#i am so so normal about arthur and noah (is lying)

[multi-lefaiye]

hi hello hi i hope u are having a good timezone and not bad braintimes i bring u a picture of my dog!!!

ID: a picture of a white dog sniffing the camera. End ID.

i have been rotating fragile things in my head all day and i want to cry over these little blorbos and the wip and the themes and just all of it just!!! goddamn!!!! the way u get me to feel so many emotions over this wip!!!!!! it really really matters to me because [redacted reasons] and just aurhgurheighur yeah i needed to tell u i am Feeming things over ur wips

OH MY GOSH... I LOVE THIS AMINAL..... thank you,,,,, m,,,, may i ask this doggy's name,,, i wish to tell this dog. i love.

also my brain time is better now thank you!!! after lying down and hanging out with my partner and causing chaos on discord together i am feeling better :>

also thank you!!!! i am honored that fragile things is rotating in your mind so much but i'm so sorry for the Agony of it all. if it helps, i am frequently so so emotional thinking about them!!!!! it's a little funny b/c fragile things started as just like. a personal thing to write down info for backstory, and then i got really into it and now i'm like. oh i need to write about these sad gay people. i need to go into a narrative about love and life and the tragedy of a doomed toxic relationship.

thank u, i'm honored that you like my wips!!!! especially fragile things!!! <33 anyway i wanted to offer some more fragile things content so i have for you. some jokes i've made about arthur and noah. i think i might've posted some of these before but that's okay <3

Noah, who hasn't come out as trans yet: Haha yeah I've never had a boyfriend before, y'know? It's just... well, a lot of guys don't like dating girls that are taller than them.

Arthur, trying so so desperately hard to pretend he's attracted to women and hoping to cheer up his friend whom he believes is a cis woman at this point: Haha whaaat?? Omg no tall girls are so awesome haha I'd marry you in an instant ✨

(the amount of jokes i make about arthur and noah being so so oblivious is a bit ridiculous, but like. it's funny to me)

and uhh technically this is a post-fragile things meme about the beginning of bleeding over eden, but dw about it <3

[Image Description: An edit of two screencaps from a Hannibal Buress stand-up bit, in which the captions have been edited to change the dialogue. The first panel reads: “But I was so caught up in the euphoria of seeing my husband again,” and the second panel reads, “that for like a minute I lived in a world where he isn’t severely traumatized.” End ID.]

and then this one

Arthur: Yeah I think all the time about kissing my male best friend Noah and I touched his hair once on accident and it was so soft and now I think about touching it all the time and I really wanna hold him almost all the time. But that doesn't mean anything actually, I'm completely heterosexual.

aaand this last one is just a text post that's like. oh! them vibes!

[Image Description: A text post by tumblr user @/elytrians, which reads: "i don't really 'ship' these characters i just think they belong in couples therapy together." End ID.]

oh and also there's this tiktok. i don't have a link to it on me rn but it's a really cute one about a person who didn't like country music before getting together with their husband and now they love dancing to it with him. that's big arthur/noah vibes.

[remcase]

Chapter 19

Across our day-to-day and ordinary distances we speak plainly. We hear each other clearly. And yet I want to return to you

-Eavan Boland

 The end of the school break came almost as quickly as its beginning, the hours whittled away in good humour, good company, and the creation of good memories. Every day William and Noah threw themselves into the daily family life, but each night they saved wholly for themselves, to close the distance that they had been forced to maintain during the day. William knew it would be hard to go back to school, to be forced to separate for far longer hours and without those night to comfort him, but time was cruelly fast, and before he knew it he was placing his suitcase into the rear of Arthur’s car as his mother hugged Noah, trying to hide the sheen in her eyes.

