#it would be lyrics from tis the damn season

[oursacredoasis]

'tis the damn season - taylor swift

(click for better quality!!)

[headkiss]

you’ll always know me

part 1, part 2

pairing: rockstar!eddie munson x fem!reader

summary: even as the crowds at his shows get bigger and bigger, eddie munson still has you, his very best friend. or, (for my swifties) eddie munson is your dorothea.

word count: 8.6k

warnings: fluff, a little angst, childhood best friends to lovers (sort of), weed and smoking, librarian!reader, first kiss, so many uses of the words “i miss you,” and some idiots in love !!!

a/n: hiiiii!!! this one took so long but i really love rockstar!eddie and i hope you do too!!! this is inspired by tis the damn season and especially dorothea by taylor swift <3 thank you to my love @inkluvs for encouraging me on this one ily!!!

♫♩♪♬

It’s surreal to watch someone close to you grow so much bigger than the town you live in.

To know that the person you see on the news, at award shows on your TV screen, is the same one who used to push you on the swings at the playground, who used to walk with you to and from school, who grew up beside you, closer than anyone else ever could have.

Closer than anyone ever would, still.

To most people, he’s Eddie Munson, lead singer and guitarist of Corroded Coffin. To you, he’s Eddie, the best friend you’ve ever had.

You can go back years and years, and Eddie’s woven into your life for so much of it. So is his music. You can pick out the points: watching Corroded Coffin play for the first time in middle school, watching their first gig at the Hideout, being in the front row for it all wearing the widest smile, having the loudest cheers.

Even the late night phone calls you’d get when he’d be stuck on lyrics, when he wanted someone’s opinion and chose to dial your number instead of his bandmates’.

(“Hello?”

“I can’t get this line to sound right.”

“Let’s hear it, Munson.”)

You’re often in disbelief of where he is now. Not because you ever doubted him, but because even after so long, it’s strange not to see him every day. You’re insanely proud of him, but that doesn’t mean you don’t miss him.

Because you do. You miss him so much.

A box sits on the top shelf of your closet, one filled with newspaper and magazine clippings, articles about the band’s success, positive reviews about their shows and their albums. Things to show that Eddie’s dream came true, and that’s a rare thing.

There’s only one kind of tabloid you choose not to keep: the ones booming with rumors you selfishly hope aren’t true.

‘Lead singer of Corroded Coffin has a new spark? Read more to find out who’s caught famous bad boy Eddie Munson’s eye.’

You see him constantly in pictures, through a screen, but you only really ever see him on holidays, when he’s able to come home. When he comes bursting back into your life in vibrant fireworks with his stupid, pretty smile and stupid, shining brown eyes. When he comes back only to leave all over again.

You only have yourself to blame, really, for letting it tear you up. Because more than anything, you’re happy for him, so happy you could never express it properly, but still, there’s an ache in you when he crosses your mind, when the feelings linger.

Life in Hawkins for you consists of working at the library, reading your days and thoughts away, hanging out with the gang when you’re up to it, and that’s about it.

Eddie always knows where to find you when he does come home, usually barging into the library with his arms open for a hug, one you rush into easily. You always spend the couple days he has in Hawkins together, being the you and him you’ve been since you were kids. But the lingering reminder doesn’t fade, the reminder of him having to leave looming over you like a storm cloud.

Eddie Munson comes home sporadically, unknowingly taking your heart with him wherever he goes. And when his inevitable departure takes place, you’re forced to regrow what’s missing from your chest. Every single time.

-

Besides his uncle Wayne, who could only ever see him as a troublemaking kid, you’re the only person who’s never treated Eddie any differently.

Not in high school when he was labeled a freak, not even when the fame rose so suddenly it felt like a tidal wave. You kept him afloat. You keep him afloat.

He knows he should call more often, he knows that even if the phone works both ways, you really don’t have a way of keeping track of which hotel he’s in, which state, which country, even. He knows that falls on him.

Your phone number’s burned into Eddie’s memory. He could never forget it, and still, he can’t seem to find the time to dial it. He’ll get called away, or he’ll just be getting back from a show and barely have the energy to shower before getting in bed. Worse, he’ll get the panicked sense that you won’t pick up anymore.

At least he’s never missed your birthday. That, he’ll always make time for, usually phoning you at the same time that a bouquet of flowers arrives at your door. And somehow, even when he’s away, you don’t miss his birthday, either.

Eddie’s sitting on the small couch in his dressing room, waiting to go on stage, thinking of you the way he often does.

He wonders if you think of him, too. If you miss him or if you’re angry that he’s gone so often, that he can barely even manage a fucking phone call. Though, you were never the type to be angry. Never with him, at least.

He wants to hear your voice, wants to hear you tell him ‘good luck’ before going on stage like you used to. He peeks at the table next to the couch. Eddie’s not sure how much time he has before he needs to go, but he figures it’s worth a try.

Just as he’s about to pick up the phone in his dressing room, there’s a knock on the door.

“Munson! You’re on in five!”

He’ll call you later, then.

-

“Beginning descent to the Indianapolis International Airport.”

The muffled sound through the airplane’s speakers is followed by the ding of the seatbelt signs being turned on. Eddie shifts in his seat to look out the window. He’s got his own little cubicle in first class, and though this is how he always flies now (other than when he finds himself on a private jet, which is even more unbelievable), he’s still not used to it.

He’s itching to get out of this seat, then he remembers that he’s still got the trek through the airport and the drive back to Hawkins. It’ll be worth it to see Wayne, who he doesn’t see nearly as often as he should, and get his classic hug with a slap on his shoulder.

It’ll be worth it to see you, who makes Hawkins feel more like home. You, who reminds him of the person he’s always been, the parts that get lost on the road. You, who hugs him tighter than anyone else ever has.

His hands clench into fits in his lap.

As soon as Eddie steps off the plane, his security team finds him. He’d assured them that he’d be fine, really, but this is how it is for him now. Through baggage claim and all the way to the car that’s waiting for him outside, security takes a step whenever he does.

Shutting the car door as he slides into the backseat, Eddie tips his head back and sighs.

The car ride feels shorter than usual, the city fading into trees and fields until the ‘Welcome to Hawkins’ sign comes into view. The gravel crunches under the car’s tires as it pulls into the trailer park. Wayne’s got enough to get a better place now, Eddie made sure of it, but he never did. He’d never admit it but Wayne’s sentimental, and the trailer houses too many memories to let go of it.

After all, it was home.

Stepping through the front door there’s the smell that he’d never noticed until he’d been gone for weeks at a time. The settled dust, the faint smoke of cigarettes, coffee, and the room spray Wayne inevitably uses to try and cover it all up.

Eddie drags his bags inside, waves to his driver, and shuts the door behind him.

Then, Wayne’s warm rasp, “my boy. Get in okay?”

He’s wrapped in his uncle’s classic hug quickly, the pats on his shoulder and all. Eddie closes his eyes and soaks it in, just for a second, “yeah. It was fine.”

“Good, good,” Wayne says, pulling back and grasping Eddie’s shoulders, getting a good look at him. “Take a shower.”

“Is that your way of telling me I look like shit?”

“Nah, that’s me telling you that you smell like airport, boy.”

“It’s great to see you, too,” Eddie says, smiling.

He and Wayne have the kind of relationship that time doesn’t really affect all that much. Whether Eddie’s away for a week or a month, or two, or three, they fall back into things like he’d never even left.

He knows Wayne’s probably lonely, probably hiding more than he could imagine, but he also knows that he loves him, and that’s always a good thing to know, to feel. Loved.

“Shut up, you know I missed you,” Wayne shakes Eddie’s shoulders and lets go, “now go wash up and you can tell me about your last show over some coffee, sound good?”

“Sounds good. I missed you too, Wayne.”

Eddie carries his bags into his room, leaving them open on the ground rather than unpacking. He’ll just have to pack them all over again, anyways.

Before long, the trailer’s small bathroom is filling with steam as Eddie steps into the shower, dropping his neck back and letting the water run over his shoulders, his back. He stands like that for a bit, simply letting the heat melt away at the tension in his muscles.

By the time he steps out, the mirror is completely fogged with steam, and Eddie wipes away at a section to look at himself. The bags under his eyes, the mess of his hair that he doesn’t bother taming, the small scratch on his chin from one of his rings. He shakes his head and heads into his room with his towel around his waist.

He throws on a pair of plaid pajama pants and a faded band tee, his hair soaking the back of it drop by drop.

In the kitchen, Wayne’s got two mugs of coffee sitting on the small table, a seat already pulled out for Eddie to take.

“Thanks.”

He nods, sipping from his mug as Eddie does the same.

In the silence, he can’t help but think of you, of how close he is to you now. Mere minutes away. He wonders what you’re doing, if you’re reading in bed after your shift, if you’d just showered like him, if you’re thinking of him, too.

“I saw her the other day,” Wayne says.

They both know he means you.

“How’s she doing?”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll ask her that when you see her tomorrow, but she seemed good.”

“How'd you know I’m gonna see her tomorrow?”

“Come on, kid. You go to the library the day after you get in every time and think I don’t notice?”

Eddie looks down at the mug in his hands, his face warm. It shouldn’t matter, shouldn’t have him feeling all shy and nervous, like he’d been caught, but it does.

“She misses you,” Wayne adds.

“She tell you that?”

“Doesn’t have to. I’ve known that girl since she was little and running after you on the playground. I can tell.”

Wayne has always said that you’re as good as family, after all. Eddie used to joke that his uncle liked you more than him, and you used to laugh and joke back that he was right.

Eddie’s suddenly very excited to sleep, only to get to tomorrow quicker.

“I miss her, too.”

“Yeah, kid. I know,” Wayne leaves it there, switching things over, “I saw you almost eat shit on TV the other day.”

“Come on!” Eddie groans. He’d tripped over a fucking wire on stage. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“It was still fuckin’ funny.”

“Of all the shows, you just had to tune in for that one.”

Wayne asks about the tour, about how Eddie’s liking it this time around, about whether or not there’s anything new he’s working on.

In return, Eddie asks about the mechanic’s, about whether or not Wayne’s back has been acting up (which earns him a light slap on the back of the head), about what’s changed in Hawkins since the last time he’d been home.

Even through the smiles he shares with his uncle, Eddie’s wondering how you’ll react when you see him tomorrow, picturing how it’ll feel to be near you again. He gets that feeling in his gut, the butterflies that are nerves and excitement and questions and feelings rolled into one.

He’s pretty sure he dreams about you, too.

-

Your shifts at the library are always long; full days of scanning and shelving books. You’re lucky to say that you actually like your job. The smell of worn pages, the peacefulness (save for when Dustin comes barging in with his stack of overdue books that you let him off the hook for every time), the interactions that are almost always short and sweet since it’s meant to be a quiet place.

Your eight or nine or however many hour days go by much quicker now than they did during your high school job at the grocery store, that’s for sure.

You’re pushing the put-back cart between shelves, humming a random song quietly as you place the books where they belong, sometimes pausing to straighten things out. It’s the middle of a weekday and you’re the only person in there anyway. That is, until the small bell on the front desk dings.

“Just a second!” You call, squeezing between the cart and the self beside it to walk over to the front desk. You think your heart stops altogether.

You’d recognize that head of hair anywhere, the dark, frizzy curls. Hell, you’d recognize that damn denim vest anywhere, even the stance of the person wearing it. “Eddie?”

He turns around at the sound of your voice, and something lifts from his chest when he sees you. A grin spreads wide on his face, splitting his cheeks and crinkling his eyes in the corners, “there she is.”

Usually, when he comes home, it’s on a holiday and you’re expecting him, watching the door and waiting for him to walk through it. This time, you had no idea he’d be coming home. It’s the best surprise you could get.

You’re practically running into his arms, and he wraps them around your waist easily, yours tossed around his shoulders. Your face is buried in his neck, breathing him in, making sure this is real. “What the hell are you doing here?”

His hands clutch at the fabric over your sides, his head twisting so he can place a kiss over your hair, “had a break from tour. Missed home.”

And sure, Eddie hadn’t really realized just how much he missed it until he came back, it’s crystal clear now, with you hugging him. He really, really missed home.

You want to say something stupid and emotional like it hasn’t felt as much like home until now, or I missed the sound of your voice and the smell of your shampoo, but that would probably reveal a little too much.

“Just home you missed or…” you tease, pulling back to look at his face, his brown eyes that sort of sparkle. Your hands stay on his shoulders, his on your waist.

“I missed Wayne, obviously,” Eddie replies, acting oblivious and smiling at the small furrow in your brow.

“Eddie!”

“Aw, come on.” He tugs you in for another hug, his cheek squished against the side of your head. “‘Course I missed you, trouble.”

Trouble. You never knew you could miss a single word so much.

Eddie started calling you ‘trouble’ when you were kids, sometime in middle school when you’d stolen a bunch of his mixtapes and only returned them weeks later, when he finally noticed. He’d snatched them out of your hands and muttered ‘you’re trouble’ and it just stuck.

“Thank you,” you say, laughing when Eddie pulls back frowning at you. “And I missed you, too. Duh.”

“Duh.” He mocks. He lets go of you fully but doesn’t go far, leaning an elbow against the desk, “you’re doing okay?”

“I’m good. Things don’t change all that much around here, you know that.”

“I’m not asking about around here, I’m asking ‘bout you.”

You tug at the hair tie on your wrist. “I’m fine, Eddie. Promise.”

He nods, and there’s a small lull in the conversation that pinches at your chest for some reason. The sort of silence that never used to be there when it came to you and Eddie, always filling it with conversation or letting it be comfortable. Now, there’s something like awkwardness stretching and it stings.

Because it shouldn’t be there, because he’s Eddie and you’re you and you’re best friends and that’s all there should be to it. But it isn’t. You’re the same people, but so much is different.

“You working late?” He asks.

“Until we close.”

“Care for some company?”

You tilt your head at him, “you really wanna hang around the library for the last four hours of my shift?”

“Sounds like fun to me. I’ll even push the cart for you, and you can tell me what I’ve missed while I was away.”

It’s funny that he thinks he’d ever have to convince you to spend time with him, when you’re practically pulling at any thread of him that you can, when you’re taking anything he has to give you. Two days, a week, a couple of phone calls.

It’s all better than not having him at all.

“Only if you tell me what I’ve missed, too. Like all the cool celebrities you’ve met.”

“Not as cool as you, trouble.” Eddie taps your nose, smiling at the way you scrunch it in response.

“Shut up and start pushing the cart, Munson.”

He stands straight and salutes, “yes ma’am.”

You’re still smiling when you shake your head, “idiot.”

Eddie really does spend the rest of the day with you, pushing the cart while you re-shelf books, sitting in the extra chair behind the counter while you file returns, ducking when someone else walks in.

He asks you about Robin and Steve, Dustin and Lucas, how the kids are finding school, whether Nancy’s been hired at a big paper yet. He asks you about your family, and most of all, about you.

He hangs onto every word you say. And not once do you say anything to make him feel bad for being away, if anything, you can’t stop telling him how proud you are, especially when he talks to you about what’s in the works.

“I always told you you’d make it, Munson.”

“Wouldn’t have done it without you, trouble.”

-

The next morning, you’re sitting across from him in the corner booth by the window at Benny’s for breakfast. The same way you did every Friday in high school, at the same table.

Whenever you wind up at Benny’s when Eddie’s away, you tend to avoid that booth. It’s pathetic. Like his absence is clearer than ever sitting there when he isn’t. When he’s not putting whipped cream on your nose or stealing food off your plate.

Now, it’s his presence that surrounds you, his smile and his laugh, his foot nudging yours under the table.

The menu is sticky under your fingertips where you hold it, faded from sunlight and discolored from coffee spills that stain the page. You don’t really need to be looking at it—after years of coming here, you’ve probably got the thing memorized—but you need the time to collect yourself. To remember that this is Eddie, and there’s nothing to be nervous about.

You need the time to stuff down that flutter in your gut and in your chest.

On the other side of the booth, Eddie takes your distraction as a chance to really look at you. The details he can’t seem to picture when he’s away like the flecks in your eyes or the exact shade of your lips.

He never realizes just how much he misses you until he’s home. Until he’s sitting across from you and listening to the sound of your voice clearly instead of through a crackling phone’s speaker, until he gets to see the way your eyes light up slightly when you laugh.

