around Lover's Lake, Wayne ponders what exactly the difference is between what Eddie would call a hangout, and a date. He doesn't exactly have a lot of friends who he hangs out with. He has his colleagues at the plant, of course, who he'd always kept at a distance, which proved him right when they were all too ready to come for his Eddie last March. He has some neighbors he's friendly with; he helps them with a thing or two around their trailers and in return they share a beer or a smoke with him. But he wouldn't call that real friendship either. He has learned long ago how dangerous it can be to let people come too close. Some people only wanted certain things from him, others would judge him when they'd find out a thing too many about him. And the pain of losing a rare, true friend became all too clear to him back in Vietnam.

After that, he mainly stuck to himself. And then it became him and Eddie against the world. He never needed anyone else. He was good at being alone, after all. There was a certain level of comfort to be found in loneliness.

So this thing with Scott – whatever it is – is not something he can compare to anything else. The only thing he knows is that it's definitely not lonely. And that he doesn't want to mess it up and lose the only true friend he's had in decades.

'What's on your mind?' Scott asks when they sit down on a fallen tree at the edge of the lake to enjoy their coffee. 'You've been quiet.'

'I'm always quiet,' Wayne points out.

It makes Scott chuckle softly before he takes a sip of his coffee.

'Not as quiet as you think,' Scott says. 'Today, you're thinking loudly. I can almost hear your thoughts.'

Wayne carefully places his own mug on the tree, then grabs himself a cigarette and lights it, all to buy himself some time. But even after a long drag and another sip of coffee, he still doesn't quite know how to voice his thoughts.

'Was just admirin' the fall colors,' he decides to say instead, when the silence starts taking too long.

He can practically feel Scott's eyes on his face as he stubbornly stares over the water in front of them.

'It really is the perfect day to do that,' Scott finally says. Apparently he has decided he'll let Wayne get away with it this time. Or maybe it isn't like that. Maybe he decided that he'll allow Wayne the time he needs to sort out his thoughts before he can voice them. Maybe he understands that Wayne sometimes needs a while before he's ready to talk about things. Maybe he decided that he didn't want to intrude. Maybe he decided that he values spending time with Wayne, no matter if they're talking or sitting in silence. And maybe this fall will be a little less cold than the ones Wayne has gotten used to, because when he risks a glance towards his left, he sees Scott wearing a smile that's appreciative of the nature around them. It's a smile that warms Wayne from the inside, in a way that the heater in his trailer has never managed to do.

[blue-eyed-cutiepatootie]

💜 tag list announcement 💜

I use a tag list for my art (and now a few fics) so if you're interested in that, like this post or comment or something so I know to add you!

Master list under the cut 💜

Destiel in Mabel Pines’ sweaters Masterlist

Flower Cas painting

Dean in the Folklore Cardigan painting

Destiel telephone painting

Pimk Sunset Deancas painting

Baby Jack sketches (one : two : three)

Autumn Baby Jack

Bubblegum Dean and Cas colored pencil drawings

Pink Dean colored pencil drawing

Blue Cas colored pencil drawing

Pink Cas colored pencil drawing

Bi lighting Dean painting

Aroace lighting Cas painting

Red and black Dean painting

Bloody Cas painting

Bloody Dean painting

Lily wings Cas painting

Even Angels Need Hobbies crocheting cas painting

Castiel with Worm painting

Two leaves in love (a deancas drabble)

Eddie Munson drawing 

Pink Cas from Dean's journal drawing

I'll Always Take Care of You (a deancas fic) (also on ao3)

Growing pains (a deancas ficlet also on AO3)

The house is too loud (deancas ficlet also on AO3)

I need more lights (deancas ficlet also on AO3)

Anxious Driver (deancas ficlet also on AO3)

You're Worth It (deancas ficlet)

Two Sand Dunes (deancas ficlet)

Shelter (deancas ficlet)

Abandoned and Banished (deancas ficlet)

A Sea D Sea (deancas ficlet)

Liv’s Gifts for Friends Masterlist (flower paintings, etc)

Pink Nick Nelson fanart

Love is the Point of it All (deancas fic)

Restless (deancas fic)

The Best Goddamn Soup (deancas fic)

Radar Indicated (deancas fic)

Dolphins at Midday (heartstopper fic)

Cuddle Me, Sweetheart (deancas ficlet)