“It was so nice having you boys here for the whole holiday! After graduation you should come visit us here, Noah, before you go to college. We’d be so happy to have you here and you’re just such a nice boy to have stay and-”

William chuckled under his breath and tuned his mother out, looking down at Chunk who was winding himself around Noah’s ankles, looking up at him with big, hopeful eyes. Chunk had taken an intense liking to Noah, and even he seemed to be begging him not to go. William echoed the feeling.

“Mom!” Arthur laughed, lounging against the car, “Would you let him go?! You’re going to scare him away for good.”

“Oh, shush, Art.” Holy scolded, then took Noah’s face in her hands maternally. “Promise me you’ll come back.”

“If Will wants me to.” Noah grinned, looking back over at his boyfriend. William just grinned, shutting the boot and joining his side, brushing his hand subtly off his. “I’m sure I can pencil you in some time over summer.”

“You can bring Evan and the girls too. We can have a backyard cookout.” Holly said enthusiastically, “John can pick up some nice things from-”

“They haven’t even left yet, Holl.” John said firmly, pulling William into a brief but tight hug, kissing his temple. “There’s no need to plan for it already.”

“But John-”

“Empty nest syndrome.” John grumbled, but there was a warm sparkle in his eyes and William knew that his father loved that maternal, protective, loving side of his mother. Shaking his head, he held a hand out to Noah, smiling warmly. “It was very nice to have you out here for the holidays, son. You’re welcome back anytime.”

“Thank you. Really.”

“Oh, I don’t want you both to go back.” Holly said, pulling William and Noah into one more hug each. “Have a nice time back in school, ok boys? Be good.”

“You know I always am, Mom.” William said, but even he was reluctant to get into the car, hoping to draw out his fleeting time at home as much as possible. He didn’t have a choice, however, when Arthur slapped the roof of his car enthusiastically, flicking down his sunglasses. “Ok, boys! Time to go, we’re burning daylight!”

After promising his mother he would call often, William finally let himself be ushered into the waiting car, and within minutes they were back on the road, heading back to the final term of school, and even though Noah took William’s hand surreptitiously on the back seat and smiled, William couldn’t fight the sick wave of foreboding that accosted him. Looking into his boyfriend’s eyes he wondered if things would really be ok.

 School began with little ceremony, only an enthusiastic evening spent in his dorm room with Evan, Noah, Brittney, and Grace as they exchanged their news and stories from their time apart. Grace had spent the holidays painting with her grandmother in her mountainside home, while Evan had done his best to impress Brittney’s parents and try not to get murdered by her older brothers. Much to everyone’s surprise, he had succeeded and had even won himself another invitation to come back when school ended.

The words ‘when school is over’ however, cast a shadow on their good humour and they all fell quiet, lapsing into their own thoughts. William broke the silence. “You’re all invited to come to mine during the summer. My Mom probably has it planned by now, anyway.”

“Sounds good to me!” Evan chirped, patting his stomach. “I miss your Mom. And her cookies. Little buddy did you try her cookies?”

“Yes.”

“Lucky little bitch.”

“Well,” Noah amended, shooting William a look mischievous enough that only he caught the double meaning, “I had them whenever Will wasn’t being a pain in my ass.”

The others just chuckled lightly, unaware of the joke, and William bit back his grin, trying to look reasonably amused. “Shut up. You had a great time.”

“I did. We should do it again soon.” Noah said, raising his eyebrows a fraction and William just huffed a laugh, quickly changing the subject before the girls caught on to the hidden undercurrent to their conversation.

 Time passed, and, as he had feared, William struggled with the transition from the holiday time he had spent with Noah to school hours once more. A new sort of ache had taken up residence in his chest, a sort of panging loneliness that was only exacerbated by the long hours they spent apart, and the empty space beside William in his bed each night that tormented him. He knew that nobody got to spend the night with their boyfriend or girlfriend, but his and Noah’s situation was made worse by the polite distance he was forced to keep between them during the day. It was torture, and he found himself growing wistful and longing, the tiny snatches of affection they squeezed in throughout the day never enough to satisfy him, now that he had had a taste of Noah’s whole, unadulterated attention.

