#if anyone's wondering the thing in the dresser space is a bird toy

[siberiasiren]

wow...it happened...I actually drew a background

[n0-eyedtaissa]

Five Long Days (Serpent Siblings!AU)

A/N: In follow up to Christmas Kids, the day after the Southside kids have themselves a Christmas party, Ruthie and Romeo wake up before anyone else and need a caffeine fix in order to quell the hangover. They share more than just breakfast and coffee, and are both counting down the days until New Years. (featuring literally all of @hughstheforcelou​‘s OCs)

Word Count: 3,028

The day after Christmas was a testament to how fast everything had the ability to change. None of the radio stations in town played any more Christmas music. All of the storefronts were abandoning their themed displays and the flashy, holiday tackiness. All across town families were discarding crumpled wrapping paper and big cardboard boxes that shiny new toys came in, beginning to repack decorations back into the plastic storage tubs to be pushed away into the rafters for the next eleven months. It was as if when the clock struck midnight on December 25, the fog was lifted and the harsh reality of the real world sank back in unclouded. Usually, the day after Christmas felt disappointing, a let-down after all of the build-up from the weeks before. This morning, though, was quite the opposite of disappointing.

Romeo Fogarty wakes up with a sharp pain emanating in his temples and when he squints his eyes open, it takes him a minute to realize where he’s at. The pillow that his head is pressed into smells clean, like cheap laundry detergent and lavender scented shampoo. The blankets are warm but not scratchy and old-feeling like the one’s in Abuela’s guest room. The curtains over the window are gauzy and paper thin, doing little to stop the bright morning sun from streaming inside. He tries his best to blink away the sleep and rub away the sandpaper feeling from his lukewarm eyes. His joints ache from being bent at odd angles to compensate for his height and his awkward frame against Ruthie’s, trying to keep as respectable of a distance as one could manage with the two of them tangled in her full size bed. They didn’t kiss last night or even touch, but it was something different. It would always be something different between the two of them. Romeo closes his eyes and wills himself to go back to sleep just a little bit longer to savor the moment, but like most things, sleep never comes easy when forced. He tries not to move too much and wake Ruthie up, rolling onto his back carefully and continuing his survey of the surroundings because Romeo realizes he’s never been inside her room. In the year and a half that he’d known Ruthie, he’d only known her bedroom as the second door on the right, a frame that she ducked through here and there to grab extra blankets or her glass pipe. Ruthie’s room is simple and it looks like it hasn’t really been redecorated since she was a kid. Romeo liked it, though. Thought it felt right for her. The comforter on the bed was purple and printed with flowers and there were more than enough pillows for the two of them. There’s a white wicker dresser that’s covered in what Romeo would call “typical girl stuff”: strewn clothes, Ruthie’s favorite pair of heart-shaped sunglasses, bright-colored bottles of lotions and sprays and polishes. There’s a bookshelf piled high with books and mix cds stacked in their colorful jewel cases — probably all of the ones she made for Spyder — Romeo thought, even though he didn’t like that he did. 

Romeo slept in his jeans last night, not wanting to do anything to make Ruthie uncomfortable. His belt buckle has been digging into his skin for hours now and Romeo finally decided to do something about it, holding his breath and doing a barrel roll out of Ruthie’s bed, pulling the purple blanket closer around her shoulders. Romeo stands in the middle of the room for a moment, taking it all in, not knowing the next time Ruthie would open her doors to him. There’s a long piece of string tacked to the wall with pictures clothes pinned to it, Romeo steps closer and investigates, rubbing his eyes: There’s  picture of young Ruthie and who Romeo could only assume was her dad, sitting in one of the booths at Pop’s, blowing out candles on a birthday cake. There’s a handful of pictures of Ruthie and Sweet Pea, a picture of Ruthie and little Queenie showing off their orange-peel smiles on the sidelines of a junior league soccer game. Romeo likes one picture specifically. He doesn’t know who was the one to take it because Ruthie, Dante, Spyder, and CD are all in the picture…a rare and momentous occasion. Ruthie’s head is tilted back and she’s laughing, her eyes crinkled like Dante had just told one of his shitty jokes. In the picture Ruthie looked carefree, comfortable, and unworried. Romeo wondered about the last time she smiled like that. Stopping in front of the bedroom door, Romeo takes a look at Ruthie who’s fast asleep, her hair covering her face and her mouth open only a little, and he feels a sort of deep tug in his chest but pushes it away as he turns the doorknob quietly, leaving her to sleep. 