Yoga With Cas (deancas ficlet)

DEFCON 5 (deancas ficlet)

love incarnate poem

tulip cas painting

destiel christmas sketch

destiel christmas digital painting

roadtrip cas digital painting

polaroid cas 1 digital painting (field, blowing bubbles)

polaroid cas 2 digital painting (hiking)

polaroid cas 3 digital painting (baking in kitchen)

polaroid cas 4 digital painting (library)

polaroid cas 5 digital painting (cas drawing with plant)

polaroid cas 6 digital painting (watermelon)

polaroid cas 7 digital painting (destiel lady and the tramp)

polaroid cas 8 digital painting (coffee in kitchen)

polaroid cas 9 digital painting (destiel lake, kelly clarkson)

polaroid cas 10 digital painting (convenience store)

castiel digital painting

castiel with bees gouache painting

dean in crayon digital painting

destiel digital painting (dean back from the store)

destiel treehouse date digital painting

horsegirl dean digital painting

who will take care of me (destiel ficlet)

red knuckles (destiel ficlet)

[songbookff]

Songbook Fanfic Master List

Hello all. I have gotten a lot of new followers this year and I’m so happy to welcome you all. For the end of the year, I have created several lists of my work over the years, organized here in a Master List. I have broken them all up by fandom, so you can click on the fandom(s) you are interested in to see more. 

I’m really proud of the work I’ve written over the years and some of it is clearly better than others. But I have always written fanfic for myself and any joy it can bring other people is a bonus. So even though some of this writing is rough around the edges, they all hold a special place in my heart. 

Songbook’s Legend of Korra Fanfiction: Seeing as most of you are have found me from my Kyalin fic, here is all the LoK fics have written both here and on AO3. It is not all Kyalin, but I love them all the same. 

Songbook’s Harry Potter Fanfiction: This is the first fandom I started writing in (most were written under the penname Minerva’s_Soul). Minerva McGonagall remains one of my favorite characters and I really enjoyed writing in the HP Universe. 

Songbook’s Star Trek Fanfiction: So one of my favorite pieces that I ever wrote is a Star Trek AOS story. I also have a couple of other pieces (mainly on FF.net and are old, so read at your own risk). 

Songbook’s Downton Abbey Fanfiction: After LoK, this is the fandom that I have written the most for...and every single one of them is Isobel Crawley/Richard Clarkson. There is one fic that I never finished and may rewrite next year which features multiple characters/couples. We shall see...

Songbook’s Doctor Who/Sarah Jane Adventures Fanfiction: I have only written Sarah Jane Smith fanfics in this fandom, because she’s my absolute favorite.

Songbook’s Star Wars Fanfiction: I started writing Leia/Amilyn Holdo fanfic...and found myself delving into the world a bit. I would love to play in this sandbox some more because there’s so much potential. 

Songbook’s The 100 Fanfiction: There is only one fic in this fandom and it’s a fix-it fic all the way back in Season Three. Clexa fans will know what I’m talking about. 

Songbook’s X-Men Fanfiction: I don’t know how to explain these and I almost left them off the list. But I wrote them. And honestly, they are what I needed at the time that I wrote them and helped me become a better writer. So take a look at your own risk.

Songbook’s Gunpowder Milkshake Fanfiction: Here are my entries in this new fandom. 

Songbook’s Game of Thrones / House of the Dragon Fanfiction: A few small ficlets in the GoT fandom. 

As always, I hope you enjoy whatever fandom you are interested in. Please feel free to message me or leave an ask. I always enjoy interacting with people and I do take requests (although I do not claim to write for every request, but I will try my best). 

Happy New Year! Love, Songbook

[imafrickinfox]

Rules: Answer 21 questions and tag 21 people you’d like to get to know better

tagged by @ayakashi-chan! Thanks!

1) Name: Charlotte

2) Nicknames: Lottie, Chuck, Latania (joke), and Monkey (family)

3) Zodiac: Taurus

4) Favorite musicians or groups: Regina Spektor, Queen, Todrick Hall,

5) Favorite sport team: mmm yes i watch sport i like the koalas

6) Other blogs: @thetrollhuntersfangame (which is dead....sorry bout that i lost motivation real quick)

7) Do you get asks? not unless i reblog an ask game (i take drawing and ficlet requests/prompts anytime tho!)