Noah seemed to share his feelings, the dark circles beneath his eyes that William had hoped they had seen the last of returning with a vengeance. They were always the first place he kissed when he and Noah were alone, but it wasn’t enough to make them disappear. He knew what he would have to do, but didn’t know how he would do it.

With the rapidly approaching mental deadline he had set to come out to his family and friends in place, during the summer just before college, William found himself preoccupied with growing fears, fears for his own physical and mental wellbeing as well as Noah’s. Fears that didn’t leave him, even in the aftermath of their intimacy.

Lying panting after the quickest sex they’d had so far, William resented the fact that he had to tear his eyes away from his boyfriend who still sat atop him coming down from his high to check that the desk chair barring the door shut hadn’t moved, and the irritation mingled unpleasantly with his lingering pleasure. He hated that he was still afraid that somebody could intrude, and hated himself more that he still afraid of what could happen if somebody who wouldn’t accept them guessed what they had just done.

“Not that I don’t enjoy it hot and fast,” Noah muttered, grabbing the paper towels that William had placed to the side and beginning to mop up the mess on their stomachs, “But this way without the build-up is a bit more painful for me afterwards.” As if to accentuate his point he cringed in pain as he leaned up high onto his knees to let William pull out from him and dispose of the condom. “Twinges.”

“I’m sorry.” William replied regretfully, helping him clean up quickly so that they could relax and lie together for a bit before somebody came looking for them. “Maybe next time we can just do something else? We don’t have to go the whole way.”

Noah settled against his chest, and the way William’s arms fit around him was so normal and natural. “But I want to. I want to be close to you like this.”

“I know baby, I know.”

For a while they simply stayed like that, wrapped in each other’s arms, William trailing his fingers lazily across Noah’s bare skin and Noah nuzzling into his neck, taking deep, even breaths. But, when Noah’s phone buzzed loudly from the bedside table William was forced to let him go so he could sit up and look at the screen.

Incoming call: Dad.

Noah hit ignore and settled back down, closing his eyes and acting as if the phone call hadn’t happened at all. Ignore it, Will. Ignore it. It’s none of your business. “Hey, Noah?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you ignore the phone call?”

“Would you rather I take a private phone call with my Dad ten minutes after having sex with you?”

Scarlet cheeked, William bit his lip. “Of course. Obviously. Sorry, I don’t know why I read so much into that.”

Noah was quiet again, but this time it was strained and uncomfortable. Finally he looked up at William again. “He wants to talk to me.”

“About?”

“He just always does. Especially now. He thinks I need him.”

“Don’t you?”

Noah said nothing so William stroked his back comfortingly, kissing his temple. “I think you’re doing just fine on your own, baby, but that doesn’t mean you should totally burn the bridge, you know? What does your Mom think?”

“She would be very mad if she found out I ignored another one of his calls.”

“Well then. Save yourself the lecture and the trouble. Call your Dad back and pretend you missed it by accident so your Mom doesn’t find out you ignored it on purpose. Even if you don’t stay on the phone for long maybe just do enough to keep your relationship civil and your Mom happy.”

“You don’t know anything about our relationship, Will.”

“I know. But I know you don’t like fighting with him.”

“It’s not fighting it’s just…I don’t want to talk to him. He always wants to talk about things and we should just leave the past in the past, you know?” Noah sat up then, angry blotches of colour on his cheeks and he grabbed his underwear, tugging it on jerkily. He didn’t look at William. “If he wanted to fix things, if he wanted to show that he loved me he wouldn’t have sent me here! He wouldn’t have sent me away!”

