#open heart rafael

[cadybear420]

Well this was the perfect opportunity for PB to let me go wrist-deep into him in another way that is indeed very intimate, but of course they won't let me do that :(

[toolaterer]

congrats what a fighter you are rafael nadaaaaaaaal i love you🙏🙏🙏😇😇😇🤍🤍🤍🩵🩵🩵

[peonyblossom]

also wtf why was rafael not in OHOF at all. fucked up

[griffinsboyfriend]

Thank you @hydn-jpg for another fantastic Choices fan art!! These are the best boys from Open Heart!

Rafael Aveiro, my male MC (Vincent Valentine), and Bryce Lahela!

I love this specific friend group so much. That male bond between three queer men is something no other book has replicated iirc, so this is special to me! Regardless of any feelings between the three, their friendship is paramount!!

Send Hayden love and more~!!! :D

[choicesficwriterscreations]

Open Heart F/AtoW: Aug 25 - 31, 2024

✒️ = Fanfic | 📱 = Text Fics/Edits | 🎨 = Fanart Ⓜ️ = Mature Content 18+ | 🔥 = Explicit/NSFW 18+ 🏳️‍🌈 = LGBTQIA+

ETHAN RAMSEY

Haunted ✒️Ⓜ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC - @coffeeheartaddict2

In a Mood ✒️ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC - @cariantha

Reactions Over Text 📱 | Ethan Ramsey & Sienna Trinh - @jamespotterthefirst

Where It All Began ✒️ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC - @potionsprefect

RAFAEL AVEIRO

How Will I Live Without You (Series) ✒️ | Rafael Aveiro x F!MC - @rafasgirl23415 Part 2 Part 3

SIENNA TRINH

Cookies 📱 | Sienna Trinh - @liaromancewriter

Dr. Sienna Trinh 🎨 | Sienna Trinh - @lilyoffandoms

First Day ✒️ | Sienna Trinh - @liaromancewriter

Reactions Over Text 📱 | Ethan Ramsey & Sienna Trinh - @jamespotterthefirst

Sienna's Dream Kitchen 📱 | Sienna Trinh x M!OC - @liaromancewriter

Sienna Geometric Art 🎨 | Sienna Trinh - @storyofmychoices

The Sweetest Friend ✒️ | Sienna Trinh, Aurora Emery & F!MC - @jerzwriter

TOBIAS CARRICK

Round Two (Series) ✒️ | Tobias Carrick x F!MC - @jerzwriter Part 1: Christmas Present Part 2: Ready or Not Part 3: Slice of Happiness

Welcome Brooke Vivian Carrick! 🎨📱 | Tobias Carrick x F!MC - ArtbyAinna (IG) C: @jerzwriter

Main F/AtoW List: Aug 25 - 31, 2024

[linkysmommy]

Excited to let everyone know that I've finally finished my Open Heart Storyloom fic! It took me a while with all the different romance variants, but it's finished now. Shout out to my friends Orc and Shionch for continually getting after me to finish, and for helping me with the final romance variants when I was oh so stuck.

You can play the full story here if you're on PC, or if you're on mobile, can find it on the Storyloom app by searching "Open Heart: A Toxic Situation." I hope you enjoy this little story I've put together, and thanks to everyone who's read it ❤️

Note: There is currently a bug in the final chapter where Asian MMC is Hispanic MMC. The fix has been submitted, but it won't be live until tomorrow, most likely.

[openheartfanfics]

Newly Added Fics

Jul 6 - 12, 2024

🎭 Angst  |  🦚 Angsty Fluff  |  🛸 AU  |  ☁ Fluff  |  ♥ NSFW  |  📚 Series  |  📷 Edit  |  📱 TextFic  |  Ⓜ Mature

Bryce x F!MC

A Text of Reassurance - @storyofmychoices 📱

Olivia is feeling a little insecure so she texts Casey hoping to get some reassurance. Feat. Tobias Carrick x F!MC

Ethan x F!MC

Scratching the Itch - @cariantha 🦚Ⓜ

Sexual tension builds between Ethan and Sawyer in the weeks following their trip to Miami. [1.13]

Part 2

Kyra Santana

Beautiful Day - @liaromancewriter 🦚

When Kyra feels sorry for herself, a friend changes her perspective. Feat. F!MC

Rafael x F!MC

How Will I Live Without You - @rafasgirl23415 🎭🛸

Casey is finally in her final weeks of pregnancy as she faces the prospect of giving birth without Raf by her side.

