#rub your shoulders

[softquietsteadylove]

Would you continue the president au one? Something sweet maybe?

"The President's day is bifurcated between the office and time for herself in privacy," Gilgamesh told the reporters eagerly trying to worm their way inside. "There is no security surveillance, no wire tapping. The home of Madam President must remain unpolitical so as to separate the person from the job and her obligation to the people. This is all public record."

"But sir, the people have questions!" the reporter wailed at him as security started pushing the crowd back. "The last president had an unprecedented amount of 'private time' and it turned out he was-"

"A mistake," Gil cut in harshly, effectively stopping that train of thought. "And one we won't make again. Now, I am going to briefing, Chief of Communications Sersi is going to be here to address the day's business shortly--excuse me."

Gil pressed his back to the doors as soon as he was inside. They always 'tipped off' the press when he was going to be entering the household, so no one could become too suspicious of it. It was true that the actual residence in the house and office was completely off limits to foreign clearance, press, they didn't have security cameras in it, nothing.

But damn, he was just trying to see his own girlfriend.

Gil unbuttoned his coat and walked into the home part of the house. He was well familiar with it, even with how careful they were not to betray the nature of their relationship. "Thena?"

She was in the kitchen.

"Hey," she greeted him with a smile, putting together a sandwich for herself. She was rid of her pantsuit and even had her hair down.

"Hey," he whispered, kissing her with a hand in her silken blonde hair. He pressed his nose to her cheek, "gonna cut that in half for me, or what?"

"I could say no, but you cooked everything else in that fridge," she snorted. There was another fridge for the food prepared for her by the house chef, of course, but this one was her personal one, for her personal use, in her personal kitchen.

Effectively Gil's kitchen, since she couldn't be trusted to make a grilled cheese without security thinking there was a threat in the residence.

"How was it out there?" she asked as she held up half the sandwich for him, trading kisses between bites.

"Media's a little worked up because of your week off, which we knew they would be," he shrugged, undoing his tie as well. Thena took the liberty of undoing his first few shirt buttons. "Sersi and Kingo will handle it."

"Okay," Thena murmured, unable to do much else in the moment. She leaned against him.

"Hey," he chuckled, rubbing her back while she was wearing his Secret Service hoodie from his time in security. "You have a week off. It's for your mental health--to not be worried, okay?"

"Do I seem capable of relaxing?"

Gil kissed her forehead, then her cheek, then tilted her chin so he could get her lips, "I think I know how to relax you."

"Oh you do, do you?" she smiled into the kiss, happily letting him lead her into the small frenzy of affection. She sighed, "I miss you."

"I'm right here," he whispered.

"You know what I mean."

"I do," he nodded before taking another bite of sandwich, "and I'm still here anyway."

Thena accepted another bite too.

"We're here, we're okay," he assured her as best he could while they stole their time together.

It was only recently they were able to start bringing him into the residence without suspicion from the inside forces, let alone the media and public. Even as her assistant, there was only so much time he could spend in her home before it became questionable.

"Some anniversary," she whispered, tucking her head under his chin. "I'm sorry, Gil."

"None of that," he rubbed her arm, resting his cheek against her hair, "You know I'm happy so long as I'm with you. And we knew this would come--that it wouldn't be easy."

"Still," she sighed a little more impatiently. "I'm supposedly the most powerful person in the country and I can't even get you a damn present without half the world knowing?"

"What would you get me?" he raised an eyebrow, finishing off the last tiny bite of the sandwich and licking his fingers. "I have everything I need right here."

Thena rolled her eyes as he kissed her cheek, "I'm serious, Gil."

"So am I."

She patted his chest, "well, it seems negligent to not get you anything at all."

"Well," he shrugged, "what if I didn't get you anything either?"

Thena shook her head though, giving his side a pinch before seating herself at the table. "I know for a fact that you did. And even if you hadn't, you got me this week off. That's...more than I can fathom."

Gil smiled at her though, also sitting at the table across from her, like they could be a normal couple in a normal house. "Sweetheart, I don't need anything from you because the fact that I can still be with you even after everything that happened last year?--that's my gift. And I don't want to take that for granted."

She gave him that soft, glassy eyed look that meant that she was wallowing in her guilt.

He reached over for her hands, "do you remember what we were doing this time last year?"

She rolled her eyes ever so fondly at him as she let him give each and every one of her fingers an affectionate little squeeze. "I was still vice at the time, you were my dedicated SS. I could still go home at the end of the day and you could sneak in dressed as a delivery guy."

He grinned at her, "and I did deliver every time, didn't I?"

She rolled her eyes at him for real this time, "Gilgamesh."

"And?" he prompted her.

She sighed, looking down at their hands, "and you told me that the dates in my living room with pizza and wings and cheap wine were dates--real dates."

"Because?"

She pursed her lips at him, not thrilled at being led like a fawn. She huffed, "because it was a date and it was with me and that was all you wanted."

Gil beamed at her with a laugh. "God, I'm such a good boyfriend."

"Stop it," she groaned, trying to lean away and pull her hands back to her.

He held on though, determined to keep her with him in the moment. He tilted his head to look at her, "that's still true, Thena. I don't care if I'm sneaking a burger and fries into your room between press briefings or we're at a diplomatic dinner. I wanna be with you. That's all."

Thena sighed, blinking in such a way that he knew she was trying not to cry. She shook her head, "you are a good boyfriend, much to my dismay."

He grinned; that was her way of saying that she loved him. He chuckled, "I love you, too, sweetie."