It sort of hits him all at once, and he’s thinking, God, I should call more often. I should visit more often.

After a couple of minutes, you look back at Eddie, “you know what you want?”

“I’ve been getting the same thing since high school, trouble. Don’t need the menu.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll go order,” you say, placing your menu back in the holder by the window.

When you start sliding your way out of the booth, Eddie places a hand over yours on the table, “I can get it.”

You look down at your hands, his skin on yours, like you’d expected to see something there. A spark, a burn scorching your skin in the best way.

“I know you can,” you say, smiling at him. “But it’s my treat, okay? I want to get it.”

Eddie always feels sort of guilty when he’s not buying, because he has more than enough money to take care of it, more than he knows what to do with. Sometimes (often), people expect him to pay, even. And just like you’d known how he was feeling, you shut it down with a flash of your smile.

You shift to squeeze his hand before getting up and heading over to the counter, leaning on your elbows as you wait your turn.

Still, Eddie’s looking at you, his hand in the same spot on the table.

He knows that, despite it not being a busy morning at Benny’s, people are looking at him, whispering the way they did even in school. Only now, they’re saying they can’t believe it, look at him now, instead of calling him a freak. And just like in school, having you around makes the talk bearable. Hell, it makes it disappear, if only for a little while.

When the waiter finally comes over to take your order, you send him a kind smile, rattling off yours and Eddie’s orders.

Eddie watches the entire interaction. He tells himself it’s because he doesn’t want to make eye contact with anyone else, that it’s because he’s just making sure you’re alright. It’s certainly not because of how pretty he thinks you look today, not because of how hard it is to keep his eyes off of you.

The waiter is a younger guy, probably around your age. Someone Eddie doesn’t know. He seems to tell you a joke because you laugh, bright and sunny, and Eddie suddenly wishes that Benny was the one taking orders.

Because he should be the one to make you laugh like that, to be on the receiving end of your grin and crinkled eyes. Because there’s this weight in his stomach that feels a little too much like jealousy. Because you’re his best friend and he fucking misses you.

Eddie looks down at his hands and twists his rings around and around until you come back, the old booth squeaking as you sit down.

“You okay?” You ask, always noticing his nervous habit of fiddling with his rings.

She’s my friend, he reminds himself. My best friend, that’s all.

“‘Course I am.”

“The guy at the counter, Dan, wanted me to tell you he’s a fan.”

He shakes his head, “I can't believe I have those. Especially in this town.”

“Excuse me? Your biggest fan is sitting right here, in this town, Munson.”

He probably thinks you’re joking with the way he chuckles, chest rumbling. But, you’re not. The shoebox full of clippings says enough, and you don’t think he’d ever let you live it down if he knew about it.

“She want an autograph?” He teases, the heaviness in his stomach melting away. Your biggest fan.

“In your chicken scratch? Yeah right.”

It’s not long before your food arrives, plates of waffles and fruit, sides of bacon and hashbrowns. Of course, you inevitably end up with whipped cream on your nose and food missing from your plate.

It’s your favorite kind of breakfast.

-

You’re sitting in the passenger seat of Eddie’s van—the same van he’s had since high school, that he refuses to replace—heading towards Steve’s place. It’s not unusual for either of you to be meeting up with the gang, but Eddie’s still nervous.

“Are you sure about this?” He asks you.

They don’t know he’s in town, and as sure as you are that they’ll be thrilled to see him, Eddie isn’t convinced. You place a hand on his shoulder and squeeze lightly as he drives.

“Everyone’s gonna be so happy to see you. Don’t you trust me?”

“‘Course I do,” he says easily, without thinking, “just haven’t seen anyone in a while, you know?”

“We all miss you, Eddie. It’ll be fun!”

Logically, he knows nobody’s gonna kick him out, or treat him any differently, but it doesn’t stop him from getting nervous. You wanted to surprise everyone, and how could he say no to you? So, here he is, gripping the steering wheel too tight and worrying too much.

Pulling into the driveway, he nods, “here we go.”

You hop out of the van before he has it shut off, but he catches up quickly. He follows you to the side gate of the house, watches you unlatch it and stroll into the yard. The sound of voices mingling hits his ears as you walk around the house and find your group of friends sitting around in lounge chairs.

“Look who I brought,” You announce.

Your shout is followed by eyes flicking towards you, then Eddie who stands beside you. Then, a chorus of his name, plus Argyle’s “rockstar!”

“Hey guys,” he says, waving shyly.

It’s odd to feel this way around these people that he’s known for years. Robin and Steve who’ve rented him way too many movies for free, Nancy and Johnathan who are probably why he graduated high school, and Argyle who was always his most loyal customer.

All of these memories and he feels a little too much like a stranger. At least he’s got you, who feels like one of the only sure things in his life. No matter how long goes by, you’re there, and he hopes you always will be.

“You want a drink?” Steve asks, leaning to reach into the cooler beside him.

“I’ll take one, thanks,” you say, catching the can Steve throws to you.

“I’m driving,” Eddie says, jingling his keys.

“Eddie Munson being responsible,” Robin teases, “they grow up so fast.”

And just like that, he feels a little better. These are his friends, and even though he’s not around all of the time, and even though he may not be as close to everyone anymore, they’ll still be his friends.

You sit down on the empty lounge chair and pat the space beside you for Eddie, sending him a smile that says both ‘told you so,’ in your snark he can practically hear, and ‘everything’s okay,’ in your kind way.

He plops down beside you.

“How’s everything going?” Johnathan asks him.

Not wanting all of the attention on him, Eddie keeps his answer short, “busy, but it’s a ton of fun.”

“Everything you ever dreamed of?” Robin adds.

“You could definitely say that.”

Though, Eddie has this strange feeling that he’s missing something whenever he’s gone. It’ll go away, but somehow, it always finds him again, when he’s debating on calling or not, when he’s hit with a memory of you in the front row at the Hideout when he’s on stage.

He looks over at you and finds you smiling softly at him, eyes fond. He can’t believe he’s the one you’re looking at like that.

Eddie blinks and turns back to the group, “how about you guys? How’re the jobs?”

The chatter picks up and surrounds him, but Eddie can’t stop thinking about the way you were looking at him just then. He’s never had someone look at him like that, like there’s nothing but affection there.

It’s platonic, he tells himself. She’s my best friend.

You feel happier now than you have in a while. Things feel more complete when Eddie’s around. Things feel right. It’s all of your favorite people with no empty chair, it’s falling back into a friendship that’s existed for years.

When conversations split off into smaller ones, you lean your head on his shoulder, and the words sort of slip out of you, “it’s really nice to have you here.”

His heart beats louder, he leans his head on top of yours, “it’s nice to be home.”

And it is. Eddie loves touring, he loves playing his music, and he loves his job, but at the end of the day, he’ll always be this boy from Hawkins, and he’ll always be happy to be home, to be with you.

Catching the moment, Argyle—always sharing his thoughts—says, “sick, you guys are finally together.”

You and Eddie both sit up, like you’d been caught doing something you shouldn’t, even when you’ve sat like that countless times before.

Everyone’s eyes seem to be on the both of you now, and you have a tiny panic inside. Have you really been that obvious with how you feel? Does Eddie know and he hasn’t said anything because he doesn’t want to hurt you?

You laugh awkwardly, “what?”

“Like, dating,” Argyle explains.

“Me and Eddie?”

He’d been frozen for a second there, surprised that Argyle thought that. Was he seeing something Eddie couldn’t? No, no way.

“Just friends, guys,” Eddie says. “Come on.”

You swallow, forcing out a word, “exactly.”

“They’ve always been like this,” Nancy says, which explains enough but also sort of nothing at all.

Just friends. It’s something you know, you remind yourself constantly. It’s all it’ll ever be, and still, hearing Eddie say it out loud has your stomach feeling heavy. Just friends, get over it.

Even as conversation picks up again, as you laugh with everyone, the two words play in your head over and over. Then, after saying your goodbyes, once you’re in the van with Eddie again, it fades, because if you can’t be in love with him, you can be his best friend, and you’d much rather have that than nothing at all.

Once he drops you off, Eddie thinks and thinks about what Argyle had said. He goes over memories, over how he feels around you, and it hits him like a huge punch to the gut.

He thinks he has feelings for you. Big, huge feelings.

-

It’s the same day, a different sky, the sun sunk behind the horizon to give way to a sky full of stars and a bright moon.

Eddie’s van is parked by Lover’s Lake, the back full of blankets where you both sit, the doors open to look at the sky and the way the moonlight reflects on the water.

There’s practically an indent in the ground in the spot he’s parked, the one that’s been your go-to for ages. From day picnics to nighttime smoke sessions, it’s another place on the list of the ones that are filled with memories of Eddie.

Beside you, he’s got a joint in hand, the flick of his lighter catching your ears over the crickets and the breeze. You watch him inhale, his chest expanding, the smoke slipping from his lips. You turn back to the water.

“Your turn,” he says, handing you the joint.

You grab it between your fingertips and bring it to your mouth, feeling the smoke trail down your throat, further, then you’re breathing it out, clearing your throat at the tickle.

“Out of practice?” Eddie teases at your small cough.

“My favorite weed dealer went out of business,” you say, nudging his shoulder with yours, “so, yeah.”

He takes the joint back from you, “you don’t smoke when I’m not around? You know Argyle’s gotta have some stock.”

“Oh, he definitely does. A little too exotic for my taste. Besides, he won’t give it to me for free.”

“Getting cheap, trouble?”

You shrug, shoulder to your cheek, and give him an innocent smile.

It feels easy, the joint being passed back and forth between sentences until it’s done and stubbed out, the flow of conversation, the comfort that’s there. It’s always been easy with him, even when it hurts a little.

Eddie’s got on his worn denim vest, still full of pins, and you tug at it, “think this thing has a permanent weed smell by now.”

“I think that’s just part of my natural scent,” he replies, playfully flipping his hair over his shoulder.

His curls graze your cheek—that’s how close you’re sitting, thighs touching—and you giggle. You’ve had so many nights just like this one with Eddie, and it feels like some kind of reward that you get to have them still, even when they’re far less regular now.

“Doesn’t this make you think of high school?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Eddie’s hand is on his knee, his pinky twitches, reaching for your leg, “hell, I’m even wearing the same clothes as in high school.”

“How does it feel like yesterday and also a lifetime ago?”

Eddie looks over at you, the warm glow of moonlight and stars on your skin, the way your sweater hangs off your shoulder, the shine in your eyes that’s part weed and part nostalgia.

“A lot’s changed since then,” he says. “I’m not a loser anymore.”

“You’re still my loser.”

How is it that even when you’re calling him a loser, the idea of being yours in any sense of the word is enough to have Eddie’s heart swell in his chest, a balloon floating up and up and he has to swallow to push it back down.

“Stop being cheesy,” he plays it off, ruffling your hair.

You shove his arm away, “I just miss you!”

Eddie looks at his arm, your hand still holding onto it, he follows your arm with his gaze until it lands on your face. He thinks you’re beautiful, the prettiest girl he’s ever seen and no groupie could change that.

“I miss you, too, trouble.”

Something shifts, the air growing thicker, a sort of understanding between the two of you. There’s something here, something that could be a disaster but could also be so, so good. Could be everything.

“No way you think about me when you’ve got crowds and fans and-“

“I think about you a lot, honey.”

Honey. He’s probably called you that before, but never like this. Never dripping sweet and sincere, never looking at you like he wants to do something you can’t even let yourself imagine in fear of being let down, of hoping too much.

Eddie’s hand shifts from his own leg to yours, thumb running back and forth, burning you even through the fabric of your pants.

“You do?”

“All the time. You’re my best friend.”

Right. Friend.

“You’re mine, too, Eddie.”

And suddenly you can feel his breath fan across your cheek, your lips. His face is close to yours and the hair that falls over his forehead tickles yours. Just a second ago he’d been saying the word ‘friend,’ and now it feels like he’s going to do something to contradict that.

Against all odds, he does.

Eddie couldn’t help himself. Maybe he’ll blame the weed, or maybe he won’t, but before he knows it he’s reaching up with the hand that isn’t on his leg to cup your cheek and tilt your head. And he’s kissing you.

He’s kissing you.

It’s so delicate, so much you’re afraid to even breathe, like it’ll break in an instant. Eddie’s fingers squeeze your leg, urge you to kiss him back and there’s no way that you wouldn’t. Not when his lips are actually on yours, not when he tastes like weed and mint gum and something perfect.

It could be seconds or minutes that you’re kissing, tilting your head even more to feel him, clutching his sleeve tightly. It never deepens, but it doesn’t have to, it says enough.

When you pull away, it’s not one or the other who does it, it’s natural, like it’s been rehearsed time and time again. Eddie leans his forehead against yours, his hand still on your cheek.

“Was that a bad idea?” He asks you, voice low and quiet.

“Maybe. I don’t know.” And you don’t, because there’s no way of knowing what’s gonna happen next, if things will be ruined, if this will fade away like it never happened, or, maybe, just maybe, if it’ll start something.

“Was it okay?”

“More than okay.”

You don’t talk about it that night, and you don’t want to just yet. You’re fine with enjoying the pink-tinted haze at least until tomorrow.

-

Eddie’s barely been gone for two days and you’re not sure what to do with yourself. After that night, neither of you brought it up, and as much as you wanted to, you couldn’t. You were scared. And anyway, it was probably just the weed for him.

You’d never kissed before. Sure, you’ve come close, faces inches apart when you’d share a bed, whispers away, but nothing ever happened. Until now.

Now, sitting on your bed, chin resting on your knees, you’re reeling from knowing what Eddie’s lips feel like and missing him all over again. Rebuilding that piece in your chest.

Somewhere else in the country, in the world, Eddie’s position isn’t so different from yours. He’s sitting on the edge of his hotel bed, forearms on his knees, head bent. He wants to call you, and he’s figuring out what he’ll say when he does.

He misses you every time he isn’t home, but it’s never felt like this. There’s never been this ache in his stomach that won’t go away because of it. Fuck, he misses you more than ever.

The last trip back to Hawkins was different than anything else, because he brought back these feelings with him and he keeps reaching up to press his fingertips to his lips, like the memory of your own lingers there.

Sure, he’s had silly, sticky thoughts like waking up with his arms around you after a nap and thinking he could wake up that way forever, but he’s always pushed them down. Now, it seems, he can’t, the images too buoyant to ignore, floating back up every time.

Sucking in a deep breath, he sits up and reaches for the phone, dialing your number that’s stored in his memory. His leg bounces as the phone rings.

You’re startled by the screech of your phone on your bedside table, head lifting to look at it shake on the receiver. You reach over and pick it up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, trouble. It’s not a bad time, is it?”

Eddie. His voice crackling through the phone sends a spike down your spine. You clutch the phone a little tighter.

You’d expected Robin, or Nancy, even Steve. Because there’d been a time, earlier in Corroded Coffin’s career, when Eddie would call you at least three times a week, and then the calls grew less frequent until they sort of died out to holidays and birthdays.

So, maybe a couple of years ago, you’d have expected Eddie’s voice, but not today.

“Eddie, hi. Not at all.”

“I- um, I just wanted to call,” a small pause, he clears his throat, “how are you?”

“It’s only been two days, you know how I am.”

“I mean right now.”

You twist to lay on your side, legs curling in towards your chest. You smile to yourself like an idiot. “Right now, I’m good. It’s lame, I already miss you.”

“I miss you, too.”

The reply comes easily to him. There’s no thought to it, because in the past 48 hours, he hasn’t been able to stop missing you for a second. The warmth of your hand in his, the sunshine sound of your laughter.

He’s not sure why everything’s so big now, his feelings amplified, only quieted now, by the sound of your voice.

“Did you have a show today?”

You have a way of asking that makes it sound like you really care, Eddie thinks. He loves his music and he knows you know that. It means the world to him to do what he does, confusing feelings or not.

“Not today. We spent the day on the bus. Show’s tomorrow.”

“Nervous or excited?”

It’s something that you used to ask him before every small show in Hawkins, and the memory has a grin spreading on Eddie’s face. “It’s always both. More excited, though.”

“You should be,” you say. “You guys are really great.”

