#like it’s definitely still giving that bucks confused about his feelings (for eddie) and projecting them onto tommy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

love-takes-work · 3 years

Text

Steven Universe: End of an Era: Outline & Review

I wrote this review in October but never got around to posting it here

Steven Universe: End of an Era is far more than an art book–it’s also a collection of behind-the-scenes material, stories about the experience of working on the show, planning documents and associated background info, and both older versions of developed concepts AND concepts that never made it into the show. It's a huge fusion of all those elements, and it's definitely an experience!

Some low-quality images are included with my review just to give you an idea of what’s there--it’s not a good substitute for getting your own copy, but here’s a tour!

Like the previous concept art book, Art and Origins, I'll be giving you a description of the structure and overview, while also collecting notable information for fans. Obviously just about everything is "notable" once again, but I'll aim for unique insight or perspective on the main source material, keeping the screaming about everything new to a minimum so you can also enjoy something for yourself if you pick it up. My low-quality photos should prevent people from feeling like I'm reproducing the book in any capacity. Please grab one while you can and have your own experience!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

OVERVIEW

The book is titled "End of an Era" for a couple reasons--obviously because it is released after the show has wrapped, but also because Gem history recently ended its "Era 2" and began Era 3--an age of prosperity and peace. The author--the person in charge of adapting all of this information into this slick, readable package--is Chris McDonnell, whose work was previously applied on the Art and Origins book.

The foreword is by N.K. Jemisin, a well-known science fiction author who's a huge fan of the show (and wrote a really excellent series that also has a weird geological connection, by the way).

And the cover, like its predecessor, is shiny and decorated with a beach scene featuring minimalistic characters--this time it's the Gems at night in front of the Temple, and on the back cover is a big pink leg ship in a cross-legged pose.

The interior covers are decorated with tons of amazing sketches of Steven and Connie on the front, and a bunch of Gem sketches on the back. Every interior page that most would leave blank is highlighted with some kind of sketch art or character exercise--it's so much to look at, so much to absorb.

The book is dedicated "For Eddie."

Its organization is different from the previous book in that it shares applicable work in chunks associated with groups of episodes rather than pertaining to different aspects of building the show.

FOREWORD

N.K. Jemisin gives us such a great introduction to the book--apparently understanding very well that the audience of this book is full of animation enthusiasts and adult fans more than it is full of kids, and explaining that bewildering journey some adults had from blowing this show off as a silly kid thing to falling in love with it hard and fast.

The important thing, Jemisin says, is being able to trust a storyteller with your heart. And it was clear to her that Rebecca Sugar knew what she was talking about and was saying important things about identity and the radical power that comes with accepting it and demanding respect.

Important also is how we handle heroes and who gets to be one in fantasy. That's part of the reason Steven Universe speaks to so many--because we see ourselves here, and know stories can be about us. Acknowledging the power we all have to MAKE THINGS BETTER with what we fight for is so important--especially if we're going to speaking to the next generation about it.

Highlighting Rose Quartz as a "born leader" who failed and Steven as a relatable scamp who did what she couldn't, Jemisin asserts that we can save the world.

1. END OF AN ERA

We start with an appeal to the audience to think about identity and the formative parts of our childhood--and how different it is if who you are and who you become is restricted, mocked, erased, or Not Allowed. Most people, if not ALL people, can relate to this, but for those of us with a special relationship with Steven Universe because of queer identity, this hits hard.

But it doesn't have to be anything grand to be something we respect--this show's authenticity comes largely from how personal everything is, drawn from real-life experiences and incidental truths from each artist's perspective, leaning hard on childhood and formative experiences.

Rebecca Sugar offers some interview bits to discuss writing philosophy and why "writing female characters" was difficult for a nonbinary person who'd been socialized as a girl and a woman. Rebecca has spoken before about how frustrating it is that marketing for cartoons was SO gendered when she was growing up (and to some extent still is).

The Gems in the story are all "she/her," but on their planet they're defined by their work, not by emotion or relationships (unlike women in our society), so having them be socialized opposite to how she was and be able to claim those emotions through choice and NOT as just an expectation "as women" was revolutionary. Rebecca wants her show to tell all marginalized people that they don't deserve to be in the margins.

Weighing in on other aspects of the show were Ian Jones-Quartey, Joe Johnston, and Miki Brewster. Ian describes feeling like at first doing SU was a thrill ride that meant they'd finally get to do all the cool stuff, but it quickly became a responsibility that he took very seriously--the need to tell a good story now that he'd been given a megaphone.