The shocked hush that followed Noah’s heated admission seemed to ring with the absence of his voice and William lay in the bed, unsure of what to do or say. “Noah…”

“Don’t, Will.” Noah replied woodenly, grabbing his other clothes and pulling them on, then passing William his. He took the hint and slowly started to get dressed, watching Noah out of the corner of his eye all the while. The other boy was small and hunched over and angry, glaring at the phone as if it had personally offended him. When William was finally dressed Noah finally sighed, rubbing his face. “I don’t regret coming here. It was a good decision. I met you, after all.”

“You don’t have to say that-”

“I do.”

“Noah-”

“I’m sorry.” Noah cut him off, taking the phone and shoving it into his pocket, as if desperate to remove it from his sight. “Will, can you go?”

Hurt, William stared at him. “If you’re mad at me-”

“I’m not mad.” Noah promised softly. “I just have some things on my mind. A lot of things are going on. Bad time for me. Can you just go?”

“I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave things like this, I won’t be able to sleep.” The thought of going to his lonely bed while nursing the guilt and concern he felt like a death sentence and Noah recognised this, stepping close to give William a brief but tight hug. “I love you, gorgeous. Don’t worry about me.”

“As if I couldn’t.”

Noah just huffed a slightly sardonic laugh and together they walked to his door, removing the chair that blocked it. “Don’t worry, Will. You won’t have to worry about it for much longer.”

William perked. “You’re going to talk to him?”

“Yeah. Probably should.” Noah said, staring at the grain of the wooden door. “I’ll meet you for dinner tonight, yeah? I’ll meet you in the dining hall.”

“Ok.” William agreed and left, though his instincts screamed at him to go back, to force Noah to let him stay.

That evening at dinner time Noah joined William at his table with a normal, easy-going grin and a pat on his leg beneath the table, his other hand already reaching to steal a strawberry from the fruit bowl William had chosen for dessert. He was so normal that William was caught off guard and just watched in cautious silence as Noah popped the strawberry into his mouth and smiled. “What?”

He didn’t want to bring up the afternoon. If Noah had forgotten about it, he thought he should too. Besides, I’ve already pried too much today. I’ll push him away. “It’s nothing.” William said, forcing a smile. “Nothing.”

[multi-lefaiye]

1,2,11,16 for Arthur/Noah

thank u bestie!!!! okay i think this is the last one i'm gonna answer for tonight, but i'll try to get to the other asks i have in my inbox soon!!!

What’s their love languages?

Arthur very much leans towards physical affection and acts of service in terms of love languages. He's very tactile and loves doing things for those he cares about. There's a scene in Fragile Things I think about a lot where he and Noah are sitting together and Arthur just starts,,, playing with Noah's hair and braiding it a little.

Noah, meanwhile, is more of a quality time type person. He doesn't necessarily shy away from touch, but the way he knows to express love best, especially with someone he's with romantically, is just to hang out and spend time together. Even if you're doing separate things, just hanging out in the same room is good <3

Do they have a dynamic trope? (enemies to lovers, sunshine x grumpy, etc?)

They're very much an example of friends-to-lovers! However, I think there's also a case to be made for idiots-to-lovers :3 (And you could argue friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-friends for their arc across both Fragile Things and Bleeding Over Eden)

What’s a song that describes their relationship? Or, what’s the song that they’ve deemed “their” song?

So I do have a whole playlist for Arthur and Noah and when I listen to it, it makes me very emotional. There are a lot of songs in there that I could share, describing different points in their relationship, but I'm going to share a song that I think they would absolutely pick as being Their Song, and none of you are allowed to judge me for it.

So uhhh yeah Arthur loves country music and Noah grows to love it too through knowing Arthur, so Their Song is a country song.

More specifically, it's Bless The Broken Road by Rascal Flatts. Does it fit exactly? No, but it fits enough that I think a lot about Arthur teaching himself the song and serenading Noah with it, or maybe them slow-dancing to it,,,,

I am so normal about these two (I'm lying)

What’s their favorite “domestic bliss” moment? Do they cook/clean together? Do they like to go out shopping together?

I answered this one over here: [link]!