“Yeah? Who’s your favorite band member?”

He’s fishing, and you tease him rather than bite, “hmmm. Gareth.”

“Fuckin’ trouble. You liar.”

“You asked!”

“You answered the question wrong, honey.”

There it is again. Honey. You’re sort of glad he can’t see you right now because you probably look way too happy, burying your face in your pillow for a second before replying.

“You know you’re my favorite, Munson.”

“Yeah I am,” he sounds far too proud. And then, he’s softer, “I’m not keeping you up, am I? Time zones fuck me up.”

“No, no.” Even if he was, you wouldn’t tell him. This is better than trying and failing to sleep the way you so often do. “It’s not that late. What time is it for you?”

“Not that late,” he says, even though the clock on the nightstand reads 1:14AM. “So, what’s happening in Hawkins right now?”

“Mmm, it’s getting warmer. My window’s open and the crickets are loud as fuck.” You twist the phone cord around your fingers, “it’s donation week at the library, so I’ve been shelving new books for a change.”

Eddie listens to every word you say, asks you questions like if you’d kept any books for yourself (you had, but swore you’d give them to the library when you were done) and hums between your sentences.

Somewhere along the way, he’d laid down while listening to you, eyes shut as he tried to picture what you might look like right at this second. If you’re in your pajamas or not, whether your hair would be a little messy, baby hairs a halo around your face.

Then his eyes grew heavier, your voice putting him at ease even with the sounds of his bandmates laughing from somewhere in the hotel.

“Eddie?” You ask after he’d been silent for a bit.

“Hm?” He hums sleepily.

“I lost you for a second there.”

If he wasn’t half asleep, he’d feel worse. “Sorry, getting sleepy.”

“You wanna hang up?”

“No, uh- keep talking to me? You have a nice voice.”

You smile, cheeks pinching with the size of it.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll keep talking.”

And you do, you keep talking and talking until you can hear the sound of Eddie’s tiny snores on the other side of the line. You’re smiling again at that.

Even after you’re sure he’s asleep, you don’t hang up right away, not until your own eyes are growing heavy. You put the phone back quietly, like you’ll wake him if you’re not careful. You whisper a soft ‘goodnight, Eddie,’ as you do.

There’s a small stiffness in your fingers from how tightly you’d been holding the phone, and still, you’d let your hand cramp for hours to talk to him.

The next morning, Eddie wakes up with the pattern of the phone pressed to his cheek where he’d left it last night.

-

The TV sends flashes of color flickering across your living room and over your face. Usually, you’d be in bed by now, but it’s the night of the MTV awards and Corroded Coffin is nominated. You couldn’t miss it.

You’re not really paying attention to most of it, the sounds of performances and hosts and thank-you speeches filling your ears as you read your latest book. At least, you’re not paying attention until Eddie’s category is announced.

That has you shutting your book and sitting up, grabbing the remote to turn the volume higher.

They show the nominees, give far too long of an introduction before tearing open the envelope holding the winner’s names. You don’t know it, but you’re practically white knuckling the blanket on your lap.

“And the MTV award goes to… Corroded Coffin!”

You stand and place a hand on your chest, feeling your heart beating—racing—for the band, for Eddie. This is huge, it’s a dream, and it’s his. If you could, you’d give him a suffocating hug right now.

Eddie’s voice taking over, thanking his fans and Wayne, the boys and their team, then, thanking Hawkins and the people there, even when they gave him hell.

If you knew the right number to call to talk to him, you’d dial it in an instant.

Lucky for you, your phone rings the next night, late enough that you can only assume it’s Eddie given you don’t know anyone else who’s probably in a different time zone right now. You pick up quickly, fumbling with the phone a little before bringing it up to your ear.

“Eddie?”

“How’d you know it was me?”

“Ummm, my amazing intuition? Telepathy?”

“Telepathy, she says.” There’s a soft chuckle on his end, you close your eyes and lean your head back to thump against the wall behind you. “How’re things, trouble?”

“I feel like I should be asking you that, mister MTV winner.”

Eddie’s been calling more often again, whenever he gets the chance, really. Even so, he never thought you’d be keeping up with him that way, that you’d care enough to watch an award show and remember what he’d achieved.

“You were watching?” He asks, heart thudding.

“Of course I was. I’m your biggest fan, remember?” You’re sitting with your back against your headboard, knees bent, hand absentmindedly pulling at a loose thread in your pajama pants. “I’ve got cheerleader pom-poms and everything.”

“You do not.”

“Do too. They’re super metal, all black.”

“Yeah, cause pom-poms are super metal, babe.”

Another pet name in the rotation, uttered like it’s easy, natural. You bite back a smile.

“Whatever. Mine would be,” you say. “I’m glad you called.”

“Me, too.”

“I wanted to call you yesterday,” you admit, twisting that loose thread in your fingers, “after I saw you won. I’m really proud of you, Eddie.”

They’re words he hadn’t been expecting, but ones he’ll be thinking about over and over. He wants to keep making you proud, he thinks, and he’ll pour that into everything he does whether he means to or not.

“Thank you,” his voice is quieter, almost shy. “I wouldn’t be here without you, you know?”

“You would. You’re talented, and there’s no way that could stay hidden in this town, you’re bigger than it.”

Somehow, it’s easier to be so open with him on the phone. You don’t have to look at him, get distracted by his tongue running over his lips or the way his bangs get caught in his eyelashes sometimes. This way, all you have to do is speak, nothing more.

“Trouble-” he can’t even find the words to say, because there’s affection laced in your tone, seeping through the phone and into his head and, fuck, he wants to kiss you for it and he can’t. “I really miss you.”

“I miss you, too.” There’s some silence, and the overthinker in you worries that you’ve said too much even though you meant it with every part of you, that you’ve given yourself away. “Anyways, I should go, let you celebrate your win.”

It’s what he would be doing if Eddie’s thoughts hadn’t been so full of you and your mouth and your voice. It’s what his bandmates and friends are surely doing in some club around here.

“You don’t need to. I’m not doing anything.”

“No?” You try to lighten your tone, to joke the way you usually do, “don’t have groupies knocking on your hotel room door right now?”

Instead of playing along, Eddie’s voice is serious, still soft in the way he speaks to you, but serious nonetheless, “I don’t entertain them, honey.”

“You don’t?”

He’s tried. But ever since you kissed him, probably since before that, too, Eddie can’t seem to look at anyone else, let alone have someone else kiss him and tarnish the memory of your lips on his. He’s only ever thinking of you, it seems. So no, he hasn’t fooled around lately.

“Not in a while. I’m trying to write for the next album. No distractions.”

No distractions. He says it like that’s true, even though he can’t seem to fully focus, like there’s a piece he’s missing. Like every lyric he’s written since he’s been back isn’t somehow about you.

He’s so, so fucked.

“Look at you, Munson. Squeaky clean.”

You hope he can’t tell that you’re sort of a mess, a stupid blossom of hope planting itself where it shouldn’t. He’s your friend, he’s always been just your friend. But you kissed and it felt like something changed, and you can’t seem to let go of that.

“You sound surprised,” he teases, gathering his wits the best he can.

“Can you blame me? You used to have multiple lunchboxes reserved for your weed.”

“You loved those lunchboxes and you know it.”

“Yeah, I did.”

And then, like that moment was simply a blip, easily brushed over, your conversation turns back to your normal. Jokes with underlying affections, teasing while picturing what kind of smile the other wears when you laugh lightly into the phone.

Time runs away from you, and by the time you hang up it’s well into the early hours of the morning, but you can’t bring yourself to care.

-

After hanging up, Eddie’s got this sinking, aching pull in his stomach. He knows what it is, has had bouts of it before where he misses Wayne’s hand patting his back or the way his mattress is worn-in just the right amount back at the trailer, when he thinks about what his friends might be doing or what science project Dustin’s got going on.

But it’s never felt this heavy. Eddie’s the most homesick he’s ever been.

He’d listen to your voice forever, but in that moment, he’d give anything to see your face, to see the shake of your shoulders when you laugh, the curve of your smile.

What the hell is wrong with him?

Eddie wipes his palms on his thighs before standing and walking out into the living room of his band’s suite hotel room. The guys are still up, and they’re all staring at him like weirdos.

“What?” He pauses in the doorway.

“Did you tell her you’re in love with her yet, or what?” Jeff, the electric guitarist, asks him.

“What?” Eddie says again because there’s no way he heard that right. He’d only just come to terms that he had feelings. This is much bigger.

“You’re joking,” Gareth pipes in, “you don’t even know it? Dude, you’re all ‘I miss you, trouble, you’re my favorite person ever.’” He does a knowingly terrible impression of Eddie.

“I do not sound like that.”

“You kinda do,” Jeff says.

“Why else would you be spending hours in that room on the phone, man? Come on,” Gareth sing songs the next bit: “you’re in loooove.”

Then Eddie thinks and thinks and thinks. The warmth that blooms when he hugs you, the jealousy he felt when he thought that server at Benny’s was flirting with you, the difficulty to say goodbye, the way your kiss haunts him in his sleep.

These idiots aren’t usually right about things, but just this once, maybe they are. Eddie Munson is probably, very likely, definitely in love with you.

Yeah, he’s so fucked.

♫♩♪♬

thank you so so much for reading!!! if you enjoyed please please please consider reblogging and letting me know what you think! it helps and means so much <333 i have plans for a part two, and if you’d like to see it, some support would help a bunch! ily!

[keyotos]

so it goes...

summary − what taylor swift album & song do the hsr men and their love resemble?

includes — dan heng, gepard, blade, sampo, & jing yuan!

tana’s words — self indulgent swiftie attempts to do song analysis and write romance! if u have any other ideas for hcs/fics/etc lmk in my ask box!!

dan heng

definitely belongs on the evermore album

i'm seeing long story short or tis the damn season

⎯ but most importantly: WILLOW

when she says “head on the pillow i can feel you sneaking in as if you were a mythical thing.” LIKE IS THAT NOT DAN HENG.

or i could be extremely self indulgent idk

⎯ i believe dan heng is a big YEARNER

the thing about the evermore album is that it just feels like a long and yearned reunion. it’s like coming full circle.

you and dan heng’s relationship would be similar to that. after all the long and exhausting days you two would always find yourselves circling back to each other. like, you two are both there when you two need each other.

your relationship is calm and based on pining (long story short). you would think it’s one-sided, but little did you know that it was mutual.

⎯ WHEN SHE SAYS “you know that my train can take you home. anywhere else is hollow.”

due to the both of you probably traveling on the astral express, so the both of you don’t actually have a “home.”

“you know that my train can take you home,” relates to your relationship w/ dan heng because simply your presence is his home. and it also relates to the astral express too BUT YOUR PRESENCE = HIS PEACE.

⎯ it’s literally such a small and simple thing, but it means a lot to dan heng. just having you around is like bliss to him, and it’s the little things that matter.

— the themes of coming back to a person in evermore is SO dan heng. if anything happens, you are the first person he’d check on. you are the first thought in his mind when he wakes up. wherever his mind (or body) goes, it’s always back to you. he’s completely bewitched with you. like YOU ARE THE FIRST THING ON HIS MIND.

gepard

omg he is most definitely fearless.

⎯ he’s either fearless or red but i’m definitely leaning towards fearless

⎯ if his love was to be defined in a song it would either be jump then fall or untouchable. those are the top 2.

⎯ maybe fearless…

⎯ gepard is def a fearless boy bc like THAT WHOLE ALBUM IS JUST SO SWEET. like your relationship with him would be the sweetest thing in the world.

TELL ME NONE OF THESE LYRICS RESONATE

“untouchable, burning brighter than the sun. and when you’re close i feel like coming undone.” OR “in the middle of the night waking from this dream, i wanna feel you by my side standing next to me.” - untouchable

“every time you smile, i smile. and every time you shine, i’ll shine for you. don’t be afraid to jump then fall into me.” - jump then fall

LIKE…

love w/ gepard is pure and untouchable (yes). there is nothing but love between your relationship.

he definitely admires you. he is 100% the type of person to take candid photos of you just to look at them if he’s at work. he wants to be his best for you, and he just enjoys everything about you.

the thrill of a new relationship is still alive in your relationship with gepard. it doesn’t matter if you guys have been dating for like 2 years. gepard will still get so red if you kiss him. the same exciting feeling he got every time he kissed you is still there

— every time he kisses you (which is surprisingly often; not in public tho) he gets so red. but the same warmth and giddy feeling from your first kiss is still there.

the thing abt fearless is that it’s such an innocent and cute album. it’s similar to your relationship w/ gepard in a way that your relationship captures that feeling of everlasting and innocent love.

blade

reputation. maybe midnights ngl.

⎯ reputation is one of taylor’s most romantic albums and honestly blade lowk gives me romantic energy.

⎯ i can see midnights but i think i’m leaning more towards rep here.

⎯ so many good songs on rep that could describe blade but i think i’m going to go with delicate or dress. so it goes is also a close third.

most ppl usually associate rep w feelings of revenge. but most people overlook the super sweet love songs on the album.

rep is similar to blade’s love in that way. most people overlook it, thinking that nothing more than a fling or it’s disingenuous.

however, they couldn’t be nothing but wrong. blade loves you. he cherishes you more than anyone (even you) knows.

also like REP’S LYRICS?? SO ROMANTIC LIKE

“my one and only my lifeline.” (dress).

“everyone thinks they know us.” (dress).

“even in my worst lies, you saw the truth in me.” (dress).

— does that not describe you and blade. like, he would literally do anything you say. he’d listen to you for hours and hours because nothing matters more to him then you.

— you two don’t pay attention to the rumors (that are terrible and cruel) or what anyone else says, because to blade, you being by his side is more important.

— and i think hurt and comfort would work well too. like, there could be terrible things happening rn and shit is going down. but throughout it all, you are the one constant that holds him down. through all the hazards, you still love him and he appreciates your love greatly.

sampo

— lover. i thought he’d be 1989 at first but he is definitely lover.

— i am seeing false god, i think he knows, or miss americana and the heartbreak prince.

your love would be fun and happy, much like the album lover (minus soon you’ll get better). it’s fulfilling and it always finds a way to surprise you.

— though some find parts of lover annoying (me!), they don’t really spend a lot of time to look into the lyrics of the album.

much like your love w/ sampo: people dislike him and wonder how he managed to get a girl like you to fall in love with him.

what they don’t know is that he’s (shockingly) kind?? and he cares about you?? and he remembers all the small things you like??? and he’ll always be right there when anything happens to you??

lover itself is such a cheerful and sweet album and i think it really describes his love: loud and sweet. he’ll do embarrassing things and he will probably get on your nerves, but throughout all of that he’s still caring and loving.

— “they say the road gets hard when you’re lead by blind faith. but we might just get away with it.”

— ITS SUCH A ROMANTIC AND UNDERRATED LINE THAT COMPLETELY DEFINES UR RELATIONSHIP

even though people think your relationship is set up to fail, you two are both determined to prove them wrong bc that’s how strong your love for each other is. he is never letting you go and you will do the same.

jing yuan

— midnights! no doubt abt it.

— sweet nothing, labyrinth, and MAYBE snow on the beach

— sweet nothing is HIS SONG. like THAT IS HIM.

his live is so packed and there’s so much going on. he’s juggling yanqing and generaling and it can be too much sometimes.

— “i find myself running into your sweet nothing.”

— “all that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing.”

— “and the voices that implore, ‘you should be doing more.’ to you i can admit that i’m just too soft for all of it.”

LIKEEEE. HES JUST TO SOFT FOR ALL OF IT. that’s why you’re his safe space. you never required anything from him and you just love him AND THATS ENOUGH.

he doesn’t need to be a mighty general or a strict master; he can just BE HIMSELF around you. he lets all his walls down and he’s fully vulnerable and YOU LOVE HIM LIKE THAT.

— this isn’t just a one way street btw. he loves you just as much as you love him.

there are no expectations between the two of you. you guys are such a HEALTHY couple. with all the worries in the world your love still prevails and i just think that is very sweet.

