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fic title meme: arms full of air

maggieeeee~! [tackles] hi! so idk how it happened, might be the stress, but this got long so i'm putting it under the cut. i hope you like it and thank you for sending this wonderful title!!

made-up fic title:　arms full of air

here's what i got: chaptered, character-centric midam story based on post-series events.

two starting points: a lakeshore, and an archway, where a second-hand duffle bag with the hem of a journal lightly poking out of it dangles from the shoulder of a young man with old eyes — hands joined as if he was praying. or trying to stay warm while it rains.

what's the thing that links these two places? only the wind that travels the distance in between and the echo of something within it hitting the boy's pale cheeks and ruffling his hair. two different, but equally strong kinds of loss and pain.

this story follows up the theory that i will go down with that michael's being was unmade and scattered around by chuck, so he's not actually dead. he's more, like, around. existing. in limbo. which is probably worse than being in the empty, because you can't feel, you are just not. the plot would cover this aspect right along with how adam, on the other hand, copes with his grief and waking up at night with tear-stained cheeks and a raging heartbeat.

loads of angst and in-depth stuff, yeah, but it would also cover how eventually —after a good full immersion in how it feels to be empty inside, frozen cold, and completely lost— it really is in human nature to pick up the pieces and try to make it better or at least bearable, and how a thousand-year-old bond and the unconditioned, stubborn faith and love that come with it can, in fact, rip reality apart and bring hope to the hopeless the power of love, right?

it takes a couple of years, but anyway, moving on: adam and michael reunite, and it's overwhelming and shocking and everything is not okay. because sometimes love is just not enough to not hurt.

the core of the entire story would be this: a literal journey, both metaphorical and literal, in which michael and adam don't really know where the other stands because so many things happened and so many mistakes have been made, especially on the archangel's part. but regardless, tentatively and in the end, they stick together. awkward and careful and frustratingly, achingly desperate to heal.

it's of unspoken i don't want to ruin his life again, how am i even supposed to talk about what happened?, i'm so mad but he looks so lost and i hate it, i love him, i still love him— momentarily, don't @ me it's my story

in which adam packs his stuff, glances at the beat-up house (not home yet, but still) he had found for himself and says "we need to sort this out and take a break." and michael stiffly nods and whisks him off to... huh, rent a car. they're not flying, not yet, grace's still recovering and it's better this way. cue them bickering like the old married couple they were before the rapture and still are at heart.

in which — all through weird and beautiful places, funny little inconveniences, longing looks, arguments, fond smiles, honest talks, and the foundations of new memories — little by little, they go from folded arms and pocketed hands (michael) and clasped hands and fidgeting fingers (adam) to open arms and singing souls. not starting anew, exactly, but rather recovering and filling the gaps.

so in short, the post-series spin-off we're never gonna get. <3

insp: If there's a way for us to learn to forgive There's nothing that I wouldn't give There's still a space that I have buried away It's deep in my heart, it's always your place

send me a made-up fic title and i’ll tell you what i would write to go with it