“Bro! Oh no you fuckin’ didn’t!” CD whisper-shouts from his spot on the ratty green couch as he watches Romeo make his way up the hall. Romeo puts is finger to his lips to signal to be quiet but it’s no use because soon CD was rolling out question after question. 

“You dirty dog!” CD whisper-shouts again, smacking at one of the deflated couch cushions with an excited palm. “Man I’d like to be a fly on that wall!” 

Romeo rolls his eyes, “Watch your mouth, nothing even happened, fool!” He smacks CD’s leg as he sits down on the carpet with his back resting against the couch. There’s a baggie of weed on the table, leftover from their little event the night before, so Romeo starts breaking it up with his fingers so he can roll a joint. 

“They always say nothing happened when something actually happened” CD wriggles his eyebrows suggestively but Romeo is adamant. 

“Nothing happened, dude, be respectful” 

“Man she likes you, you know that right?” 

Romeo raises an eyebrow. “How do you know that, she say something?” He tries not to sound as eager as he feels but it’s obvious, especially to CD. 

“She ain’t gotta say shit, you can see it on her face, man” CD explains “I’ve known that girl for years and she doesn’t act like that with just anyone.” 

Romeo wants to ask like what, not being able to see these things since he hadn’t been around long enough, but instead he asks again, “How do you know?” 

“I’ve tried that door like a million times, man, that shit’s been locked…”

“Will the two of you shut the fuck up!” Spyder squints one of his eyes open and chucks a rolled-up sock at CD’s head before closing his eyes again, his hands folded over his chest as he laid back in the reclining chair. 

Romeo chuckles softly and goes back to rollin up his morning joint. The clock on the wall tells him that it’s finally nine o’clock and his stomach rumbles as if on command, he was in dire need of some breakfast and his morning coffee. Spyder falls back to sleep and so does CD, Dante’s such a deep sleeper that a hurricane couldn’t wake him up so he didn’t even budge to begin with. Soon the living room is quiet again, the only noises being the idle sounds of steady breathing and the occasional car horn or bird sound from outside. Time seems to move slower that morning, as though time stopped after Christmas and the five of them had yet to catch up. Romeo doesn’t know how long he was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, could’ve been twenty minutes but it could’ve been an hour. Yet still, sometime after he hears the doorknob turn. 

Ruthie is still wearing her tights and her socks from last night, though she elected to trade her hand-sewn party dress for something more comfortable. Her big sweatshirt dwarves her frame and Romeo can’t help but think she looks cute with that sleepy look in her eyes. “Morning” she mumbles, like she was surprised that Romeo was awake. 

“Morning, Shorty” Romeo smiles and tucks his tightly rolled joint behind his ear for later.  “Sleep okay?” Ruthie nods noncommittally and looks around the living room to survey for any open spots she could sit in. Spyder was snoring in the recliner, Dante was sprawled out on the love seat with his long legs bent over the side, and CD was taking up all of the space on the big couch. 

Romeo gets up quickly, “You hungry? Angel’s definitely at the coffee shop by now, lemme buy you breakfast.” It wasn’t really a question — he wasn’t going to take no for an answer even though he knew that Ruthie was more than capable of paying for herself. It wasn’t that he was trying to buy her affections, Romeo simply wanted to spend more time with her that wasn’t clouded by knowing glances and the immature comments from his cousin and their friends.

Ruthie is quiet for a second, half drowsy and contemplating. She looks down at her sock covered feet and then back up at Romeo, “What about these guys, though?”