Part 1

Tobias x F!MC

Anticipation - @alj4890 ☁

Tobias and Chris are about to have the first member of their family. [Domestic; Pregnancy]

Elmo's Special Visit - @storyofmychoices ☁

Olivia has two special guests join her in the Peds Ward! Feat. F!OC [Platonic]

Game On - @alj4890 ☁

It would take a lot to get Chris this violent, like, say, someone not only manipulating her but also hooking up with a doctor she's fallen for. Feat. June Hirata [2.8]

Movie? What Movie? - @jerzwriter ☁

Tobias & Casey are officially together and happy to be out in the open... but does that leave anyone safe? Join them on date night and find out.

Oops - @alj4890 ☁

Chris gets unexpected news. [3.10; Pregnancy]

Special Delivery - @jerzwriter ☁

Tobias is the first one home, and when the lights go out, he accidentally opens the wrong package, and he's in for quite a surprise.

The Dinner Party - @alj4890 ☁

Tobias invites the Diagnostics team for dinner.

You Heard, What! - @alj4890 ☁

When Tobias overhears something interesting, he goes directly to the one person he can tease.

Other Tobias Fics

Summer Haze - @jerzwriter ☁

Tobias Carrick wasn't known for taking relationships seriously - at this stage of his life - he was there for a good time, not for a long time. Feat. F!OC [Young Tobias]

_

SUBMIT OPEN HEART FICS & WRITERS HERE

[sazanes]

"As you help Vovó put the sweets on the table, you catch Rafael watching you… Even after all these years together, you still feel butterflies in your stomach when you see him."

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you all peace, love and health!🥰

[playchoicesconfessions]

Sent by anonymous

‘Okay, Ethan is cool and all... but how about we spread some love about Bryce, Jackie, and RAF as well :)’

POST/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE MOD’S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

[cadybear420]

I am looking... respectfully...

[toolaterer]

のるであ公式のこれ、このペースで一年といわず永遠に続けてほしい。

[mydemonsdrivealimo]

Your Death, Your Dog, Your Declaration

Chapter 1/?

Book: Open Heart

Pairing: Bryce Lahela x Jensen Valentine (M!MC) (Not official/eventual)

Characters: Jensen Valentine, Bryce Lahela, Keiki Lahela, Sienna Trinh, Rafael Aveiro (mentioned)

Rating: Mature

Words: <2k

Series Summary: The chemical attack, as told in the world of Jensen Valentine and those close to him.

Chapter Summary: The night of the chemical attack hit Bryce hard. Harder than the victims on death's door. He's guilty, and it's killing him.