Promotional art, planning documents, character sketches, and concept art from the lighthearted to the stone serious is included, along with some very cool (sort of famous) timeline charts that track major characters' developments. It's emphasized by Rebecca that the developmental materials ARE NOT CANON (and especially are not MORE canon) compared the final show.

There are concept sketches alongside final art for Aquamarine and Topaz in "Wanted" (with Topaz labeled "Imperial Topaz"), the Zircons in "The Trial," Blue and Yellow Diamond, and the Off Colors (including Pink Lars).

And there's also a spread of "the two sides of Steven's life: Gem Magic and Rock N Roll" featuring Sadie Killer and the Suspects (referred to as "Buck's band")--as well as a cool "Crew Cameos" key and some concepts for short-haired Connie.

And then there's some more "finished" art with stills alongside concepts, including some background art, revision, and really cool "fairytale" art from some of the shadowplay storytelling bits. We get "Lars of the Stars," "Jungle Moon," and "Can't Go Back."

2. THE BEGINNING OF THE END: A SINGLE PALE ROSE

In discussing the huge reveals and Gem mysteries in the show, the pacing is examined, and emphasis is put on the intended "slow burn." One of the most difficult things in the show was to strategize so that every piece that was needed to support another piece in the future was placed properly to seed what it was supposed to.

Some of the ideas they developed were more of a group effort and were fit together collaboratively (like Amethyst's being younger than the other Gems and Jasper being from Earth), while others were intended from the beginning based on Rebecca's vision (the fundamental idea of Pink Diamond's true identity, for instance, as well as Obsidian's design and sword and our Pearl not being Pink's first).

The writing process gets a great deep dive here, including fun tidbits like how the orb in the moon base was inserted by Joe Johnston and they literally had no idea what it was for when they wrote the episode. They repurposed it when they figured out what they needed.

Rebecca credits her detailed timelines for helping keep the order straight, and discusses how other artists are sometimes flabbergasted that a storyboard-driven show can have this much detail and continuity and yet not get wrecked by the free non-scripted boarding process. But Rebecca and the Crew valued that approach and loved the way fresh eyes would handle an idea, making it come back alive, entertaining, vivid.

Several Crew members weigh in on the writing process. Lauren Hecht refers to making lots of incorrect guesses despite being on the inside. Joe Johnston recalled getting briefed on his first day and getting so excited to start working on this massive project.

Miki Brewster remembered being told Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond and being shocked--and also confused about why Ruby and Sapphire would need to be married if they're already basically married. Drew Green talks about being brought in late and getting to watch unaired episodes and a rough of the movie while eating cereal.

Ian Jones-Quartey complains about Pink Diamond's real jester-like form being leaked to the internet through a Hot Topic shirt. Rebecca piggybacks on that and says it was upsetting that the wedding was leaked because of toy fair keychains featuring Ruby and Sapphire in wedding attire. They'd always be worried about leaks, and sometimes Rebecca struggled not to talk about the reality of Pink Diamond before the reveal because she knew it would make so much more sense once the truth was out. And everything associated with Rose makes more sense once you know she's Pink--especially what happened with Bismuth, considering what we know about how Pink Diamond has a habit of treating anyone who no longer serves her interests.

When it comes to visual cues, Rebecca also talks about intentional designs to create a feeling of unity between concepts, like the flower shapes on Pink Diamond's palanquin lining up with the poofs of Steven's hair and the star imagery of the series. Steven Sugar and Mary Nash discuss how the Human Zoo incorporated this imagery, trying to look like Homeworld with a Pink Diamond touch.

Steven Sugar, as a game nerd, liked to throw in video game references from old and modern stuff to feel like he's inserting what he's enjoying and who he is from moment to moment, while Mary Nash, who related to Sadie as a basement-dwelling young person with cult interests, liked to include stuff from MST3K and cult movies. Pearl's hand gestures get a spotlight too--her reflex to cover her mouth when Pink Diamond was being discussed was analyzed here.

A "Top Secret Visual Timeline" from 2016 is included which tells us some Diamond history. It has an earlier version of Pink Pearl's fate and does not include Spinel since the movie hadn't been greenlit. The timeline includes the birth of the Diamonds, the emergence and major story beats for each major character, and some philosophy of the driving force behind each.