[girlkisser13]

Okay but, taking the pjo + hoo characters to the eras tour, how would it go? (Annabeth is a midnights enjoyer so true)

warnings: eras tour setlist spoilers

a/n: hey guys!!! let me know if i should do a second part or a third part but with minor characters.

annabeth chase

annabeth is 100% a midnights stan. she LOVES "you’re on your own kid". she's also a folklore and evermore stan (because of the high vocabulary). she's a closeted swiftie because she got bullied for listening to her when she was younger. when you're going to the concert with her, she definitely devises a strategy to beat the merch lines. at the concert, she wouldn't sing/yell the lyrics with you but she'd have no problem lip syncing along to the music.

annabeth is a devoted swiftie. she loves deciphering all of taylor's easter eggs and analyzing her genius lyricism. she's the swiftie who you wait for to analyze taylor's newest album so that you know what she's singing about and all of the references that she makes lmao. she absolutely slayed her analysis of ttpd and ttpdta.

frank zhang

frank is by no mean a swiftie but after you introduced him to songs like, "the archer" and "this is me trying", our boy was converted into one. i feel like frank would be a nonchalant swiftie, he wouldn't follow what she was doing 24/7 and he wouldn't like obsess over what she's going to do next. frank is soooo speak now coded (i will not he taking any questions).

frank is at the eras tour for the vibes. he’ll sing along to the songs that he knows. he’s also the designated merch holder. he’d probably dress up as joe (the hat and the denim jacket, iykyk). i feel like he’d enjoy watching the film more than going to the concert because of the difference in atmospheres. however, he still has a great time at the concert.

grover underwood

grover is a evermore stan fr. he enjoys the nature aesthetic and vibe that evermore gives off. he talks shit to anyone who thinks that evermore is her worst album. he’s only at the concert to have a good time and isn’t stressing about the surprise songs or anything like that. however, he lost his shit when taylor opened evermore with "‘tis then damn season" and when she sang "tolerate it" (it’s his favorite song).

hazel levesque

initially, hazel wasn’t a swiftie but just because taylor didn’t exist during her time. but after piper and leo introduced her to her music, hazel was converted into a swiftie. she’s a fearless and speak now stan.

hazel would be too shy to scream or yell the lyrics with you but she’d happily lip sync along to the songs that she knows. her favorite part of the concert was dressing up. the two of you spend the whole night singing, dancing, and laughing with one another.

jason grace

jason is not a swiftie but he could be converted into one if you were. he’s a folkevermore stan fr. he also thoroughly enjoyed ttpd and ttpdta. like frank, he’s definitely a more nonchalant swiftie but he would enjoy listening to your rants and predictions on what she’s going to do next.

he would dress up as the heartbreak prince to your miss americana. he would try his hardest to learn all of the lyrics to her songs so that he could sing it with you but because her discography is so vast, he printed out sheets with the lyrics on them so that he could scream her lyrics with you. he’d definitely propose to you during “love story" (if the two of you were in the that stage in your relationship).

we all know that jason emits husband energy and is a natural gentleman. so after the concert you know that that man is carrying you out of there because your legs hurt from dancing and would immediately make you some tea when you get back if you lost your voice too. he would also go and get any merch that you wanted during the concert so that you wouldn’t miss anything. like frank, jason is also at the eras tour for the vibes but he still has a great time and is thankful that he gets to enjoy this experience with you!!!

leo valdez

leo's a swiftie fr. piper introduced him to her music and they listen to her new albums together. he excessively hates all of her ex-boyfriends that treated her poorly (joe j, john, jake, etc.). he’s also 100% red coded but i feel like he also likes 1989.

leo would go all out on his eras tour outfit. he would create a unique and funny outfit or he would go as lasik taylor. he would happily join in with singing/yelling the lyrics with you. he definitely fangirls at every single song change. his favorite song to sing is all too well (10 minute version). piper also teaches him all of the chants so that he can impress you.

nico di angelo

like hazel, nico wasn’t a swiftie at first because obviously, taylor didn’t exist during the era that he lived in. but after will and piper introduced him to her music, he got converted into a swiftie. he’s a folkevermore stan fr (but more evermore than folklore). at the concert, nico would be too shy to sing the songs and he’d probably lip sync along to the lyrics when he thinks no one’s looking. he’d dress up as the reputation era just so he could wear black. he got a bracelet from someone and now wears it every single day. like frank, he’d prefer to watch the film compared to going to the concert just because he’s scared of big crowds.

percy jackson

like annabeth, percy’s a closeted swiftie because he got bullied for listening to her when he was younger. percy is a 1989 and lover stan. he’s 100% a "me!" and "you need to calm down" lover. he also LOVES taylor’s ovulation songs. (false god, dress, i can see you, etc.).

he goes all out for his eras tour outfit and probably dresses up wearing an outfit that taylor wore once and expects everyone to know when she wore it. like leo, percy fan girls at every single song change and probably screams the lyrics to her songs louder than you do.

piper mclean

piper is a HUGE swiftie. she's a pop girlie so naturally, she's a 1989 stan. i headcanon that she's a hopeless romantic so she's also a reputation and lover stan. for the longest time, she didn't believe that taylor and joe broke up. (they could never make me hate you joe!!!) she absolutely lost it when taylor annoyed 1989 tv.

the two of you guys went all out for your eras tour outfits and would probably coordinate outfits or do a cute couples outfit. she definitely gets you guys tickets in the pit where the two of you spend the whole time dancing and singing/yelling the lyrics to every single song. piper knows every single chant too (1 2 3 lgb). the two of you spent months making friendship bracelets to trade with everyone and at the end of the night, you guys traded enough bracelets to the point that they go up to your elbows. she definitely experienced gay panic during the vigilante shit choreography.

reyna ramírez-arellano

reyna is SOO speak now coded (better than revenge 👀). she’s also a reputation stan. if kanye west has a million haters reyna is one of them. if he has one hater it’s her. if he has no haters, she’s dead. reyna avila ramírez-arellano hates kanye west with a passion.

reyna would dress up as the reputation era and would probably coordinate her outfit with nico. at first, reyna would be too shy to sing along to the songs but after you danced with her a few times she began to loosen up and she ended twirling you around and softly singing along with you.

will solace

will is obviously a debut and fearless stan. i feel like he prefers old taylor over new taylor but he's still a swifitie regardless. he definitely cried when he found out that taylor didn’t dedicate a section of songs for debut on the eras tour. he’d definitely wear a cowboy hat with his eras tour outfit. i feel like he wouldn’t yell the lyrics with you because he’d be scared he’d lose his voice but he’d happily sing along with you.

[lyralit]

heartbreak prompts off taylor swift lyrics

"they tell you that you're lucky but you're so confused, cause you don't feel pretty, you just feel used" the lucky one

"you've got your demons and darling, they all look like me" sad beautiful tragic

"how long will it be cute? all this crying in my room?" nothing new

"I made you my temple, my mural, my sky...now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life." tolerate it

"no one knows how much I miss her" the very first night

"that's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend" Cornelia street

"how's your heart after breaking mine?" mr perfectly fine

"desperate people find faith" soon you'll get better

"if the story's over, why am I still writing pages?" death by a thousand cuts

"god rest my soul, I miss who I used to be" would've could've should've

"trying to find a part of me that you didn't touch" death by a thousand cuts

"I can't say hello to you and risk another goodbye" I almost do

"won't let no one break your heart...and even though you want to, please try to never grow up" never grow up

"I guess sometimes we all get just what we wanted" midnight rain

"so I'll say words I don't believe" bigger than the whole sky

"all love ever does is break, and burn, and end." begin again

"just because you're clean don't mean you don't miss it" clean

"you drew stars around my scars, but now I'm bleeding" cardigan

"I never was ready, so I watch you go" champagne problems

"I won't ask you to wait if you don't ask me to stay" tis the damn season

"wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days? always a bigger bed to climb into..." innocent

"I'd like to be my old self again, but I'm still trying to find it" all too well

"and I can go anywhere I want, anywhere I want, just not home." my tears ricochet

"should've kept every grocery store receipt, cause every scrap of yo would be taken from me..." marjorie

"so I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep, and I'll watch you forget me like I used to feel you breathe..." last kiss

[kindestofkings]

tis the damn season

robert keating x reader (she/her)

heres the requested bobby fic! reader is bobbys neighbour in dublin and they've had a situationship thats always off again on again, which ryan is v fed up with lol <3

masterlist

enjoy and also happy new year ! forgot how much I love making these so please come with some more requests, I always love getting them xxx

yourusername posted to their story!

year FIVE of working as a waitress during silly season, people need to be KINDER

yourbestfriend not all heros wear capes yourneighbour1 god bless you ↳ its been TOUGH but neighbours christmas party next week !! ↳ yourneighbour1 UGH best part of the season alsooo did I see a certain curly haired bass player make his return to the road...? ↳ feck he's home earlier than usual 😀 ↳ yourneighbour1 time to rekindle the infamous situationship??

yourusername posted to their story!

the return of the loudest next door neighbour known to man, yay 👍👍

yourneighbour1 😏😏 bobbyskeetz get rid of that sarcastic yay ryanmcmahon_15 yay my fav idiots have been reunited ! ↳ idiots? plural? why am I an idiot ryan?? ↳ ryanmcmahon_15 hmmhmm when will yee learn

bobbyskeetz

liked by yourusername and others

bobbyskeetz home.

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joshjenkinson_ lookin so mysterious and interesting xx

inhalerfan1 he is one of us

inhalerfan2 missed the intense staring since tour has ended, thanks mr skeetz !

inhalerfan3 christmas came early

yourusername smoking kills

bobbyskeetz excuse me?? I have NEVER and WOULD never yourusername big fat liar yourbestfriend y'all are the worst, every fecking christmas ryanmcmahon_15 what she said !

yourusername

liked by yourneighbour1 and others

yourusername the kids table at the neighbours christmas party is always the place to be <3

also slayed so hard with my kris kindle present he literally cried for hours 💅

view all other comments

bobbyskeetz I cried cause you threw it at me

yourneighbour1 weakling bobbyskeetz ugh thanks tho.... I guess

ryanmcmahon_15 bobby and yn being adults when

yourbestfriend but then what would happen to their beloved situationship? yourusername guys you know this is MY comment section right?

joshjenkson_ hahah the perfect gift for him

yourneighbour2 ugh BEST PARTY EVAAAA

yourusername

liked by ryanmcmahon_15 and others

yourusername and it always leads to you and my hometown

view all other comments

yourbestfriend ah ryanmcmahon_15 shes quoting tis the damn season by THE taylor swift, what does this mean?

ryanmcmahon_1 gasp not the sad tones..

bobbyskeetz confused we're from the same hometown...?

yourusername you uncultured swine its a lyric 😭

bobbyskeetzswife

liked by inhalerfan1 and others

bobbyskeetzswife OH MY GOD I JUST MET BOBBY, IM FREAKING OUT

view all other comments

inhalerfan1 no way what the hell !! where?

bobbyskeetzswife literally in Dingle, Kerry 😭😭 he said hes with the lads but they ran out of drink so he was forced to go to the shops 😭 😭 inhalerfan1 omg hahahah I can't believe they just played the 3Arena

inhalerfan2 no way wonder why they're in dingle, such a random Irish town...

inhalerfan3 that girl that they all follow is in Kerry aswell with grace (eli's girlfriend) bobbyskeetzswife is that yourusername? I wonder who she is, bobby is always interacting with her inhalerfan2 huh wonder has he got a girlfriend

graciebrns

liked by elijahhewson and others

graciebrns wholesome few days before what I've been told, will be the best party I'll ever attend

view all other comments

elijahhewson promise its not an oversell

joshjenkinson_ agreed yourusername throws a phenomenal party yourusername ah flattered lads thank you

bobbyskeetz the million hikes will be worth it

yourusername you said you loved going on hikes bobbyskeetz course I do love 😔 inhalerfan2 love ?? gathering evidence

inhalerfan1 wholesome band trip bless

yourneighbour1 woohoo almost time to partyyyy

ryanmcmahon_15 how did one row of houses produce so many party animals?

yourusername party animals okay old man bobbyskeetz just cause you can't ever keep up ryan yourneighbour1 its how we were raised 😤

yourusername

liked by bobbyskeetz and others

yourusername hot people have birthdays on nye 💅

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bobbyskeetz so feckin hot

yourusername baby stapppppp that

yourbestfriend was the BEST time ever

elijahhewson class night it was, graciebrns whats the verdict?

graciebrns best. night. ever. yourusername I love you thanks for having me <33 yourusername you kidding me? thank you for coming !!

inhalerfan1 oh hello inhaler spotted ..

inhalerfan2 not bobby on the decks

bobbyskeetz

liked by yourusername and others

bobbyskeetz happy birthday gorgeous, love cleaning up bottles with you on new years day x

view all other comments

yourusername ahhhh the taylor reference 😭

yourusername my favourite nosey neighbour <3

ryanmcmahon_15 I have never been so invested in two idiots getting together properly

yourbestfriend so insufferable its taken like 13 years for them not to be idiots yourusername and what about you two being idiots.. bobbyskeetz whats your favourite book trope again love? yourusername FRIENDS TO LOVERS BABY, take notes ryanmcmahon_15 yourbestfriend

inhalerfan1 sad sad day for the bobby girlies 💔

bobbyskeetzswife noooooooooo

finished xx

[myjealouseyes]

‘Tis The Damn Season.

Part one. HJP x wolfstar!daughter

No content warnings. Pining and a little angst.

A/N- hello! This is part one of a multi-part oneshot series based on ‘Tis the damn season by Taylor Swift. (It’s supposed to be two parts but who knows lol.) there aren’t a lot of lyric references in this part, but the next part will have plenty to make up for it I promise! Hope you enjoy!

You find that the sunset always looks best from the roof. It looks as if someone has painted the sky with precise brush strokes of orange and red that blend seamlessly. Though it’s hard to focus on that when you’re holding Harry’s hand. The way his fingers are interlaced with yours is warm, comforting, and familiar. You couldn’t fathom not being able to have this feeling at your fingertips anymore, but you’d have to make do without it soon. And crazily enough, it was completely your choice.

Your plane leaves tomorrow. You were off to study music at your dream college, just like you’d always dreamt about. Harry would catch his flight the next week, to study acting and film. At a separate College, miles away from yours. You two had been avoiding the conversation since you got your acceptance letters, ironically on the same day. You both had been so caught up in the overall joy of the moment, that you didn’t think about the separation. The bomb dropped on both of you a week later, but neither of you dared to break the bliss of the moment.

Now, here you were. On Harry’s roof watching the sunset with him. It’d be the last time for a while. Harry squeezes your hand but neither of you looks away from the sky. Even as something draws you closer and your head ends up on his shoulder you can’t look at him. A part of you thinks you should say something, reassure him and yourself that’d it be okay, but another part of you isn’t so sure you will be. You’d never been without Harry before. You’ve been attached by the hip since you could walk. He’s been the person you cried to when you were sad, the person you ranted to when you were angry, and the person who made you laugh throughout all of it. Harry knew you, and you knew him too.

“We’ll call and text. We’ll talk every day and nothing will change.” Harry says suddenly. He says it like a promise, and you find it in yourself to relax a little. Harry has never broken a promise to you. You knew that wouldn’t change just because you weren’t going to be attending school at the same place. “Nothing,” you promise back. “It’ll be just like it is now, only we’ll be a little farther apart.” Harry smiles, turning his head in your direction to kiss your cheek tenderly. Blood rushes to your face immediately, but you still look back at him. His smile is softer than usual, there’s no hidden trace of mischief or even a hint of trouble. You can’t remember a time he’s smiled at you like that before. “That’s the spirit. We’ll be back together before we know it.”

Nightfall sneaks up on you faster than it usually does. As you both climb down from the roof you catch yourself looking at Harry again. Suddenly you can’t tear your eyes away. it’s like gravity is drawing you toward his eyes, his hands, his lips, him. Your heart speeds up drastically. It’s all a little too much for you. You leaving tomorrow, the distance between your college and your home, and realizing the fact that you might like—no, love your best friend. That makes leaving feel a thousand times harder than it did originally.

Harry is smiling at you from his doorstep, his same trouble-free smile that set you off in the first place. Your heart is jumping out of your chest and screaming at you to tell him how you feel, but you can’t put that on Harry. Not when you leave tomorrow. When your heart slows down enough, you press a soft kiss on his cheek. It lasts longer than it should, but neither of you complain. When your lips leave his skin you walk across the street to your house. If you had turned around for a second look, you would have seen the way Harry’s face heated up as his eyes followed you across the road.