8) How many blogs do you follow? 241

9) Tumblr crushes? y’all serious? who’s catchin feelings over this hellsite?

10) Lucky numbers: 4 and 30

11) What are you wearing right now? a black sports bra, a long floral skirt, and a grey/black spotted jacket that used to be really soft but washing it has made it just fuzzy (my pj’s)

12) Dream vacation: those birdnest hotels in Phuket (partly bc of the name)

13) Dream car: i don’t really have one but i like miatas! esp the ones with the pop-up headlights

14) Favorite food: chicken tacos, but i don’t like lettuce bc I am a child.

15) Drink of choice: ik this is about alcohol but homegirl is underage and likes MILK

16) Instruments: i can sorta play piano, but not very well. I’ve always wanted to play the flute or pan pipes tho!

17) Languages: fluent: English, studied/studying: Spanish, Latin (I dropped spanish bc the latin class at my school is more efficient

18) Celebrity crush: don’t really have one, but I would marry ryan reynolds or any of the marvel chris’s if I had to marry a man

19) Random fact: Smallfoot > trolls world tour (AND YOU CAN FIGHT ME AT LEAST SMALLFOOT DIDN’T MAKE A DISCO IS DEAD JOKE AND DO COUNTRY DIRTY WITH A SONG CALLED “BORN TO DIE” LIKE WTF DID ANY OF Y’ALL ACTUALLY DO RESEARCH TO WRITE THAT SONG? HOW COULD KELLY FUCKING CLARKSON LET THIS HAPPEN??)

20) Favorite ecosystem: haha rainforest go brrr

21) Favorite cat species: I like persians, (even tho i don’t support their breeding) but if big cats also count I like lions bc I’m basic

i do NOT have 21 people to tag so i tag as many people that I’ve met through toa as possible @lighterstike @stix-n-bread @twistedmashup @ginger-le-gay @elizabethemerald @autumnalfallingleaves 

also @wegosplash and @human-salt-shaker-aka-cf-fighter if y’all want to!

[secondgenerationnerd]

songs pls!! 🎶

Ok so I want to point out these are songs that remind me of a character or what I use as inspiration for a characters mood. I’m including couple songs because I can as well as songs that remind me of the whole team. I might include an explanation or just let the song speak for itself!

The whole team:

I’m good-Band together project

People like us- Kelly Clarkson

We own the Night- The Wanted

I Lived- OneRepublic

High hopes- Panic at the disco

They don’t know about us- one direction (I want the boys to sing this to the girls at some point)

You’re gonna go far kid - the offspring

Angel with a Shotgun- the cab

Speeddemon:

Perfect duet- Ed Sheern ft. Beyoncé

As Long as You’re Mine- Wicked (original cast is my preference): for me this is probably a song they’d dance to at their wedding. Not their official song but like one later in the night so Damian can hold her close.

According to You- orianthi (Irey sings this at an ex and the “him” in the song is Damian)

Good parts- Andy Grammer

Don’t Give Up on Me- Andy Grammer

Back Home- Andy Grammer

Love someone- Lukas Graham

Superstar

Dance with Me tonight- Olly Mars

Can I have this Dance- High School Musical 3

Fighter- Loving Caliber

Body like a Back Road- Sam Hunt: ok I will 💯 write a ficlet of Jon removing her garter at their wedding to this song if someone wants lol

She’d say- Andy Grammer- something I can see mar’i humming to their kids.

Speeding arrow

Crazy Beautiful- Andy Grammer

Can I be him- James Arthur

Best of me- Andy Grammer

Scars to your beautiful- Allessia Cara

MilagroxColin (what’s their ship name?)

A Million Dreams- P!nk version

Despacitio- Luis Fonsi version (because I love the idea of Colin singing it to her in really crappy Spanish to make her laugh)

Fire n gold- Bea Miller

I won’t give up- Jason mraz

Theme songs:

Colin Wilkes: Main Attraction -Jeremy Renner

Irey West: Brave- Sara Barallies

Milagro Reyes:Like a Girl- Lizzo

Mar’i Grayson: Better when I’m Dancin’ -Meghan Trainor

Lian Harper: I Dare You - Bea Miller (most of Bea Miller’s songs remind me of Lian/ what I imagine her singing like)

Jon Kent: Waiting for Superman- Daughtry

Damian Wayne: Carry on my Wayward Son- Kansas

Jai West: Born to Run - American Authors