A/N: this piece will be dual/multi POV, so while this starts with Bryce, look forward to the others!!

~~~

1:04 AM

Out. 

In. 

Out. 

In. 

Out. 

In. 

Out…

In. 

Still 1:04.

Out. 

In. 

Out. 

In. 

Out. 

In. 

Out. 

In. 

Out. 

In… 

Out. 

In. 

Out. 

In. 

1:05 AM

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9—shit. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10...11...12...13...14. 56.

1:06 AM

“Stop doing that, I’m not dead yet,” Jensen grumbled sleepily, yanking his hand back into his lap.

“Sorry,” Bryce replied. His tone was more lifeless than Jensen looked, tired and dejected.

Jensen rolled over, facing him. “You know it’s right there for a reason, right?” He said it with hardly a glance at the heart rate monitor, too exhausted to manage more. 

“Just keeping myself busy,” Bryce answered. “You should go to sleep.”

“Really?” he quipped, fast and sharp as always, “I hadn’t thought of it.”

It earned him a grin—a real one, as difficult as it was—but it faded just as fast. Bryce took Jensen’s hand again, playing with his fingers and holding extra tight, the gloves making it impossible to feel the dryness of his hands. They were always scratchy and rough from washing and sanitizing tens of times in a day, fingers calloused on the ends. His nails, painted a dark blue, were starting to chip. Would the embalmers take it off or repaint them?

Jensen shook him off, reminding him again that he wasn’t gone yet, and fidgeted with the blanket over himself. He ran the texture between his fingers. 

“Do you want to be cremated or embalmed?” Bryce asked. He still watched his hands, distracted.

“Oh, cremated, for sure—unless I can haunt Ethan, that is.”

There was a lightness to Jensen’s tone, seeming as monotone and factual as usual, but the ludicrous theory giving away to Bryce that he was joking. 

“I’m being serious.”

As he looked back up, Jensen’s eyes were a flat, solid shade of unforgiving, boring brown. No depth to the green hues Bryce could catch in the afternoon sunlight—just as sterile as the fluorescents illuminating them.

“If you keep acting like I’m dead, I’m going to kick you out. You’re supposed to be the optimist here, this is completely backwards.”

Bryce took a breath, looking down at the large, clunky suit he donned. “...I know. I’m trying.”

“Try harder. We could be talking about anything and you’re worried about my not-guaranteed funeral.” He said the next part in a mocking tone—a phrase Bryce had said plenty of times. “Not very ‘go with the flow’ of you.”

“How are you being more chill about this than I am?”

“Because I’m fine.” And the undeniable way he said it made it feel like the truth. Even with the dark circles under his eyes, and the exhaustion he couldn’t shake, it felt true. “If I die, oh well. Life moves on—it’s not like I’ll know it.”

As much as Bryce wanted to argue, wanted to correct the flaws in his thinking, he didn’t want to strain him with an unnecessary effort to defend himself. He was there to comfort him and that’s what he would try to do. “You seem more comfortable talking about death than you do small talk.”

Jensen's laugh turned into a cough, far into his chest with an agonizing sound that had Bryce reaching for the emesis basin. He waved him off, taking a sip of his water before settling back in the bed.

“It’s not the first time I’ve thought about it,” Jensen replied, a little more serious, a little more real.

Bryce gave him an inquisitive look, but Jensen just responded with a tired head tilt that meant he could interpret it however he wanted. He didn’t. 

Maybe he should. Maybe it was naive to have hope, but he would wait as long as he had to for Jensen to tell him what that meant. What any of it meant. All the vague references and to-himself jokes that Bryce didn’t understand—he wanted to. He wanted to know every detail of him: what built him and what broke him.

Once again playing with Jensen’s hands, a gentle encouragement to lull him to sleep, he recalled a night at Donahue’s like the others. The group shared stories from undergrad, their drunkest and most embarrassing moments, but Jensen had been utterly silent. Not that it was far out of character, but when multiple opportunities were presented to make fun of Landry and he took none of them, Bryce was going to notice.

It was also easy to recognize when he had been perfecting it himself for years. He remembered trying to stay quiet in an effort to go unnoticed, but that method never worked well given how often he was the one talking. For Jensen, it was believable; it was a perfectly practiced way to hide something.

But Bryce’s eyes had always been drawn to him. From the first day he walked into the locker room, all piercing glances and analytical expressions, Bryce noticed him. Noticed the light inflections in his tone, a small but important indicator most didn’t pick up on, but was obvious to anyone who bothered to learn him. 

Bryce didn’t learn enough of him. No, it didn’t help that Jensen was the opposite of chatty, but he couldn’t help feeling some ounce of guilt for that. “I don’t think you’ve stopped talking since I met you.” Did he take up every conversation? Were there times Jensen was going to share something about himself—something worth something—that Bryce covered with his own insignificant blabber? 

Everything was worth something when usually he got nothing at all. Jensen’s silence was not odd, after you got used to it, that is, and neither was the lack of substance. Bryce wanted more than that.

What were his hobbies? He could take a guess from the keyboard and bass in his room, but was it ever more serious than a display on the wall? 

All he knew was a shell of a person, only the details you could see on the outside, and he just never bothered to ask for anything more. He settled for the least amount of worth you could get from a person and never batted an eye, just kept talking and talking and fucking talking.

What was his favorite restaurant in the city? One of the places they went together? Or somewhere Bryce never bothered to ask about?

Boston was Jensen’s home for just over a year, yet he had 26 before that elsewhere. 

Where did he grow up?

When was his birthday?

What was his middle name?

Did he want to be cremated or embalmed?

A tap on the window caught his attention. Sienna was standing there with his phone in her hand, shaking it in a way that said he needed to check it. He glanced over Jensen again, well asleep this time, and carefully set his hand down.

A long slew of profanities left his mouth as he wrestled with the suit, grabbing his phone as fast as possible to see the tens of missed calls from Keiki. He barely had it in his hands before pressing the call back button. Waiting for a long few rings, she finally answered. 

“Hey, sorry, I—”

“No, it’s fine, are you okay? I saw the news.” The breathiness in her voice showed her concern no matter how hard she fought to keep her tone even. 

“Yes, I’m okay. I wasn’t there when it happened.” He checked over Jensen one more time through the window, still asleep, before gathering his things to leave. “I’ll be home in twenty minutes; did you eat anything?”

It took her a second to answer. “Uh, no. I…wasn’t really hungry.”

“I’ll get you something.”

He opened the locker room door to collect his coat and keys, tossing the latter on as she replied, “It’s like two in the morning, nothings going to be open.”

“I’ll get you something,” he repeated before ending the call, shoving his phone into his pocket and starting towards his car.

Twenty minutes later he arrived home, gas station food in a plastic bag he tossed on the counter. 

“I’m sorry,” he said as she stood from the couch, in pajamas and yawning but set up with a movie and her phone to keep her awake.

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you’re okay, I guess,” she said, taking a bag of chips out and opening them up. He declined when she offered them, standing aimlessly in the middle of the kitchen. 

He couldn’t sit down knowing the uncertainty of what was happening at the hospital, but he couldn’t pace around agitated the whole night. He would wait until Keiki was asleep then return to the hospital for an update. Maybe text Sienna while he waited. 

“You look like you’re going to be sick,” Keiki commented, shoving a handful into her mouth. The thought of eating did make him sick, but he just shrugged it off.

“It was just stressful,” he replied, trying to have some semblance of normalcy. He set his phone and keys down, almost robotic, on the dining table. She was watching his every move, even as he took a breath, reminding himself that normally he’d go change. So, he did.

His bed was a mess, blankets crumpled from where Keiki had taken it over, her stack of books on the nightstand along with her clothes in a heap on the floor. Grabbing his change of clothes, he took them to the bathroom, sensing that it was no longer his space.

She was still in the kitchen when he returned, watching him again.

“I forgot to ask, but were your friends okay?”

That was all it took for his lip to tremble, unable to get an answer out. He distracted himself with grabbing the remote from the couch, setting it on the coffee table and sitting down with a deep breath. He waited for the ache in the back of his throat to subside with every following breath, blinking back the wetness around his eyes.

“No.”

But he could barely choke back the sob escaping from his throat, sending the tears well over the floodgates.

He never even got a moment to check on Raf, and even in the half an hour he was gone, Jensen’s condition could have significantly worsened. It was too easy to imagine when he was out of his sight, no tangible proof in front of him: no dry comments and no tired grins, the same ones he’d probably never see again.

Wiping the tears was a useless effort, a constant flow wetting his face and soaking his sleeves.

The couch dipped next to him. Keiki tucked a few tissues into his hand before wrapping her arms around him.

And he remembered it from a thousand times before. The nights he’d come home late and have it out with his dad in the middle of the foyer, giving everything just as vicious as he got it, but only ending with him in tears. Keiki would sneak in, probably woken up by the shouting, to ask what was going on, but the minute she saw his face she’d climb up his bed to wrap him in a hug that couldn’t quite reach around him. It didn’t matter if she didn’t know the details—it was better she didn’t—but she was the only one there who had enough compassion to try.

Here she was again, picking up the pieces of a mess that wasn’t hers. He didn’t have the strength to fight her on it, though, and didn’t have the strength to send her to bed like he should’ve on those nights. He just turned, letting his arms fall over her shoulders and holding on with everything he had.