The next day you board your plane and the long flight passes you slowly. You spend the time napping and looking out the window at the clouds. When you land, the sun is setting. It’s duller than the ones you watched back home. Not quite as beautiful as it is from Harry’s roof, but you look anyway. For a split second, you wonder if it looks that way because you weren’t holding Harry’s hand.

[hearts4renaa]

JUST FOR THE WEEKEND.

summary: visiting your first love from your hometown is always difficult, especially when you both know you won’t be around for long. featuring arataki itto, thoma, and kaveh.

contains: 1.9k words. hurt no comfort. childhood friends to almost lovers.

a/n: i quoted lyrics from tis the damn season by taylor swift :) this honestly hurt to write, as a girl who thinks about hometowns and nostalgia very often

Sleep in half the day, just for old times sake. I won’t ask you to wait if you don’t ask me to stay.

“Y/N, I got you a farewell gift!” Itto calls out happily. The familiar voice is like music to your ears. Returning home after so long was always interesting; especially since your usual trips frequented less and less as the time went on. But either way, you would come and go. And every time, Itto would be there to greet you with a smile. Leaving your hometown was hard. Leaving him was worse. But a small town in Inazuma couldn’t bring your dreams to life. However, Mondstadt could.

Itto can’t help but feel helpless whenever you return, only for you to leave again. He wanted you to chase your dreams, but he’d just wish he’d be there for that too. Or maybe he wished you’d find a way to stay. No matter what, Itto was there, and your feelings for each other were too. But he knew you’d eventually leave - who was he to hold you back? He remembers the last night before you left. Hushed whispers and pinky promises under the stars, making you swear to visit him as much as you could. “Of course I will, you’re my best friend.” was your response. The two of you knew it was more than that, but speaking up wouldn’t have made the goodbye easier.

You smile at Itto’s enthusiasm. “Oh yeah?” Your voice has a teasing edge.

He grins back, pulling out a small gift box from behind his back. He plops himself next to you, handing you the box. You open it with a screen-worthy smile, gently pulling out the necklace inside. The chain glimmered under the sunset, the pendant shimmering in the dim light. You look closely at the engraved words. “For old times sake.” it read. You feel your eyes sting with tears, facing away from him. You blink rapidly to hold them back, clutching the necklace. “Thank you, Itto.” You choke out. Your back faces him, but you can feel the melancholy coming from his form. Silence emerges between the two of you, apart from your slight sniffles.

“…Did you ever wish you never left?” Itto’s mood is a complete 180. The two of you were now back to back, unable to see the other’s expression.

“What do you mean?” Your voice is quiet. You know damn well what he meant.

“Like, Inazuma.” He says. “Did you ever regret moving away from here? From…” He hesitates for a moment. “…From me? Or us, if we ever even had something like that.”

Your breath hitches in your throat. Of course you regret it. How could you not? Sure, your career might be booming in Mondstadt, but what’s the point of stability with no satisfaction? With no him? Leaving all you had ever known and loved for an opportunity in Mondstadt. Besides, even if things became official, who said you guys would last? You knew you’d be busy. You couldn’t have been there for him like a proper partner. If you could go back in time, you’d turn down every opportunity if it meant you could be next to him. With him. But you couldn’t dump all of that on him now.

He sighed, taking your silence as an answer. You’ve never heard him so dejected before. “It’s okay. I hope Mondstadt is doing you well.” You feel the tears begin to build up again, but you can’t stop them this time. They fall freely, like rain in the night sky. He begins to speak again. “I think we could’ve worked out, you know.”

But that’s what stings the most. He was there. In some other universe, the two of you were happy, the whole time.

So I’ll go back to L.A, and the so-called friends who’ll write books about me if I ever make it. And wonder about the only soul who can tell which smiles I’m faking.

Thoma’s arms are locked around you, caging you in as if you’d disappear forever if he dared to loosen his grip. His bedroom is silent, save for the occasional hitched breath or soft sniffle. It was your first visit to Inazuma ever since the Vision Hunt was over, and Inazuma was open again. You left not long before the initial shutdown, and you were unable to return home, finding refuge in Liyue instead. You rebuilt your life in the land of Geo, becoming a successful writer. Liyue became your home, and your time in Inazuma slowly faded from memory. But there was one thing about Inazuma that you would never forget; Thoma. How could you forget him, your first everything. Your first kiss, your first date, the first boy to give you flowers.

Above all, he was also your first heartbreak. The pain of being away from him felt like your heart was being ripped out of your chest. But as time went on, you learned to live apart. You learned to be away from him, but being in his arms again makes you feel like you’re right back at square one.

“I have to go, Thoma.” You whisper. “I have to get back home.”

“You are home.” He chuckles lightly. “This is our home.” He gestures to the space around the two of you.

You sigh shakily. “No, Thoma,” You try to get the words out. “Liyue. I need to get back to my home in Liyue.” Your eyes refuse to meet his own.

His heart shatters in an instant as the realization hits him like a boulder. This isn’t your home anymore. He wasn’t your home anymore. To Thoma, nothing screams home more than you did. Your hair, your scent, your touch. Everything about you felt like home. You were his home, but he wasn’t yours anymore. His hold on you loosens.

“Right.” He murmurs. His arms drop slightly, but they’re still wrapped around you. “Liyue.”

You reach over to remove his hands from your frame, gently grasping his wrists. Once you’re fully out of his grip, you take a step back. The space between the two of you feels like the ocean separating your respective nations. Your respective homes. The silence is deafening. Your eyes direct themselves to the floor.

“I really think you’ll change the world someday, just like you dreamed of.” His comment is sudden, but the solemn edge to his voice makes it obvious that he’s been thinking about it for a while. You glance over at him. His eyes are downcast, deep in thought. “And I’ll cheer you on the entire time.”

That comment floored you. Your tears ran freely across your cheeks, creating rivers of salt. “Thank you…” Were the only words you could choke out. The two of you sat in silence for a while, but the setting sun told you that it was over. It’s time to go.

You make your way to his door, and he seems to catch on, following behind you. “Think of me while you make history, okay?” He lets out a sad laugh. You turn to face him one last time. A wry smile etched itself onto his face. You hug him one last time. You hug him so tightly it almost seems like you’re trying to commit his body to memory. He squeezes back. His lips brush against your ear.

“Have a safe trip home.”

And the heart I know I’m breaking is my own. To leave the warmest bed I’ve ever known.

“The Akademiya is running wild over Y/N’s return.” Alhaitham mumbled, flipping the page of his book. Kaveh freezes for a moment. The pair were in the Akademiya library, each doing a personal activity. Kaveh sets his pen down, rolling up his latest project without a word. Alhaitham’s eyes look up from his book, veiled sympathy in his look. “Do you think you’ll greet them?”

Kaveh sighs softly. “I don’t know. It’s been a while.” And he was right. It’s been over a year since you graduated from the Akademiya. Beloved and idolized by so many scholars, you made the choice to leave Sumeru in hopes of traveling the world. You made the choice to leave him. Kaveh, your childhood best friend, the boy next door. The boy who saw all your worst times. The boy who cushioned every fall and lifted you up again. The boy who adored you, but was far too afraid to bring it up. The boy who loved you endlessly, even as he watched you leave, unknowing that you felt the same.

He doesn’t even get the time to fully ponder Alhaitham’s question before he notices a figure begin to near in the corner of his eye. “Kaveh,” A voice says. He didn’t need to fully look up to know it was you. Alhaitham’s eyes flicker between the two of you before he ultimately decides to take his leave, muttering a quick goodbye. Having no choice but to face you, he turns his head to look up at you from his seated position.

“Hey.” His voice is meek, as if he was afraid to overstep. You notice his awkwardness, deciding to take the seat across from him. The silence is almost painful. Anyone could tell that the tension between the two of you was so thick it could’ve been cut with a blade. “How Liyue?” He asks, finally mustering the courage.

You hum, grateful for the long awaited conversation prompt. “It’s pretty great. I got to learn a lot of things.” He sees the way your eyes have a certain shine when talking about this foreign region. It stings him to see how he used to see that shine in your eyes back in your Akademiya days. Back when you weren’t so far away. You smile softly as you retell a brief recap of your Liyue adventures.

“I’m glad.” He says. “I’m happy that you got to do what you dreamed of.” His timid smile throws you off, and you realize that the once lived familiarity between the two of you is long gone. And you know that things like that can’t just snap back after a year of each other’s absence. The silence returns. You feel as if you’re suffocating.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” You whisper.

He flinches. “Tell you what?” He’s nervous, and you can tell by the way his eyes dart back and forth anxiously.

“That you loved me.” Your eyes are like storms as you look at him. Not the thunder bringing storms, but the kind with the heavy rain where the ‘pitter-patter’ keeps you up all night. He was taken aback. Was he that obvious? Were you really able to tell? “I already know, Kaveh.” A sad smile etches itself onto your face.

“Yeah, I did.” He finally responds. You’re the one who flinches this time. Not because he admitted to it with little to no resistance, but because of his choice of words. Did. Not that he does. Past tense, did. He did love you. He loved you in the past, but he doesn’t right now. You freeze up, immediately going silent.

He takes note of your discomfort and stands up, beginning to pack up his things. “Sorry, Y/N.” He apologizes. “I have… some things to work on.” You’re silent the entire time. He carries his things into his arms before looking back down at your sitting form. He opens his mouth to speak once more. He hesitates. His mouth closes. He turns around without a word, his figure slowly but surely disappearing from your line of vision.

You sit and watch him leave, the same way he did for you.

[swayziiwriter]

Party Monster | Trent Alexander-Arnold

summary: you and Trent don’t get along, not a single bit.

WARNING: 18+, sexual content

You were here to celebrate Englands very own Jesse Lingard's birthday. The club was filled with people here to celebrate the football stars birthday, you had been good friends with Jesse for years becoming quite close with the England team. Well, at least with most.

"Happy birthday Jesse" I shouted over the loud music while giving my good friend a hug handing his gift over to him. "Ah y/n thank you" he responded grinning back, "y/n" a mocking voice called out. I was called back by the sound of Trent's voice, "Trent, I didn't realize you acknowledged anyone but your self these days" I called back. Trent smirked, as if he couldn't piss me off any further.

"Settle down you two I m not paying for any damages inside the club, you get me" Jesse said in an attempt to suffocate the tension that had now come up. "Wouldn't think of it" I respond with a smile, walking away from Trent's view I headed over to greet Marcus and his fiancée.

Damn I need a drink, I thought to myself. Something to calm my nerves. Trent was good at pissing me off, his constant remarks towards me, his mocking smirk, his annoyingly sexy smile that could make you feel things you didn't want. You would never want him, you couldn't. There has been a mutual dislike between you and Trent since you two has the great displeasure of meeting each other.

It was a petty fight that could have been easily forgotten about if Trent wasn't such a stubborn ass. He was cocky beyond belief, always a new girl tied around his finger anytime he attended a get together. You loathed the girls that he was always parading around with, they were all more obnoxious then the last one.

Trent had made a comment about how you were jealous that those girls weren't you, that really set you off. Since then you and Trent haven't gotten along, the sight of him enough to make you want to leave the country. Though, you couldn't let him ruin tonight. Tonight was about celebrating one of your best friends birthday, and you were not about to spoil a perfect night of dancing and drinking.

"A round of shots and some limes please" you ordered at the bar on a drink run for the rest of the team ready to crack down on some bets. "Lemme help you with those" Trent spoke over the blasting music. I looked over my shoulder to see Trent standing dangerously close to me, hand placed on my waist as if he was trying to claim it. I moved his hand off my waist, pushing him back with a finger.

"Leave me alone Trent, I don't know why you've suddenly become fascinated with talking to me, but i'm not having it" I replied, my voice laced with curiosity to why he was suddenly trying to make nice with me. "Can I not want to turn over a new leaf?" "Leave what happened in the past?" Trent quickly replied back.

The scent of his cologne clouding your thoughts, you needed to get away from him as fast as possible. I fully turned around, now facing him completely. "I tried that Trent and you didn't want any part of it" "well, new year new me" Trent smiled back still clung to your side, you laughed in response. "Liverpool has a better chance of winning the league this season then you "turning over a new leaf" I swiftly replied back, grabbing my tray of shots back to the group leaving Trent dumbfounded at the bar.

•

"Party monster" now blasted through the club, prompting everyone to get on the dance floor. I took a last shot of tequila before heading to the dance floor ready for a night spent with my friends partying and forgetting all about how Trent had made me feel earlier in the night.

I was between Lucia and Tolami, swaying my body to the music focusing on the lyrics. My thoughts were suddenly taken over by Trent. I couldn't stop wondering about where he was, what he was doing, or more who he was doing. I looked over to where most of the team sat, as if he had heard my thoughts, there was Trent. He was watching me, a smirk playing evidently on his face. As if his thoughts were the same as mine.

I suddenly felt insecure. Wondering how I looked right now, was my hair still in place, was my makeup still showing? I tore my eyes away from Trent, telling the girls I was getting another drink shouting over the song still playing. I felt hazy as the clicking of my heels followed my fast pace towards the bar in desperate need of something to calm my nerves.

"Can I get a cosmopolitan please" I ordered, once again faced with the bartender that had also been eyeing me the entire night. He handed me my drink grabbing my other hand as I went to tip, "I haven't seen you here before" he spoke.

Surprised by his actions, I didn't reply back right away. I laughed awkwardly, "I'm here for a friends-" before I could finish Trent ripped my hand away from the bartenders grip grabbing my waist bringing it into his. "She's here with me, you get it" he said, his hand never leaving my side.

"Low it man, I didn't know she was taken" the bartender gulped. "Yea I'm sure that was it, well now you know" "so don't ever put your hands on her again, you understand" Trent harshly said walking me away from the bar down the hallway where I was quickly pushed up against a wall.

"Trent you have no right-" I was again cut off, "I have every right when my girl is being gripped by another guy" he responded. Sliding his hand up my body, toying with the strap of my dress. I scoffed, "your girl?, when have I ever been your girl Trent" I replied, his name rolling off my mouth with a distaste.

"Don't play stupid with me y/n" "I know you saw me staring at you, I know what you felt" he whispered the last part into my ear, chills ran up my exposed back, the air suddenly becoming hot and the tension hotter. Our faces were inches apart my breathing now steady, Trent brought his hand up to my face before smashing his lips onto mine closing the gap between Us.

The kiss was demanding, hot and passionate. Trent grabbed my ass as Ilet out a gasp giving him an opportunity to put his tongue into my mouth. I barley had time for air as he recovered much faster then I did. Football gives you good stamina, "Trent" I breathed out. "Y/n" he responded back.

"I want more, I want you." I said, my voice trembling as he left open mouth kisses down my neck, moaning at the contact. His tongue worked so good against my neck, I wondered what it would be like where I needed him most. He pulled back looking into my eyes before grabbing my ass again, "get your things" he responded with a sexy smile, his eyes dark with lust.

Trent's apartment was quickly turned into a mess, our clothes scattered all over the floor as we made our way to the bedroom. Eager to feel relief and finally give into our sexual desires.

Trent was now under me, breathing heavily as our naked bodies clashed between our kisses. I made my way down his neck, leaving marks for a reminder of tonight. I then reached his abs leaving a trail of kisses down his toned chest, my nipples becoming hard as he gripped them. I placed a kiss on his hard cock, licking the pre cum that dripped down.

Trent moaned softly before swiftly flipping us over, his tall figure now looming over me. He left kisses all over my breasts before taking my left one into his mouth while massaging the right. "So good Trent" I moaned out, Trent slowly leaving my breasts.

Trent moaned softly before swiftly flipping us over, his tall figure now looming over me. He left kisses all over my breasts before taking my left one into his mouth while massaging the right. "So good Trent' I moaned out, Trent left my breast to catch my lips into another passionate kiss. "I want you y/n" Trent whispered into my chest, "then take me" I responded.

Trent lined up with my dripping pussy before thrusting harshly into me, leaving me a moaning mess at how much he filled me up. "So full Trent" I moaned out as his pace sped up hitting all the right places.