She let him stand and kiss her hair on the way to the fridge.

"So," he said more loudly and upbeat, "what to have for a real anniversary meal?"

Thena turned in her seat to look at him. On the one hand, he wanted to make their meals for the two of them. And on the other hand, she also couldn't ask the resident chef to make two servings of a gorgeous meal for her alone.

Well, she could, and no official questions would be asked. Risky, though.

"What do you feel like?" he asked as he rolled up his sleeves. He could change into something more comfortable after he was done with their dinner.

Thena smiled at him, hair over her shoulder, curled up in her chair in a ball. She looked sweet. "Pasta?"

He had onions, carrots, celery, herbs, leeks, tomatoes... "I think I can pull that off."

She stood from the chair and came over to him, sliding her lithe little arms around him from behind and pressing her face to his shoulder, "thank you, Gil."

He looked down and craned his neck to try and kiss her hands on his chest.

She laughed into his shirt before rising on her toes to kiss the back of his neck. "I'll pour some wine, you focus on the food."

Gil let her slide away from him, although the ache that could resonate in his chest when they were at work didn't follow. In here, they could be themselves, and he could be as perfect a boyfriend as he wanted.

[lazycranberrydoodles]

they are so in love and disgusting and also sarcastic bitches. follow for more / prev comic / next comic

[karamazovanon]

controversial opinion maybe but it BEWILDERS me when people (mostly americans ime) genuinely seriously with their whole chest complain about how impossibly hard russian names are. like. do a single google search. i don't see how you can comprehend that charles = chuck and margaret = peggy but can't fathom that rodion = rodya. how is this such a huge barrier of entry for people

[binah-beloved]

Binah putting her hand over your heart whenever you're nervous, so she can feel it erratically flutter before gradually easing into a regular pace as she holds you, her hand coming up to stroke your cheek when you finally let out a relieved sigh that's been stuck in your throat

[jimmyspades]

[code31-onthedancefloor]

guy named transmasc erasure:

entroponaut flow

[londonfoginacup]

.

[papimolina]

Oooh Edy, baby

[cloudcountry]

"who's got you smiling at your phone like that?"

[mrsoharaa]

Gojo is soo ridiculous, that man will literally take you out to the nearest beach, plant out a silly picnic, and eats you out horrendously desperate afterwards, as the setting sun dips down into the horizon.

[pass-the-5sauce]

Luke rubbing Michael's back soothingly while taking a picture with fans 🥺

[the-kipsabian]

[commanderfreddy]

hey cool news - one of my short stories (Lady in Waiting) has been reprinted in a charity anthology! all proceeds go to the Trevor Project (and thanks to a generous parallel donation, us writers all got a token payment of US$40, which was great because we signed up to do charity for free lol)

Mirrors Reflecting Shadows is a multi-publisher project from Roi Fainéant, OUTCAST, and Anxiety Press(es) that collects 34 high-concept, high-octane, high-quality short stories from basically every genre you can shake a stick at, including personal essays.

many stories tackle LGBTQ+ themes directly while others deal with more abstract takes on love, rebirth, community and actualisation, and while nobody's required to self-ID i can tell you that most of us behind the scenes are part of the family one way or another

grab a print or epub edition here and let me know what you think!

i wanna know what stories everyone connected with (and which ones they didn't), what concepts you found compelling, what phrases got stuck in your brain, and what shit you just found fun to read 💕

[platonic-prompts]

Diabolical villain stroking a white cat? No

Cat rubbing against the villain's glasses? Yes

[kakusu-shipping]

Pre-relationship 4-6 for the Mario Bros.! (Or your favorite of those questions if you only want one haha)

Yes!!! More Mario Bros ramble!!! Blessed!! Thankyou!!

4. Who felt romantic feelings first?

Hard to say, sense they've always been like this. There's not a specific moment either of them could go back to and say when they fell in love, they've always loved eachother, you know?

Though Luigi was the first to recognize these feelings as romantic, and different than how he loved, say, their mom and dad, and that that was something important. Mario didn't think it mattered what kind of love they had, their mama had taught them Love is Love, so what does it matter, right?

This happened when they were like 7.

5. Did either of them try to resist their feelings?

Maybe not quiet resist, but Mario did consider it for a while.

Around middle school-ish age, 12 or 13, their mom sat the brothers down to explain the difference between Familial and Romantic love, and why that difference was important, kind of assuming they didn't really know the difference in their emotions yet.

The whole thing made Mario feel awful. He'd made his mother worry, his father angry, and worst of all he, the older brother, put Luigi on the line for his own selfish reasoning.

The only reason he didn't fully withdrawal from Luigi and stew in an early sea of self deprecation was Luigi rubbing it in Mario's face that he was right, that the love he has for Mario and the love he has for the rest of their family is different. He did an "I Told You So" dance and everything. He was right and Mario was wrong ha ha ha ha ha!

So yeah. Mario considered resisting his feelings for all of about 20 minutes before Luigi snapped him out of it, and reminded him why that would simply never work. Not for them.

6. If you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think?

Mario doesn't believe in soulmates, he's a simple guy and not all that romantic in the grand scheme sense. Luigi on the other hand is all about Cosmic Connection and the "Over and Over again, life after life, I will find you, and I fall in love with you again and again" kind of cheesy nonsense. He'd be over the moon about it.

[kaeyx]

spreading the crossover agenda here

gallagher, oda, and reader. at the bar. do i need to explain more? -3- because just think about it, I'd let them crush me.

YEAHHHHH