Romeo kisses his teeth and waves a noncommittal hand, “These fools sleep like they’re dead, I guarantee you we could leave and come back and they’d all still be out cold.” Ruthie cracks a sleepy smile because she knew Romeo was right. “Go grab a jacket, Ruth, it’s cold out…” 

Ruthie and Romeo bundle up in their puffy winter jackets soon Ruthie is pulling the front door closed quietly behind them, trying not to disturb the three boys still sleeping inside. The two of them make their way down the front steps of the house and hold onto each other as they try not to slip on the icy gravel in the driveway. It feels eerily silent outside and the cold only made it more apparent. That false sense of warmth that the holidays can bring on was starting to fade, and by the stroke on midnight on New Year’s Eve, anything left of that so-called holiday magic would be gone without a trace. The December air is the kind of cold that stings their noses as they inhale and Ruthie finds herself taking the corner of her sweatshirt sleeve to dab at the corner of her watery eyes. Neither one of them say a word until they’re outside the confines of Sunnyside Trailer Park, as if everyone in the neighborhood had their ears pressed to the doors waiting to hear their secrets. 

“Remember that thing I said yesterday, Shorty?” Romeo pipes up, slowing his pace in order to compensate for Ruthie’s shorter legs. 

“Which part?” Sure a lot of word were exchanged between Ruthie and Romeo yesterday at the Christmas party, but even more was left unsaid.

“About, you know…” Romeo feels his face heat up as he finds himself shying away from an honest declaration of his feelings. It felt more real today, like it held more weight. Last night things felt easy because it was Christmas and they were carefree and happy and under the influence of more than just the Christmas spirit. Romeo sighs and decides to spit it out: “About me thinking you’re pretty and like…wanting to do something about that.”

Ruthie stops in her tracks, smirking at she shields her eyes in order to look up at him. “And what do you think you’re gonna do about that, Fogarty?” Ruthie hopes that she sounds flirtatious but she thinks it might’ve actually come across as mean. 

He smiles down at her and thinks for a second. “I don’t really know yet, Shorty but I think I’ma start with this” Romeo reaches for her hand and interlocks his fingers with her own. Ruthie squeezes his hand and they keep walking. “That okay?” 

“Definitely okay”

They hold hands for the entire rest of the walk to the coffee shop although neither one of them were talking all that much. Silence was comfortable between Ruthie and Romeo, they didn’t feel the need to fill the empty spaces in conversations only for the sake of talking. It sounded cheesy to admit, but it felt like the two of them were on the same wavelength; always somehow able to understand one another without having to say anything. Romeo opens the door for Ruthie like always but this time it feels different. Both of them are painfully aware of the fact that Angel Abrejo is staring at their entwined hands from under the dorky visor he had to wear while he was working.

“Looks like the Christmas party was pretty exciting?” Angel raises his eyebrow and Romeo’s neck gets hot. 

“You could say that” Ruthie laughs and squints at the menu above his head. She didn’t need to look at the menu, she’d been a consistent enough presence at the coffee shop that she already had her usual…she just didn’t want to meet Angel’s gaze right now. Angel had been finding reasons to push the two of them together since they met and neither one of them wanted to give him the satisfaction of an I told you so.

“All right man, lemme get a large black coffee and a slice of that banana bread…and I assume Shorty over here wants her usual?” Romeo smirks down at Ruthie, his thumb brushing over the back of her hand. 

Ruthie gives an emphatic nod yes and Angel looks at both of them like he’s on the verge of throwing up. Romeo takes his coffee with no milk but lots of sugar and Ruthie crinkles her nose in distaste as he pours another sugar packet in his ceramic mug. He laughs at her and steals a bite from one half of her chocolate chip bagel. The two of them finish their breakfast and leave the coffee shop feeling more energized and much less hungover. Both Ruthie and Romeo were unofficial caffeine addicts who weren’t afraid to admit it — that was another thing they had in common. 

They don’t say it out loud but they both start heading the long way home. Romeo remembers the joint he has tucked behind his ear and retrieves it and his lighter, sparking it up and handing it to Ruthie who politely declines. 

“Sometimes, when I get too high I think people can’t hear me so I start talking really loud…” She shrugs, somewhat sheepish. 

Romeo laughs loudly, puffing away, “Believe me Ruth, I’ve realized.” Ruthie shoves him playfully and Romeo runs a few steps away from her, whooping as he bobs and weaves out of her arms reach. 