Trent continued to pound into me as he leaned down to leave kisses all down my neck as I pulled at his hair earning a low grunt that turned me on even more. I was wrapped around his dick as his hands roamed all around my body unsure of where to place them, the pleasure was too good.

"So close" I moaned out to Trent. "I know, me too" he said before grunting as we both hit a new angle making my legs shake at the feeling.

"Fuck, me Trent" I shouted praising him as I climaxed, my eyes rolling to the back of my head. My nails leaving marks down his back as he continued to chase his high.

Trent came with a loud grunt, my name falling from his mouth as he coated my walls with his thick load. He leaned down towards me before pulling out and flipping me over so that I was on top of him once again. "y/n, would you like to join me in the shower?" Trent playfully asked. "Of course" I softly replied back as I gave him a long soft kiss.

[circle-with-me]

‘tis the damn season - part 5

Pairing: Will Ramos x OFC (Gen/Viv/Vivvy)

Content Warning/Tags: 18+ MDNI!!! nightmares, psychological abuse, verbal abuse, implications of physical abuse, menacing/threatening behavior, toxic relationship with parent (father), mentions of death, mentions of car wrecks, mentions of alcoholism, panic attacks, unprotected vaginal sex, creampie.

First part of this may be rough for some but after that is pure FLUFF I swear! Tooth rotting. They’re adorable, I love them so much.

Word Count: 3k

tag list: @concretenoah @deathblacksmoke @sitkowski @bngurngheart @malice-ov-mercy @witchyweeb34 @lyschko666 @cookiesupplier @lilrubles @meekahy @lacktoesandtoddlerants @sammyjoeee @collective-heartbreak @agravemisstake @catharsis-in-darkness @0fth34byss

Authors note: PLEASE PLEASE READ THE TAGS BEFORE YOU READ THIS PART!

There is a nightmare scene that can be pretty rough for some and I want to make sure everyone is prepared. You do not have to read that part to know that is going on with the rest of the story so I have divided it up so you can scroll through it. The scene is in italics. Once you reach the snowflake divider you’ve made it to the rest of the story. Love you guys and thanks as always for reading my thing ♥️

thank you to @deathblacksmoke and @concretenoah for being the best beta readers/listening to me go on about this fic incessantly. They’re my biggest helpers and supporters and I wouldn’t know what to do without them 🤍

warning divider by @cafekitsune, snowflake divider by @saradika-graphics, t. swift lyrics dividers by yours truly

“Genevieve! Get down here NOW!” 

She stiffens at her father’s booming voice calling for her downstairs. Even with her door closed it sounded as if he was right next to her. Gen sits at the edge of her bed, dreading what would happen next. He would become angrier the longer she made him wait but fear kept her frozen.

“GENEVIEVE!” The voice boomed again. “Don’t make me come up there!”

She whimpers at the threat, knowing if she doesn’t get up immediately he’ll make good on it. Wiping the tears from her cheeks she gets up and opens her door, padding down the hallway to the staircase.

Gen stands at the top of the stairs and peers over in an attempt to catch a glimpse of him. She hears noises from the kitchen, shuffling around followed by shattering glass and a string of curses. He’s drunk, but what else is new? 

“God dammit Genevieve, you don’t fucking li-” She jumps as his large frame stampedes out of the kitchen and to the bottom of the stairs. He halts when he sees her, the fury in his eyes turning to annoyance. He grips the railing, taking a step up. 

“Mija, why did I get a call from school today telling me you’ve been skipping class?”

Gen feels her heart start to race. 

“Daddy, I-I..” She stammers, tears welling up in her eyes. “I only skipped class once so I could..”

He slams his fist against the railing and Gen freezes in place, wrapping her arms around herself for comfort. 

“Don’t lie to me, bitch.” He spits.

“I’m not lying to you, daddy! I promise. It was just one time! I wanted..”

He takes another step up.

“What the fuck is so important that you had to skip class for, huh?”

Gen whimpers, she knew he’d be furious to find out the truth but if she lied it would be ten times worse. She doesn’t even look up when she speaks.

“Tomorrow is Will’s birthday and I wanted to get him something special. He likes manga and the only place that sells it around here closes early. So, I left before the last period started so I could get there on time.” 

“You skipped school to buy that stupid boy a comic book?” Gabriel sneers, narrowing his eyes at his daughter. 

“Daddy, he’s not..”

“And whose fucking money did you buy that with?” 

“Mine.” She sniffles. “Mrs. Hart has been having some trouble getting around so she asked me to help her with some housework. I told her not to but she insisted on paying me.” 

He barks a laugh but there’s no humor behind it. In fact, it’s so cold it makes Gen’s skin crawl. 

“Always taking advantage of people. What would your mother think of you?” Gen winces. He loves to use her mother against her. “I bet you went over to the neighbors begging for money. Just like when you cry to Will about how terrible I treat you.”

Gabriel ascends the step once more, taking two steps this time. 

“Maybe I wouldn’t drink all the time or be so ‘terrible’ if I had a better daughter. Did you think of that? I lost my wife and I get to look at her spitting image every single day. You will never be half the woman she was… It should have been you that died in that wreck.”

If he had said that a year ago, his statement would have devastated her. She reasons that in some way it probably still does, but her bitterness and hatred for the man she calls her father usurps that feeling. 

Gen looks in his eyes— eyes that have been lifeless and cold for years. She knew the risks, the consequences, the days of recovery ahead of her but she didn’t care. If he was going to sink that low then so was she.

“No, daddy. You can blame your drinking on me if you want to but you had a problem long before mom died. If you weren't such a drunk that wreck never would have happened. It should have been you that died.”

Gabriel’s lips curl in anger, a snarl coming from his chest. “You little fucking bitch!” He bounds up the stairs towards her, reaching out to grab her and—

Gen’s eyes fly open and she pants looking around the room. Her vision is so blurry she can barely see anything and it doesn’t help her racing heart. She lays her head back against the pillow, trying to slow her breathing. 

“It was just a bad dream. It’s over. Breathe.” She whispers to herself. After a few minutes, she opens her eyes, her vision much clearer. She feels something shift slightly next to her and she looks over.

Beside her, as far away from her as he possibly could be, was Will. His brown eyes stare at her like she’s a wounded puppy and he wants to rescue her. From day one, he was always her protector, but he had witnessed enough nightmares to know he needed to stay away until the coast was clear.

Gen smiles meekly at him, body still trembling and tears falling freely. She stretches her arm out towards him. He was so far away from her that her fingertips barely brush his chest. 

A strangled “baby” is all she can get out but that’s good enough for Will. He envelops her in his arms, pulling her into his chest, softly kissing her face. She sobs into his arms while he rubs her back, soothing her with sweet words. 

“I’m here, baby. I’ve got you.” He whispers. 

Will doesn’t need her to tell him what happened. The whines and cries in her sleep were enough. He remembers all of the sleepless nights for both of them, navigating through the nightmares and trauma plaguing her. Will thinks about the years of nightmares she has had with no one to comfort her like he is now and his heart aches.

Gen clutches onto him, burying herself deeper into his chest, gasping sobs wracking her body. Will holds her tightly, knowing it always gets worse before it gets better. He gently strokes her hair, crooning a song he’s done his best to forget in her ear.

“I look back to the one and only summertime

When my girl was the envy of every friend of mine

She slept safely in my arms

We were so young and invincible”

Will feels her shuddered breaths calm a little. The grip she has on him relaxes, her hands still shaking but lightly rubbing at his sides. He takes that as a hint to keep going.

“Closed lips

She was never one to kiss and tell

Those trips in the summer never went so well

Young love was such dumb love

Call it what you want

It was still enough”

Gen’s body continues to calm as he sings. He stops singing and hums as he takes a peek at her. He notices she’s not crying anymore and wipes the remaining tears from her face. She cracks an eye open and sniffles, hugging him even closer and nuzzling into his neck whining for him to continue. He smiles softly. There’s my girl. He thinks.

“And it's still out of my reach

And you're still

All of the things that I want in my life

How could I ask you to leave me?”

And we were just kids in love

The summer was full of mistakes

We wouldn't learn from

The first kiss stole the breath from my lips

Why did the last one tear us apart?”

His singing becomes quieter as he processes the lyrics. They were fifteen when they first heard this song. It came out the summer they started dating and it seemed perfect at the time. Will heard it first and declared it “their song” immediately. Gen had complained at first that the song was too sad but Will told her to focus on the sweet parts. He reassured her the sad verses would never apply to them.  

Fourteen years later the realization that they not only do apply to them but almost mirror their situation perfectly was almost too much for Will to bear. 

“We're falling down

Can we pick up the pieces?

We're at an all-time low

How do we get it back?

We're falling down”

The last few words come out a cracked and broken mess as tears stream down his face. He attempts to hide his pain from Gen but she hears it and can feel his heart pounding. She looks up at him, tears of her own returning, but the look in her eyes is no longer panic. Instead, it’s heartbreak, empathy, and longing. 

Gen smiles at him, adjusting herself so that she can wrap her arms around his neck. She kisses him gently. It’s so gentle that he can barely feel it and he wants more but doesn’t want to rush her. 

They lay together, wrapped in each other’s arms for a while, their lips meeting with little intention besides soothing the other person. Will’s hands roam her back and sides, staying in neutral areas until she’s ready. 

 When Gen deepens the kiss, he lets her have control. He can feel that she needs more by the way she pulls at his neck and rubs herself against him. He smiles into the kiss and plays with the frayed ends of her shirt.

“Is this okay?” He breathes, rubbing his fingers only barely under the hem.

She nods and he slides his hand under her shirt, his thumb brushing her ribcage just under her breasts. She lifts her leg over his hip and pulls him in closer, moaning as she feels how hard he is against her. Will cups her breast in his hand while he grinds into her slowly, swallowing every moan she gives him.

“Turn around for me.” Will requests and she obliges, rotating in the opposite direction and making a point to place her ass right up against his crotch as she settles down. Will chuckles and grabs her hips, grinding into her hard. Gen giggles back at him, gasping softly. 

“Are you ready for me, baby? Need you.” He says slipping a hand in her panties and running a finger through her slit. He curses at how wet she is and quickly shoves his boxers down, hiking her leg over his. He pushes her panties to the side and slips inside of her.

Will slides his other arm underneath her and wraps it around her chest, pressing his body as close to hers as he can get. He presses kiss after kiss on her face and neck, slowly dragging his cock in and out of her. 

Gen reaches back to card her fingers through his curls, bringing their lips together. She whimpers against his mouth, begging him to go faster. Will increases his movements, the sound of her stuttered moans already forming a knot in his stomach.

“Touch yourself for me, Vivvy… please” Will pants into her neck. “Need to.. fuck, want you to finish with me.” 

Gen snakes her hand down her stomach, circling her clit with the pads of her fingers. Will watches her from over her shoulder, squeezing her hip so hard  he’ll be shocked if he doesn’t leave a mark. 

“Will.” Gen cries, moving her hips to meet his thrusts. With every new thrust inside of her he can feel her getting closer. The muscles in her belly are tensing and her legs are beginning to shake. Will watches as she practically bounces on his cock chasing her release.

“I’m here, baby. Let go for me. I’ve got you.” He coos, feeling his own climax coming on quickly. 

Gen stills in front of him, crying out his name, shaking and moaning. Will pulls her so close he can barely breath and continues thrusting until he spills deep inside of her. 

For some time, neither of them move or say a word. Will curls around her, still holding her tightly while Gen places featherlight kisses to his fingers. Both actions, while truly sincere, have hidden meanings. 

One of them is trying to keep the other as close as possible in fear of them retreating. While the other is remembering for the first time in years what it’s like to experience a safe place in the form of a person.

Gen feels the bed dip beside her and a warm hand runs up her arm. She makes a contented sound but keeps her eyes shut. Will removes his hand and replaces it with his lips, kissing up to her shoulder. 

“Time to get up, sleepy head.” He hums. 

Gen pulls the covers over her head groaning and he laughs, fighting to get them off of her. 

“Viv, It’s almost 2:30. We’ve been sleeping all day!”

The vice grip Gen has on the comforter stays as Will hears her grumbling something underneath them.

“What’s that?” He says, tilting his head and putting his ear to the blanket. “I can’t hear you, you’re gonna have to whine louder!”

A hand reaches out of the comforter and pinches Will’s side and he yelps. A satisfied snicker comes from below the fabric barrier as her hand retreats but he’s quick to grab it.

Gen squeals as he rips the comforter off of her and grabs her other hand, pinning them above her head. He watches her as she giggles uncontrollably; She’s trying, but not really to remove herself from his grasp. He kisses her face repeatedly and he lets her remove her hands so she can wrap her arms around him. 

“We need to get up, Vivvy.” Will says between pecks. 

“Whyyyy?” Gen drags out, giving him her best pout.

“Well, for one.. we haven’t eaten all day which is just not acceptable. Especially for a lazy day. And two…” He stands up and walks over to the window and peeks through the blinds. “It’s snowing.”

Gen sits up on her elbows, a baffled expression on her face. 

“And…?” 

Will rolls his eyes. 

“And.. If I recall correctly someone used to love playing in the snow. At least before she turned into a big grump.” He teases.

Gen’s eyes light up and she scrambles to the window. She looks out as Will holds the blinds open for her, noticing how much it snowed overnight. Gen estimated there were probably five to six inches outside. It was perfect for a fun day in the snow.

“Can we go outside now?” She asks, buzzing with excitement.

“Food first. Snow after.” He replies.

After they eat, Gen practically runs to get dressed, stealing clean clothes from Will’s dresser to layer with. Seeing her in his clothes, the way his sweatpants cling to her hips and accentuate her curves makes him short of breath. 

He considers the option of pulling them off of her and bending her over the dresser she was standing at but he knew not to mess with a woman and her snow plans. Even if sex was involved. Besides, there was always afterwards.

Will decides it’s best to distract himself so he walks into the living room to finish getting ready. Gen follows him shortly after, grabbing her boots and putting them on.

Will zips up his puffer jacket and turns around, watching as Gen puts on her pathetic excuse for a coat. He stands and watches her for a moment, an amused expression on his face. When she looks up, she sees him and grins.

“What?” 

“You spend a few years in L.A. and forget how to dress for the weather here.” Will snickers as he gets up and assesses her outfit. He shakes his head and tuts at her. “Unacceptable.” Gen sticks her tongue out and Will laughs as he walks to his closet.

He brings her his extra puffer and beanie, placing the hat on her head and letting her put the jacket on herself. 

“At least you brought a scarf, you monster.” He teases, fixing it around her neck. “Can’t have my girl freezing out there.”

Gen feels her cheeks flush, surprised at how quickly she accepts it. Was there a point in fighting it though? She was his girl. That had never changed, no matter how long she tried to combat it. In the back of her mind, she’s reminded this is temporary, but she stubbornly pushes it away. For once, she’s going to let herself have what she wants. 

Will zips the jacket up for her, adjusting the scarf and making sure she was nice and snug. “That’s much better.” He says as he leans in and kisses her nose. He wraps his arms around her waist and rubs his nose against hers, grinning as she giggles uncontrollably.

“Ready to go, baby?”

Gen peers around the corner of the tree she’s hiding around. Will stands a few feet away, his back facing her. She sneaks around the tree, as quietly as the crunch of the snow would allow and runs toward him, throwing the snowball in her hand at him and hitting his back. 

“There you are!” Will yells, running after her. He gathers up snow, throwing it back at her while he chases her. Shrieks of laughter permeate the cold winter air as they sprint around like little kids. Will finally catches up to her and grabs her, pulling her down on top of him.

Gen pulls down the scarf around his face, covering his face with kisses, focusing specifically on his cold red nose. She doesn’t miss the quiet giggles he lets out between each peck. His arms squeeze her tightly against him and despite the 20° temperature, she feels warmer than ever.

Will removes his arms from her suddenly and she sulks. He beams at her, spreading his arms and legs out in the snow, attempting to move them in a sweeping motion. 

“It’s very hard to make a snow angel when you’re on top of me.” 

Gen scoffs and rolls off of him, landing on her back next to him. 

“That’s the first time you’ve ever complained about me being on top of you before.”

“First and only time, Vivvy.” He winks. “Now, are you gonna make one with me or is mine gonna sit here out in the snow all by itself?”