~~~

tagging: @jerzwriter @cariantha @kyra75 @gutsfics @inlocusmads @lilyoffandoms @choicesficwriterscreations

[jerzwriter]

Open Heart creators, we are sleeping on St. Patrick’s Day… ☘️ It is HUGE in Boston, our blorbos are either celebrating or dealing with some VERY interesting cases.

What are yours doing?

(I will answer myself when I am home from celebrating! 😂)

(Tagging randomly while tipsy so I apologize if I forget anyone. Everyone please feel free to participate! )

@alj4890 @alwaysmychoices @ezekielbhandarivalleros @genevievemd @icecoffee90 @dr-colossal-pita @jamespotterthefirst @cariantha @liaromancewriter @rafasgirl23415 @mydemonsdrivealimo @oh-so-youre-a-nerd @storyofmychoices @peonierose @coffeeheartaddict2 @lilyoffandoms

[choicesficwriterscreations]

Open Heart F/AtoW: Jul 7 - 13, 2024

✒️ = Fanfic | 📱 = Text Fics/Edits | 🎨 = Fanart Ⓜ️ = Mature Content 18+ | 🔥 = Explicit/NSFW 18+ 🏳️‍🌈 = LGBTQIA

BRYCE LAHELA

A Text of Reassurance 📱 | Bryce Lahela x F!OC, Tobias Carrick x F!MC - @storyofmychoices

ETHAN RAMSEY

Scratching The Itch ✒️Ⓜ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC - @cariantha Part 2

The Journey ✒️ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC - @jerzwriter

KYRA SANTANA

Beautiful Day ✒️ | Kyra Santana & F!MC - @liaromancewriter

MULTIPLE PAIRINGS

Heart's Choice (Series) ✒️ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC, Tobias Carrick x F!MC - @alj4890 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

RAFAEL AVEIRO

How Will I Live Without You ✒️ | Rafael Aveiro x F!MC (Previous) - @rafasgirls23415 Part 1

TOBIAS CARRICK

A Text of Reassurance 📱 | Bryce Lahela x F!OC, Tobias Carrick x F!MC - @storyofmychoices

Elmo's Special Visit ✒️ | Tobias Carrick & F!OC - @storyofmychoices

Summer Haze ✒️ | Tobias Carrick x F!OC - @jerzwriter

Main F/AtoW List: Jul 7 - 13, 2024

[korgbelmont]

Updated version of Raf as Superman!

I decided to use the Kingdom Come inspired symbol being used for the new movie as well as the iconic version of it

[choicesoutofcontext]

open heart | book 1, ch 9