We're told that Pink Diamond straightened up, behavior-wise, after she lost her first Pearl, and that Yellow and Blue wanted to give her a planet but White only agreed to it to prove she would fail at managing a colony. Pearl, meanwhile, is so confused to have a Diamond who keeps asking her what she thinks when she doesn't believe she should have opinions.

And when Pink moonlighted as Rose to start conflict, she found herself leading an army to fight Pink's troops--then Yellow's, and eventually Blue's too. Lapis is said to be waiting for the conflict to end on Earth so she can terraform, but she gets trapped instead.

Pearl's love story with Rose is described as "an endless honeymoon" where she's free to love her, while Rose's is more like "I'm now the head of the family and I'm going to give everyone what they never had, so everyone is super special!"

Jasper is described as "adopted" into Yellow's army as the only successful Beta Quartz. And White Diamond knew that Pink Diamond was not dead--she thought she was just running away from home like a brat and would eventually be back.

3. THE HEART OF THE CRYSTAL GEMS

Now we discuss Rose Quartz--the original Pink Diamond. How she was selfish and selfless, never enough and always too much, and how Greg was her first partner who "challenged her" to be an equal. Rebecca describes Rose as being delighted by the idea that both she and Greg reinvented themselves, but when that leads her to want to share her past, Greg isn't interested--he only wants to know who she is now, and doesn't consider the old her to be her.

Rebecca likes Carl Jung's concept of "enantiodromia," which is the idea that extremes lead to their extreme opposite. This is demonstrated in all of the Diamonds. This narrative is interspersed with drawings of Greg and Rose being cute.

But another "heart" of the Crystal Gems is its relationships--particularly, Garnet, the fairy tale romance embodied. More psychological theories are discussed with regard to differentiation in a relationship making the relationship stronger, and how they made sure that happened for Garnet during the appropriate arc. Rebecca has struggled with the idea that she, like Ruby, went straight from a "family" group to a living-with-others situation and never lived by herself. But she also learned that you can in fact develop as a person in the context of a relationship--you don't have to be alone to do it. Ruby learned that too, and chose on her own terms to be with Sapphire.

The wedding made so much sense to Rebecca and the crew that they couldn't imagine a wholesome couple like Ruby and Sapphire not having a wedding episode. They wanted it for years: The wedding concepts always included the tuxedo for Sapphire and the wedding dress for Ruby.

But pushback (often blamed on the conservative standards of the international market) led to negotiations trying to keep Ruby and Sapphire's relationship from being explicit. Rebecca and the Crew were very tired of this double standard, and they were especially irritated by attempts to claim a wedding wouldn't be well received by a core demographic or wouldn't make sense for Steven's character. But other shows had done weddings and Steven had been established to love weddings already.

Rebecca kept adding more elements to the wedding episode to answer all the concerns, but she didn't want to back down from explicit marriage between these characters. They deserved it. And the audience deserved to see this as wholesome, like any other cartoon wedding. Eventually they got their way and were allowed to have the wedding. But the ordered episodes were also coming to a close without promise of more, so Rebecca had to request more episodes to be able to wrap up the storyline!

And of course, there is Steven, the true heart of the team. A very interesting aside discusses Garnet's leadership and how the network pushed the Crewniverse to acknowledge Steven as the leader. This was successfully resisted throughout as well--because Garnet is the leader (unless she's incapacitated, of course). It's fantastic that this concept was preserved because too often a young male chosen one is elevated above people with more experience and knowledge because of that chosen one tradition, so it's really nice to have a show acknowledge that team leadership is more appropriate for an adult.

4. ERA 3

Beginning with a discussion of the Diamonds, this chapter deconstructs the dysfunctional "family" of the Diamonds (who are said to be based on tropes about evil stepmothers and stepsisters), with the thread of dysfunction originating with White Diamond.

Yellow is physical, Blue is emotional, White is judgmental, and Pink is impulsive. Some philosophy on why Pink is naturally manipulative and why she clashes so much with White is offered.

White believes her identity is to be imposed on all because she is the pinnacle of what should be--and therefore, she has the right to make decisions and statements about and on behalf of everyone. But her secret is that she can't do what the others do--act or feel or want. In trying to be everyone, she is no one.

And this becomes very important when she confronts Steven about his identity and turns out to be wrong. The triumph of Steven being totally, fully himself is a beautiful, simple revelation that's described as far more satisfying than the theories about Pink living inside him or Rose returning from his Gem.