Ruthie runs after him, giggling, and suddenly it’s a full blown race: Romeo’s holding onto his belt as he runs, his puffy jacket billowing out behind him as he tried to catch up to Ruthie a few paces ahead of him. She may be skinny but she’s fast, her freshman year of high school Ruthie was almost a star of the girls track team before it lost its funding. Shortly thereafter she decided to dedicate more of her time to smoking cigarettes and consuming her weight in french fries from Pop’s. Ruthie might have been out of running shape but she wasn’t going to lose to Romeo. Her lungs are burning because of the cold air and she can feel her breakfast churning in her stomach but she looks over her shoulder and keeps running all the way to the street corner Ignacio’s bodega was on, smiling the entire time.

“Jesus—“ Romeo leans over and puts his hands on his knees as he regulates his breathing, “—why did I do this — I hate running!” He wheezes and Ruthie laughs, pushing her windswept hair out of her face. 

“It’s not your fault, the oxygen is much thinner up there” She winks, joking about his height. Ruthie’s about a head shorter than Romeo but she’s all long, skinny legs. 

“Yeah, maybe that’s it” 

They sit on the front steps of Ignacio’s and catch their breath, taking a moment to sit and pet the bodega cats. Ruthie gives them scratches behind their ears and Romeo tries his best not to sneeze. Ruthie holds Romeo’s hand hight as she pulls him up from the stairs now that he’s caught his breath and they continue their way home, wondering how much damage they would be met with having left Dante, CD, and Spyder unsupervised for a handful of hours. 

The two of them stop short in front of the Sunnyside Trailer Park sign and Ruthie looks over at Romeo, confused. 

“You know I wanna kiss you, right Shorty?” Romeo sighs. He’s nervous for lots of reasons. One being that he’s never kissed a girl before and he doesn’t wanna fuck it up somehow, the other being that he was nervous about overstepping Ruthie’s boundaries or taking her too far out of her comfort zone. Hell, it had taken them a year and a half to even hold hands, how long would it take for something like that to happen if both of them were too scared to be honest and make a move. 

“Really?” Ruthie was just as nervous as he was. 

“Yeah…is that okay?” Romeo asks and Ruthie nods in response, taking his hand. Definitely okay. “I know you don’t like surprises so I wanted to tell you and all.”

Ruthie quirks up an eyebrow at him. “Okay…so are you gonna do it?”

Romeo’s face heats up. “Well, uh, not now, no—” he sputters, feeling thrown off guard. “cause I just told you it was gonna happen and like, I dunno. Gotta let the tension build…”

“Oh-kay” Ruthie says with bemusement, pulling Romeo into the grid-work labyrinth of trailers and motorhomes. 

“I’m gonna kiss you on New Years, Shorty, just you wait” Romeo smiles at her, pulling her closer to him and slinging his arm around her shoulder. 

“That’s a whole five days away!” She protests.

“Tension, Shorty. Gotta build some tension!” Both of them would find those five days to be the longest ever. 

[whimsicalworldofme]

Living of Love

Ava returns home and enjoys the blissful joy of being surrounded by her family. 

Word Count: 1958

Content Warnings: None. This fluff is my apology for traumatizing you with feels last night.

The first thing to greet Ava when she strode down the gangway and into the hangar was the sight of Poe running to her, absolutely beaming, his smile uncontrollable as he scooped her up, his arms snug around her waist, his lips meeting hers without a word. She giggled into his kiss, feeling him smiling, and hooked her arms behind his neck. He smelled like he’d just showered, the smell of foresty soap lingering on his skin. His shirt was clean and ironed, in fact, it looked new, not at all worn like the ones she knew in the drawers of their bedroom dresser. He’d even shined his boots.

               “Welcome home, Mrs. Dameron,” he grinned, his eyes opening slightly, joy lines still radiating from their corners. His lips brushed lightly against hers again before he pressed his forehead to hers.

               “Thank you, General Dameron,” she snickered.

               He lowered her to her feet with care but didn’t relinquish his hold on her. He kept her close with his left arm around her waist while his right hand stroked her cheek before pushing into her hair. No one bothered them despite the fact that the hangar was abuzz with activity. A few of the newer people stared for a moment, but more tenured members of the Resistance explained that was just how the General and his wife were and to ignore it.  Ava’s team had their instructions to schlepp all of the supplies she’d bought at the market into the mess hall kitchen pantry where she would sort it out later.