Gen and Will make their snow angels, and Will hops up to help her off the ground. They stand in front of them to assess their handiwork.

“Looks good to me. What do you think, babe?” He asks, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

“Perfect.” Gen responds, nuzzling into his chest. “Absolutely perfect.”

[emilyhufflepufftlk]

Em's 500 Followers Challenge

Thank you again for the 500 followers, it means a lot. This is a fun challenge to celebrate and to hopefully get everyone's creative juices flowing. This is a Taylor Swift inspired challenge because I love her music and I find her lyrics make great prompts.

Rules:

It's open to anyone whether you follow me or not.

You are welcome to create whatever you like - fics, headcanons, gif sets, edits, fanart, moodboards etc.

What you create should be for/inspired by The Last Kingdom/Seven Kings Must Die but can feature any character/ship/topic you like.

For fics, you can write anything you like (angst, smut, fluff, whatever you fancy) but please tag appropriately and use readmore if it's long.

Pick a prompt from below - you can either use the song title itself as a prompt, a lyric from that song or the whole song; likewise for the albums you can use the title itself as a prompt or create something off the general vibe/colour/theme of the album (which I've included in brackets).

Please let me know which prompt you would like to use. You can have as many as you like but only two people can have the same prompt (I will cross prompts off once two people have picked them).

Soft Deadline: 1st July

Album prompts:

Debut (green, coming of age, innocence)

Fearless (yellow/gold, fairytales, teen love, first heartbreak)

Speak Now (purple, regrets, toxic relationships, growing up) @persephones-journey @mirandahamilton

Red (red, autumn, heartbreak, 'happy, free, confused and lonely')

1989 (blue, neon, new love, finding yourself, starting afresh) @geekandbooknerd

Reputation (black, revenge, secret relationships) @itbmojojoejo

Lover (pink, established relationship, love, happiness, romance) @axe-does-writing @lonnson

Folklore (grey/silver, summer, stories, forests, nature) @errruvande

Evermore (orange/brown, winter, stories, cosy cottage)

Midnights (navy blue, self reflection, late nights, past regrets) @persephones-journey @arcielee

Song Prompts:

Picture to Burn

A Place In This World @ errruvande

Cold As You

I'm Only Me When I'm With You

A Perfectly Good Heart

Fifteen

You Belong With Me

You're Not Sorry

The Other Side Of The Door

Mine @persephones-journey

Sparks Fly

Never Grow Up @ errruvande

Enchanted

Better Than Revenge

Haunted

Last Kiss

Treacherous

I Knew You Were Trouble @persephones-journey

All Too Well

The Last Time

Everything Has Changed

Begin Again @geekandbooknerd

The Moment I Knew @magravenwrites

Better Man

All You Had To Do Was Stay @ persephones-journey

I Wish You Would

Wildest Dreams @morosemagick @ persephones-journey

How You Get The Girl

This Love

I Did Something Bad

Don't Blame Me @ itbmojojoejo

Delicate

Getaway Car

Dancing With Our Hands Tied

Call It What You Want

Cruel Summer @finanmoghra

Death By A Thousand Cuts @princess--of--the--dragonstone

Soon You'll Get Better @ princess—of—the—dragonstone

Afterglow

It's Nice To Have A Friend @ persephones-journey

Daylight @ errruvande

the 1

exile @volvaaslaug

this is me trying @ princess--of--the—dragonstone

illicit affairs @ persephones-journey

invisible string

peace

champagne problems

'tis the damn season @finanmoghra

tolerate it

no body, no crime

long story short

right where you left me @ persephones-journey

Anti-Hero

You're On Your Own, Kid @ mirandahamilton

Vigilante Shit @princess--of--the--dragonstone

Sweet Nothing @timetravelingpenguin1066

The Great War

Bigger Than The Whole Sky @solinarimoon

Would've, Could've, Shoud've @arcielee

Tagging mutuals who might be interested (no pressure): @lauwrite1225 @93xdiagonxalley @trenko-heart @medievalfangirl @muddleofnervouswords @anotherwinchesterfangirl @blah-blah-blah-bla @aelswiths @eretriahs @finantheagile @halfmylife @mommytauriel @agreyraincloudd @dailytlk @chaoticdumbassary @pupzbitez @onesaltyhunter @moonlight-rider25 @charming-merlin @aadmelioraa @nanahachikyuu @lazypeachsoul @cheerylogan @mrsalwayswrite @for-bebbanburg @wildwren @naps4bats @cibs

[wongyuuu]

seventeen as songs from folklore (ts)

this is also include songs from evermore

a/n: for this, i'll be giving songs and lyrics to each of the members, as well as small plots based on those lyrics. i don't plan to write all of these, but they are still my ideas (as basic as some of them might be). so if you are interested in writing one of them, you can message me about it. if you want to read one of them you can send in a request and i'll write for you

red | 1989 | reputation | lover | folklore | midnights

• Seungcheol ➝ Champagne Problems Your mom's ring in your pocket Her picture in your wallet You won't remember all my Champagne problems ↳ you watch from afar as Seungcheol moves on with his life after you broke his heart.

• Jeonghan ➝ Gold Rush I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch Everybody wants you Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you ↳ you always took pride in the fact that you aren’t very jealous of your boyfriend, mostly because you trust him blindly. But, sometimes, you need him to remind you that you’re the only one he loves.

• Joshua ➝ ​'Tis The Damn Season You can run, but only so far I escaped it too, remember how you watched me leave But if it's okay with you, it's okay with me ↳ it’s been years since you last saw Joshua. At the time, both of you had been desperate to leave and ready to start your lives in the big city, however, you were the only one who managed to escape. Years later, you came back for the holidays and things seemed to be the exact same, including your feelings for him.

• Jun ➝ Hoax Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in Don't want no other shade of blue but you No other sadness in the world would do ↳ you knew Jun had fallen out of love with you a long time ago but still you couldn’t bring yourself to let go, having him hate you was better than not having his at all.

• Soonyoung ➝ Mirrorball And I'm still a believer, but I don't know why I've never been a natural, all I do is try try try I'm still on that trapeze I'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me ↳ Soonyoung is just tired of being the life of the party, of always being the one people go to when they aren’t feeling well because they know he will cheer them up. For once, he wished someone else did the listening and comforting.

• Wonwoo ➝ Seven Love you to the Moon and to Saturn Passed down like folk songs The love lasts so long ↳ never in your life would you have thought that you would be able to love someone but then you met Wonwoo, and he showed you just how great love could be with the right person.

• Jihoon ➝ Illicit Affairs Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me You showed me colors you know I can't see with anyone else Look at this idiotic fool that you made me You taught me a secret language I can't speak with anyone else ↳ Jihoon never thought that he would be the third person in a relationship and yet, there he is, looking at you from afar as you dance with your fiancé.

• Minghao ➝ Cardigan But I knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss I knew you'd hunt all of my what-ifs ↳ as a college student, you had a one-sided crush on Minghao. even years later, when he's no longer in your life, you can't help but compare every guy you meet to him.

• Mingyu ➝ Right Where You Left Me Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen? Time went on for everybody else, she won't know it She's still twenty-three inside her fantasy ↳ you were never ready to move on after you lost Mingyu.

• Seokmin ➝ The One I persist and resist the temptation to ask you If one thing had been different Would everything be different today? ↳ you never thought you'd see Seokmin again, but when you're forced to change jobs you discover that he is your new boss you can't help but reminisce on the past.

• Vernon ➝ August Back when we were still changin' for the better Wanting was enough For me, it was enough To live for the hope of it all ↳ you always had hope that one day Vernon would see you as more than just a friend, so when he introduces you to his new girlfriend you feel your heart break into a million pieces.

• Seungkwan ➝ Invisible String Time, curious time Gave me no clue, gave me no signs We're there clues I didn't see? ↳ since you were kids, life always found a way to put you and Seungkwan together in the same room.

• Chan ➝ This Is Me Trying I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere Fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here Pouring out my heart to a stranger ↳ Everyone always had high expectations for Chan, he was always the future of something. For once, all Chan wanted was to live in the moment, and with you, he found an opportunity to do so.

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[stop-ur-losing-me]

evermore turned 3 years old today so in honor of that here are my fav lyrics from each evermore song:

willow- "show me the places where the others gave you scars"

champagne problems- "i never was ready so i watch you go, sometimes you just don't know the answer til someone's on their knees and asks you"

gold rush- "i don't like that falling feels like flying til the bone crush"

tis the damn season- "and the heart i know i'm breaking is my own, to leave the warmest bed i've ever known"

tolerate it- "i made you my temple, my mural, my sky, now i'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life"

no body, no crime- "i ain't letting up until the day i die"

happiness- "showed you all of my hiding spots, i was dancing when the music stopped, and in the disbelief, i can't face reinvention"

dorthea- "and if you're ever tired of being known for who you know, you know, you'll always know me"

coney island- "did I paint your bluest skies the darkest gray?"

ivy- "so yeah, it's a fire, it's a damn blaze in the dark and you started it"

cowboy like me- "and you asked me to dance but i said dancing is a dangerous game" but also "forever is the sweetest con"

long story short- "fatefully, i tried to pick my battle til the battles picked me"

marjorie- "should've kept every grocery store receipt, 'cause every scrap of you would be taken from me""

closure- "don't treat me like some situation that needs to be handled"

evermore- "can't remember what i used to fight for, i rewind the tape but all it does is pause on the very moment all was lost"

right where you left me- "if our love died young, i can't bear witness"

its time to go- ""or that moment again, he's insisting that friends look at each other like that"

[allamericanb-tch]

you’re on your own kid

i just love this song. taylor swift is quite literally a mastermind.

lyrical analysis

the basic story of the song is about taylor growing up and the way that her desire to be accepted and loved manifests itself at different points in her life. it starts with her just wanting to be liked by her peers to wanting to be successful in her music.

verse 1 — the desire to be loved by a guy in her life, likely during her school years.

summer went away still the yearning stays

this is a response to the notion that something was just a "summer thing" (august reference??) and that after summer she would just get over the guy. but after summer ends, she still feels for him.

i play it cool with the best of them

this definitely isn’t the most important line, but it helps to paint the picture that taylor has idealized "the best of them" as a group of certain people and that she's trying to do the things that would make her seem aligned with them and how they behave.

i wait patiently he's gonna notice me it's okay, we're the best of friends anyway

this is a little “you belong with me” moment of pining after someone you're best friends with and telling yourself it's not a big deal because you're still friends but knowing deep down you wish it was more.

i hear it in your voice you're smoking with your boys i touch my phone as if it's your face

she's speculating on who he's with and what he's doing. he's on the phone with her but he’s high and with is friends. she touches her phone imagining what it would be like to touch him, but the only connection she has to him right now is phone calls where he isn’t presently engaged.

i didn't choose this town i dream of getting out there's just one who could make me stay all my days

this line parallels the song midnight rain (my town was a wasteland), and a little bit tis the damn season (the whole song). she isn’t satisfied with the town she's growing up in and would like to leave, but she holds back because of the possibility of being with this guy.

from sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes

i've heard a lot of different interpretations of this first line but it seems like it's basically just about the routine passage of time. from sprinklers in warm weather to fireplaces in cold weather, she's been on her own through it all. i think there could be some room for this idea of sprinklers being there to help things grow while a fireplace burns and destroys things, and life involves things being born and things dying. either way, life goes on, but no matter what point in life you're looking to, you (taylor) can't count on someone else to help her achieve your goals.

i waited ages to see you there i searched the party of better bodies just to learn that you never cared

very much "the moment i knew", of being in a crowded room looking for someone that you know well enough to care about being there but not close enough with to actually know if or when they'll arrive. taylor realizes the guy she's pining after never cared for her the way she did.

the better bodies line is pretty self explanatory but i think it's really impactful that it sounds like her body image issues started when she was younger, and group settings have long been a place for comparison.

you’re on your own kid

you always have been 

(will talk more about this later)

verse 2 —  discovery of songwriting and desire to be a performer.

i see the great escape so long, daisy may

so i googled the name daisy may of course, and there were some theories that it may be referring to daisy may cooper, or hinting at the name of blake lively and ryan reynolds's fourth baby. but neither of those really make sense to me in the context of that lyric. this specific line is intended to be something young taylor says back then, as in it was young taylor who bids farewell to daisy may, not the 2022 taylor. neither the actress/comedian nor an unborn baby of people she wasn't friends with then make sense in that context to me.

i think that it refers to margaret march from "little women" by louisa may alcott. margaret had two nicknames, meg for her family and daisy for her rich friends. (daisy was a common nickname for margaret in the 19th century). i absolutely love the 2019 greta gerwig film adaptation of little women, but i’ve never read the book and i know they have a lot of differences, so i’ve looked at some literature websites to aid with my research.

meg's character arc throughout the book is her dreaming of a rich husband, of the luxuries in life and her character development where she grows out of it. from all four of the sisters, meg is the most traditionally feminine - she's beautiful, and a proper good girl by the standards of that time, she's a romantic who wants to marry a man she loves, her rich prince charming. she has a phase where she mingles extensively with the affluent crowd who call her by the nickname daisy. however she soon realises the downside of that life, falls in love with a poor tutor and learns to appreciate the simpler pleasures of life, and has a happy married life with many kids. 

i think the young romantic girl from this song relates to this arc, wanted the same things for herself. however the boy she loves loves her not (more on this later) and she realises that the only reason keeping her in town was moot. she finds a different path, her art, and through that her great escape from the original life she had imagined for herself. i'm not sure if her choice of daisy instead of meg has any significance. as in whether she's saying so long to the version of meg who wanted luxuries and to be in rich circles.

this is kind of a stretch, but daisy may also sounds a little bit like dismay, and she's bidding adieu to dismay by escaping the town like she always dreamed.

but outside that context it might just be a reference to a name that talks about a pretty flower and the month of may and this idea of always needing to seem happy a cheerful, but songwriting has given her a cathartic way of being honest and not always people pleasing. this is emphasized by the image of picking petals off a flower and defacing its beauty. or i’m just way overthinking it.

i picked the petals, he loves me not something different bloomed

this is the whole "he loves me, he loves me not" thing people would do with flowers and she's come to the conclusion that he doesn't love her, and realizes that something else was more important to her.

writing in my room i play my songs in the parking lot i’ll run away

very literally she learns to spend her time alone in her room writing songs. she also literally played songs in parking lots at state fairs and the like. "i'll run away" connects to "great escape" as the means for her to get out of her town.

i called a taxi to take me there i search the party of better bodies just to learn that my dreams aren't rare

you're on your own, kid you always have been

i think that the taxi is mentioned because she either wasn't old enough to drive to her destination or would be drunk. she's at a party full of other aspiring singers, and she again does the "better bodies" self comparison, but also realizes that there are so many other people out there who have the dream that she does. because she knows that every other person seems to want to be a singer, she's on her own in standing out with this dream.

the bridge/outro — basically this climax of her career success and her reflection/advice when she thinks about all it took to get there. i think a lot of these lines are just one off sentences and not necessarily continuations of one another. (think the bridge of champagne problems. "november flush and your flannel cure" doesn't lead into "this dorm was once a madhouse.")

from sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes

i gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this

i hosted parties and starved my body like i'd be saved by a perfect kiss

the jokes weren't funny, i took the money

my friends from home don't know what to say i looked around in a blood-soaked gown and i saw something they can't take away

cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned everything you lose is a step you take

so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it

so, the first time i listened to this song, i thought each line corresponded with one of her eras. 

from sprinkler splashes — debut

to fireplace ashes — fearless

i gave my blood sweat and tears for this — speak now 

i hosted parties — red

and starved my body, like i’d be saved by a perfect kiss — 1989

the jokes weren’t funny i took the money — reputation

my friends from home don’t know what to say — lover

there were pages turned — folklore

with the bridges burned — evermore

everything you lose is a step you take — midnights

i LOVE the way that this flips the story just a bit. she's now the one hosting the parties, which you would think would come from a place of feeling established and comfortable, but she's starved her body to try to be good enough, and she's realizing that she did all these things because of some kind of distorted fantasy of what a relationship might be.

i think the ending lines (i looked around in a blood soaked gown and i saw something they can’t take away) go together as the "they" pronoun seems to refer to "my friends." the blood soaked gown is definitely a carrie reference, like blood was poured on her and she was embarrassed and her friends have no idea how to relate to her experience, such as the incident at the VMAs. 