               “Did you get all dressed up for me?” She tugged lightly on the edges of his black leather jacket, the one that he’d chosen to replace the brown one he’d given to Finn. Even the scuffed, ragged leather had a shine of cleanliness to it that she had never seen before. “I was only gone for three days.”

               “Three days alone with Ben Solo,” he stated, not angry or jealous, more playful than anything. “I didn’t want you coming home thinking you’d downgraded in settling for me.”

               “Oh, stop it,” she laid a hand on either side of his face, kissing him deeply. When she finished he had both his eyes shut in bliss, a hint of pink in his cheeks, and his heart was thumping. “If I had it to do all over again, I’d still pick you,” she brushed her fingers into his curls and watched him tilt his head to her touch, his bright hazel eyes opening to study her intently.

               “You’re sure?” He tried to pass his tone off as joking but Ava knew there were serious fears behind the question. He’d always felt he couldn’t compare to Ben. While his parents were war heroes and he had since made a name for himself as the successor to Leia’s legacy, he still felt those points of pride were nothing compared to the lineage and legacy Ben’s bloodline provided him. Ava wished she could settle in his mind once and for all that he wasn’t lacking in any way, but she didn’t mind reminding him regularly how wonderful he was. She liked complimenting him, genuinely telling how amazing she thought he was. She liked the bashful smile that always came from it.

               “Ben asked me if he could be my second husband and I told him no,” Ava stated. She watched her husband’s jaw visibly slack and hang open in shock. “You’re the only husband I want and need,” she moved her hand back to his cheek and stroked it with her thumb before stepping away from him a little, plucking up her bag, taking him by the hand and pulling him towards the open hangar doors.

               “But…wait,” he stammered, trying to process what she’d dropped on him. “He asked to be your second husband?”

               “That’s right,” Ava nodded, breathing deeply the clean Spring air as they stepped outside, enjoying the familiar sounds of the native birds and the warm sunshine on her face.

               “He didn’t ask you to leave me?” Poe sounded seriously confused and Ava wondered how long he’d fixate on the subject.

               “No,” she shook her head, pausing in their walk so she could look at her husband face to face. “But no matter what he’d asked, I would’ve said no. I love you,” she smiled and gave his hand a squeeze. “You’re all I want and need.”

               “You’re sure?” Poe raised a brow and looked seriously concerned.

               “I’m absolutely sure,” Ava laughed. “Even if it was something I was remotely interested in, which it’s not,” she added emphasis on the not, just to make sure he got the point, “it would hurt you. And I love you too much to do anything that would cause you pain like that. Besides, the two of you couldn’t even share a toy ship without getting into fights over whose turn it was to play with it. I’d be crazy to put myself in the middle of that.”

               “I love you,” Poe stated with genuine heart and a serious expression on his face.

               “I know,” she smiled shyly, an intense blush heating her face. When he looked at her like that, the way he got all serious and intense, it made her feel something hard to put into words; possessed by him, protected, worshipped, prized. It was all those things and somehow more. When he looked at her that way, she knew he saw his everything in her. “I love you too.”

               “Master Poe, Mistress Ava,” a polite metallic voice made them jump and they turned to see the bronzed protocol droid standing a little too close to them, arms bent unnaturally at the elbows so that his hands hovered in front of his hips, head tilted to one side.

               “Dammit Threepio,” Poe clapped a hand to his brow, huffing a sigh. “I told you to wait at our quarters.”

               “I apologize, Master Poe, but it was growing too loud in your quarters. Your young Mistress Leia and Mistress Shara have no concept of volume control and a vocabulary of language that I seem to lack in my databanks.”

               “You have no concept of personal space,” Poe grumbled under his breath. “And are missing body language from your databanks.”

               Ava snorted a laugh. Her husband loved droids, he really did, but Threepio, despite being a protocol droid, had horrific manners and seemed relatively oblivious to the nuances of human interaction.

               “Did you need to talk to me about something?” Ava directed her attention to the droid, trying to be patient. The sooner the droid got done with whatever he needed to say, the sooner they could send him on his way.

               “I have been meaning to talk to you, Mistress Ava, about living arrangements for myself and Artoo-deetoo,” he nodded but did so with all of his torso, rather than just his head.

               “Oh,” Ava hadn’t really even given thought to the droids and who had taken possession of them since Leia’s passing. It didn’t seem like any of her business. “Where have you been staying? And why would you want to talk to me about it?” She glanced to Poe who simply gave her a “don’t ask” sort of look.

               “We have been living in spare quarters on base and working alongside Master Finn and other leaders in the Resistance,” Threepio stated. “But now that the fighting is coming to an end, we are uncertain of what will happen to us. You see, Artoo-deetoo and I belong to the Skywalker family.”

               A heavy weight of realization hit Ava and she understood now why he’d come to her. It unnerved her a little whenever a sentient droid like him spoke of being owned by anyone, but it was the truth. C-3PO and R2-D2 were built as companion droids, not to function as individuals, not the way other sentient beings did. Their purpose was to serve, and they needed an owner to take care of them.

               “Young Master Luke is the only Skywalker left,” Threepio said it without inflection but somehow his tone managed still to carry sadness. “We didn’t bring it up before but now that you and Master Poe are building a house, we thought perhaps there might be sufficient space for us.”

               “Oh,” Ava turned to glance at Poe again. She knew he wasn’t thrilled about the notion of having the inept protocol droid shuffling around the house all the time, but he was Luke’s by rights. She couldn’t stand the thought of him being separated from the family he’d been part of for four generations. “I’m sure we can work something out,” she didn’t know how but that was something they had time to think about. Their house would take time to build.

               “Thank you very much, Mistress Ava,” Threepio sounded relived. “Artoo will be very glad to hear it.”

               “You’re welcome, Threepio,” Ava smiled. “Now if you’ll excuse us,” she took Poe’s hand again and pulled him along. “We need some time alone. Why don’t you go see if Finn needs you?” She called back as they put more distance between themselves and the droid, Poe doing a very poor job at suppressing his laughter.  

               It didn’t take long to get to their quarters and Ava dropped her bag as soon as she got in the door, seeing all three of her children in the living room, the girls in their playpen and Luke sitting on the couch in front of them, reading them a story from a datapad, little holographic illustrations hovering above the device as the story progressed.

               “Hey Mom, welcome home,” Luke grinned, getting up and setting the datapad on the caf table. The girls started to whine. “Why are you fussing?” He laughed. “Look who’s home. It’s Mama!”

               Ava pulled her son into a hug, kissing him on the cheek since he was too tall now for her to kiss the top of his head. She felt a pang as she saw yet again all the similarities between him and his father, but she pushed it aside. She didn’t know if Poe had told Luke about Ben being at the food festival, but she would certainly relay Ben’s message to their son and pass along the kyber crystal. His training as a Padawan would come to an end soon. But Ava couldn’t dwell on that. It made her sad, knowing her little boy was almost grown. She gave him a squeeze before he let her go, then went to the play pen and kissed each of her girls on the nose, watching them bouncing at the knees, tugging on the rail of their little jail.

               “Were you good for your Papa and big brother while Mama was away?” Ava asked, stroking first Shara’s curls then Leia’s. Their hair was getting much thicker and darker black like Poe’s with each passing day.

               “Leia said her first word,” Luke announced with pride and Ava gasped in shock, turning her head to look at Poe who was smiling nervously and then to Luke who was smirking, trying not to laugh.

               “What was it? Did you record it?”

               “Uh…no. I didn’t record it,” Poe knelt down beside her and plucked up Leia while Ava pulled Shara into her arms.

               “Why not?” She watched her husband turn red in the face. “What was the word, Poe?”

               “Kriff,” he bit his bottom lip and Ava burst out laughing.

               “I think Gram would approve,” Luke insisted, dropping to a seat on the couch.

               “Yeah,” Ava beamed at Poe, enjoying the moment with all their family together. Poe pressed a soft kiss to Leia’s chubby little cheek making her giggle and squeal, her legs flailing, one hand slapping against his chest. “I think so too.”

Last Chapter                    Master List                  Next Chapter