i also think there's a contrast she's making in that it seems her friends "don't know what to say" because of the "blood soaked gown" but meanwhile taylor is looking around and she's seeing something other than the blood soaked gown. this is back to "blood, sweat, and tears" where she has worked so hard that she's almost unrecognizable to the people she grew up with, but she's not concerned about the thing that's horrifying everyone else, since she can only see the accomplishments she's reached. the blood that makes people wanna look away is often what's necessary for us to reach our goals.

i love that she acknowledges that there were hardships (the aforementioned blood) but that with every failure or bump in the road it allows her to move forward and grow. "pages turned" as in your (her) story still progresses, "with the bridges burned," even when opportunities feel like they're closed. every time you feel like you've lost or fallen behind, that's just another step forward in your journey.

so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it

this is probably my favorite line from this song. i just feel like there's such a tendency when you look back on your life, especially your youth, to roll your eyes and to feel like you wasted so much time being preoccupied with whatever thing. and someone hearing this song could definitely feel like taylor messed up by being obsessed with some guy in her town or telling bad jokes for a paycheck. but what taylor is saying here is that you don't need to live your life being paranoid about whether what you're doing is contributing to some ultimate goal, and if it isn’t, feeling like you’re wasting your life and losing so much time. she’s saying that everything that feels like a setback or a distraction at the time are the things that get us to where we need to be.

friendship bracelets are often seen as childish expressions of desires like "we'll be best friends forever!" when you're like 7 years old. and from someone like taylor who had a hard time making friends growing up, it could be really easy to say "yeah that doesn't matter just focus on your career." but what she's saying instead is do the childish things. do the stuff that matters to you in the moment. you don't need to feel like every decision you make is life or death. enjoy the journey, because the pages are turning no matter what.

you've got no reason to be afraid you're on your own, kid yeah, you can face this you're on your own, kid you always have been

turning the title on its head. being on your own seems like something scary and pessimistic but what she's saying is that's always how you're gonna be and you're gonna be okay because all you need is yourself to face the things you're gonna face. 

she also talks a lot about this in her speech at nyu. there are so many parallels between this song and her speech.

final thoughts 

this song is obviously a look back on her life, the disappointments and mistakes she's made over the years. from the first verse, it's very reminiscent to her debut and fearless eras. even in her singing style is nostalgic of her early days as a musician.

in the second verse, she alludes to escaping her hometown and shedding innocence. and apparently a “daisy may” is considered a nice and obedient girl (her apparent change of persona from speak now to red.) the picking petals from disappointment (being rejected) to something different blooming (her music) is just written so cleverly? i just love it.

i love how the instrumentation evolves along with the lyrics. at first, its so soft and simple. just the basics of an acoustic song. but piece by piece, detail and other instruments are added. you can actually chart this song and identify which era she's going through now with it.

in the second verse, more complex backgrounds are added, also more drums. in the chorus after that, the crescendo that they're building is more obvious.

i like to look at this song as one drawn out crescendo. you don't notice it at first because the changes are small and then it comes to a point where you can't ignore it anymore. this is the instrumentals before the bridge. we're so far away from the sound of the intro now that it’s almost a different song, if not for the same chords being used all throughout.

the drums in the instrumentals feel so reminiscent of out of the woods, just softer and less tribalistic. then the snare. it feels like a snap. we then get to the bridge and it feels so cathartic (we know taylor loves to write a cathartic bridge), like all of those pent up emotions are finally being released now. taylor's voice has also taken a fuller quality, her iconic layered background vocals that slowly gets louder. her tone is gradually getting more intense, and almost screaming in places, is really cathartic. everything at this point is now much louder than when we started. then it drops, with a peculiar buzzing sound. everything about this song is done so intentionally and so masterfully that it’s becoming one of my favorites from this album and maybe all her albums.

anyway, those are my takes. i love that supercut-esque jack antanoff synth before the final chorus.

actual final thoughts

you’re on your own kid isn’t for people with big friend groups. it’s for the people who felt like they never had a best friend, for people who have always struggled to make friends and keep them. it’s for those who cry on their birthday every year because they realize only a handful of people care about them. it’s for the people who have never been anyone’s number one and for the people who have never had someone be in love with them but yearn for romance so desperately. you’re on your own kid is for the people who have learned to be comfortable alone because they had no other choice. 

[my-castles-crumbling]

favorite lyrics from evermore(the album as a whole, not just the song)? <3

oh babe the DOOR YOU OPENED. SO MANY FUCKING BANGERS.

willow: show me the places where the others gave you scars

champagne problems: she'll patch up your tapestry that I shred

gold rush: I don't like that falling feels like flying till the bone crush

'tis the damn season: the only soul who can tell which smiles I'm faking

tolerate it: what would you do if I break free and leave us in ruins, took this dagger in me and removed it, gain the weight of you and lose it, believe me I could do it.

coney island: sorry for not winning you an arcade ring

long story short: long story short, I survived (I have a tattoo of this)

closure: I know I'm just a wrinkle in your new life

right where you left me: help, I'm still at the restaurant, still sitting in a corner I haunt

it's time to go: sometimes giving up is the strong thing, sometimes to run is the brave thing, sometimes walking out is the one thing that will find you the right thing

[catastrophicgay]

Dorothea x Augustine Theory!!!

Something has been bugging me about the resolution to the folklore love triangle.

We know that Augustine doesn't end up with James, but that Taylor does think she deserves to find love in the end. What if she does?

We also don't know who Dorothea's narrator/lover is, and it seems strange to me that Taylor would leave this character completely unnamed, a complete mystery.

But who is the only other character implied to have a happy ending but who's future is left mysteriously open-ended? Augustine.

Disclaimer, I'm aware that evermore is a collection of stories independent from folklore. However, since Taylor has confirmed Dorothea and Augustine attend the same school, I'm assuming they must have known each other somehow. I'll also be explaining how Dorothea's songs from evermore and the love triangle songs from folklore are intertwined.

Buckle up because this is a long one. But it is color coded! And gay! So there's that.

Here's the evidence I've compiled for each song:

Dorothea

damn, Dorothea They all wanna be ya But are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers?

We know that this song is about a high school relationship (and likely ongoing after graduation), meaning it's fully possible for it to be from Augustine's perspective, as her fling with James only lasted for one summer.

Skipping the prom Just to piss off your mom And her pageant schemes

This line implies some sort of disapproval from Dorothea's mom of their relationship, as well as the fact that they couldn't or didn't want to go to prom together. These lines along with the meeting "under the bleachers" adds to the forbidden romance themes that definitely have queer undertones to me. This is also one of the only described relationships that walks the line between romance and friendship, adding to the queercoding.

The 1

Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool And if my wishes came true It would've been you

I feel that the general consensus is that this song is about James. However, couldn't be about Betty and James, since Taylor has explained that they do stay together.

What's more, the "roaring 20's" seems incredibly inconsistent with this theory. It could mean time period, but the phrase refers to the 1920s, which doesn't make sense considering lyrics like "meet some woman on the internet." If it refers to age, it has to be about Dorothea and Augustine, since James and Augustine got together and broke up as teenagers.

Since the tone perfectly matches the mournful longing tone of the previously mentioned song, dorothea; the 1 could be a role reversal. A perspective switch of a jaded Dorothea singing about Augustine after having to leave. Here are some lyrical parallels that drive me insane:

The 1: I guess you never know, you never know

Dorothea: Oh, I guess I'll never know

The 1: I have this dream you're doing cool shit Having adventures on your own

Dorothea: You got shiny friends since you left town A tiny screen's the only place I see you now

'Tis the Damn Season

We could call it even You could call me babe for the weekend

There's so much gay in this song I'm not even sure where to start.

First off, he idea of calling their friend "babe" for the weekend has undeniably sapphic undertones to me. I mean, think about it. Straight crushes doing something like that would be seen as undeniably romantic, with none of the ambiguity and tension from the first Dorothea song. Girl friends calling each other by pet names is something that has probably been the bane of every sapphic's existence at some point. Myself included, obviously.

'Tis the damn season Write this down I'm stayin' at my parents' house

Something about taking very traditional values like the holidays, and cursing them, keeps so well with the theme of small town gays.

As for the following two lines, I don't see these being relevant to the song if not as a warning. We've already unpacked how it's very likely Dorothea's parents don't approve of her close relationship with Augustine. Later in the song, these lines add to that theme:

The holidays linger like bad perfume You can run, but only so far I escaped it too, remember how you watched me leave

Back to the chrous, this interpretation is only exacerbated with the next line:

And the road not taken looks real good now

This is line of the biggest clues to me, and for a couple of reasons. I think it's fairly apparent that the road not taken is an analogy used to describe unconventionality, and it is very often used to reference queerness in that sense. This coincides perfectly with Augustine and Dorothea's secret relationship and how others disapprove.

But this line also serves as more evidence that Augustine and Dorotheas songs are intrinsically linked. This song is very clearly sung from Dorothea's perspective. And in a song very clearly sung from Augustine's perspective, this line shows up.

Illicit Affairs: Take the road less traveled by

To me, this shows the contrast between Augustine leaving her relationship with James to entering (and re-entering) her relationship with Dorothea. James casts Augustine off to take the road by herself, to hide from society's disapproving glare. But Dorothea chooses takes that road with Augustine. Their relationship has Augustine hiding her love once again, but this time she's not alone.

There's an ache in you put there by the ache in me

The central theme in their relationship I've just explained is also very present in this line, as it is in the following song.

Exile

You're not my homeland anymore So what am I defending now? You were my town Now I'm in exile, seein' you out

This song is about Dorothea and Augustine's relationship coming to an end when Dorothea has to leave their town to pursue her dreams. While this song is sung from the perspective of two characters, assumedly representing Dorothea and Augustine, I'll focus mainly on one. From Augustine's perspective, we see her suffer through the same heartbreak that she did when her secret relationship with James came to an end, hence the lines:

I think I've seen this film before And I didn't like the ending

This song proves to me that Dorothea and the folklore love triangle must be connected, there's no denying that the lyrical parallels between Dorothea's songs and exile are unmistakable.

Exile: To pack us up and leave me with it

'Tis the Damn Season: To leave the warmest bed I've ever known

Exile: You're not my homeland anymore / You were my town

'Tis the Damn Season: It always leads to you in my hometown

Exile: Like he's just your understudy

Dorothea: And you'll go on with the show

Exile: Second, third, and hundredth chances

Dorothea: It's never too late to come back to my side

Exile: Those eyes add insult to injury

Dorothea: The stars in your eyes shined brighter in Tupelo

Exile: You didn't even hear me out

'Tis the Damn Season: Now I'm missing your smile, hear me out

Since dorothea and 'tis the damn season take place after exile, this song is here to establish the cracks that broke down their relationship in the past and how they are mended in later songs.

Gold Rush

What must it be like to grow up that beautiful? With your hair falling into place like dominoes My mind turns your life into folklore I can't dare to dream about you anymore

I'll say it, this might be the most queercoded song on the album. The theme of envious attraction, being unable to tell if you want someone or want to be them, and having to hide from your feelings all the while because you know you can never truly have a future with them... I cannot be the only one who sees it.

To me, this is about when Augustine first starts developing feelings for Dorothea. I've seen people argue that if this is connected to the folklore love triangle, that it must be Augustine singing about James. However, the only connection the evermore songs have to folklore Taylor has specified is the character of Dorothea, so it doesn't make sense for there to be an evermore track about two characters from folklore.

I don't like anticipating my face in a red flush I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch Everybody wants you Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you

The love interest being this attractive character that everyone is drawn to makes perfect sense for Dorothea, as we know she eventually moves to Los Angeles and becomes a star.

Not only must this song be about Dorothea, but being the only song that directly references folklore heavily implies that is must be connected to one of its characters in some way, namely Augustine.

I see me padding 'cross your wooden floors With my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door At dinner parties I call you out on your contrarian shit And the coastal town we wandered 'round had never seen a love as pure as it And then it fades into the gray of my day old tea 'Cause you know it could never be

The most curious part of the song is that when the narrator finally allows herself to imagine a future with the person she loves, she quickly remind herself that "it could never be," and that the object of her affections knows this as well.

All that the narrator, Augustine, wants is to have a comfortable and happy future with Dorothea, but she cannot bring herself to imagine the two of them ever finding this coastal town that sees their love as "pure." This hopeless and resigned tone about her assumedly unrequited love and unattainable dreams is exacerbated in the final chorus when the lyrics change to "the coastal town we never found will never see a love as pure as it."

Also, I feel the need to point out a few lyrical parallels because:

Gold Rush: Walk past, quick brush

'Tis the Damn Season: It's the kind of cold, fogs up windshield glass But I felt it when I passed you

Gold Rush: My mind turns your life into folklore I can't dare to dream about you anymore

Dorothea: I have this dream you're doing cool shit Having adventures on your own

Gold Rush: And the coastal town we wandered 'round 

'Tis the Damn Season: And it always leads to you in my hometown

Invisible String

Green was the color of the grass Where I used to read at Centennial Park I used to think I would meet somebody there

Anddd we're at the final song! Fittingly, I believe this song is from the perspective of Dorothea after she and Augustine reunite, wrapping up their story with a happy ending.

And in true full-circle Taylor Swift fashion, their story ends the same way it starts, with Centennial Park. If you don't recall, dorothea starts with these lines:

Dorothea: Hey Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me? When we were younger, down in the park

And this isn't the only recall to Dorothea's evermore songs. Almost every line in this song references a line in one of the previous songs that I've analyzed!

Teal was the color of your shirt When you were sixteen at the yogurt shop

Remember the "eagles t-shirt" from gold rush? Taylor confirmed this was a deliberate reference to the Philadelphia eagles, who's team color is teal. Again, this song could only be about dorothea's narrator, Augustine, as gold rush is from evermore while invisible string is from folklore, and Dorothea is the sole connection between the two albums.

Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs Were there clues I didn't see?

This is a direct parallel to exile, where Dorothea laments over how Augustine "never gave a warning sign." But now the tone has shifted, and she readily admits that maybe she had missed the signs all along, and looks back on the nature of their relationship as fateful rather than chaotic.

All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me

Sound familiar? Even though Dorothea has tried to leave in the past, time and time again, it always leads back to Augustine and their hometown.

On your first trip to LA You ate at my favorite spot for dinner

In the end, it seems like Dorothea does end up leaving back to LA, like she says at the end of 'tis the damn season. But this line implies that the leaving wasn't necessarily marking a bad ending to their relationship. It implies that Augustine comes with her, and they finally get that coastal town they had always wanted but never thought they could have. Outside of the pressure of their small town, they can finally host their dinner parties and voice their contrarian bullshit.

Bold was the waitress on our three year trip Getting lunch down by the lakes She said I looked like an American singer

To me, this line solidifies the idea that this folklore song is about Dorothea. No other character in either of the albums is implied to be famous and have a performance career, which narrows the possibilities to just about one person. And this "three year trip" makes perfect sense for Dorothea, who Augustine says never liked the stuffiness of their hometown.

Chains around my demons, wool to brave the seasons One single thread of gold tied me to you

"Wool to brave the seasons" seems to me like a reference to not only 'tis the damn season, but the album cover of evermore as well.

The color of the invisible string that ties the two together being gold also seems to be a reference to gold rush. The East Asian folk myth the song is based off of describes a red string, not a gold one. So if the color were to be changed, it would have to have been very deliberate. And this theory is only reinforced with the next line:

Gold was the color of the leaves When I showed you around Centennial Park Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven

Another reference to gold, and another reference to Centennial Park. The description paints a picture of the so called gold rush that Augustine had been trying to avoid, being finally embraced by the two of them.

The song offers one final parallel to close this analysis off:

'Tis the Damn Season: But if it's okay with you, it's okay with me

Invisible String: And it's cool, baby, with me

Thank you so much for sticking with me for this whole analysis! I would love to hear what theories or criticisms you guys have as well.

I did make the songs out of chronological order for a smoother analysis, but if you're confused about the timeline, here's a playlist I made of all the songs I find to be part of their story, including some that I have not analyzed here. It starts with James and Augustine's relationship in mirrorball, and continues from there in chronological order.