Also discussed is Gem architecture. A lot went into this idea, and Steven Sugar weighs in to say he had to think of what it would mean for a world to have buildings but serve no human needs. That's why it's mostly focused on transport and storage. Even the broken planet is meant to indicate a place stripped for its resources, and everything serves a function that is meant to avoid looking like the human equivalents.

And there's another layer, too: a difference between Era 1 and Era 2. Era 2 became more functional to hide Era 1's broken bits, and older Homeworld buildings still have some "ornate and ancient" feel to them. And the fact that props, tools, and even walls and doors could be living was taken from a concept Rebecca thought was horrible from old Busby Berkeley movies, where people were inanimate objects and it was portrayed as lovely. Tom Herpich helped conceptualize these living objects.

Steven dealing with "princess tropes" is discussed here too. The Pebbles (worked on with Pendleton Ward) were sort of his Cinderella's mice, and all the locked-in-a-tower, having supportive tiny friends help you, getting princess clothes made, attending a ball, having to mind your manners stuff was intentionally related to fairy tales.

The point of doing that (besides fun) was to easily invoke the feeling that Steven was being made to be someone he's not, and that he was being treated like THIS is who he really is when it isn't. White Diamond as the "evil stepmother" is discussed with regard to her detailed features and massive scale. They generally didn't put fingernails and eyelashes on characters (especially not to indicate that they were women or girls!), but they decided White would get all of these feminine markers for tradition's sake.

Rebecca also invokes several other references that were included and describes the princess tropes as "chipping away at his integrity" setting him up for the final challenge with White.

There is again tons of concept art: Homeworld architecture, Pebbles, Diamond diagrams, background Jades and Lemon Jade Fusion, Comby, Diamond extraction chambers, and White Diamond.

5. CHANGE YOUR MIND

Now we finally begin to discuss Steven's identity. The "Perfect Steven," discussed in several interviews before this book's release, was an idea back in 2013; the "ultimate Steven," beefed up and shonen-looking, was far from perfect because OUR Steven is perfect, while this alpha hero Steven idea (used in Steven Universe Future) didn't belong being idolized in such a show.

They thought about having Steven fall apart into organic half and Gem half early in the show (during "Giant Woman" after a successful fusion and unfusion, even!), but they didn't try the concept until the last episode. They didn't want the "Pink" Steven to be portrayed as "better" even though he would be more powerful, so they decided he isn't whole without his organic self and he's just as much of a shell as the organic half. They absolutely did not want any ending that required Rose to be inside him or waiting to come back. But the debates were fierce--what DOES it mean to have Rose's Gem?

Ian Jones-Quartey brings in an anecdote about his own family to emphasize some of the immigrant themes that inspired aspects of the show. He had a brother who reinvented himself elsewhere away from family without resolving issues, and all the ramifications of that were explored in the show through Rose Quartz. (He is careful to say he doesn't think his immigrant experience is like being from another planet!) But he did say you can hurt your old family even if they were toxic or didn't know the real you, and you can hurt your new family by hiding your past. The Pizza family of course was also a more direct reference to Ian's Ghanaian family.

In talking about the new Fusions from this episode, Sunstone is largely described by Miki, who also got to board the Sunstone section. Sunstone was described as a cool 1990s character and the evolution just continued into making them a fourth-wall-breaking PSA dispenser. Obsidian is also discussed, with their sword being an early concept. Steven Sugar said they totally knew it would be forged in action. Obsidian being similar to the Temple design is of course another very early detail.

The story of how James Baxter got involved with one of the final scenes (Organic Steven and Pink Steven fusing in front of White Diamond) was shared. His family was fans of the show and Rebecca Sugar took the time to drive to a birthday party for his daughter and give her a drawing. He then owed her a favor, and this was it.

Concept art is again included, this time with sample boards, promo images, a Diamond fight concept, costume design changes for the Gems, new Fusions, the so-called "Mega Diamond" ship conglomerate, some scenes from the White Diamond confrontation, Pink Steven, multiple pages of James Baxter animation, corrupted Gems and their healed selves, and photos from the "Change Your Mind" premiere and some awards. The show has won one design-related Emmy, a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD award.

6. STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE

The book doesn't cover the movie because it got its own book, but dives right into Future. Ian Jones-Quartey emphasizes that the movie and Future are separate and different from the original show, which ENDED. After all, after that, Steven has a neck!

Some new names are invoked now: new writers Kate Tsang, Jack Pendarvis, and Taneka Stotts. They were excited to have Steven make HIS OWN mistakes instead of trying to clean up someone else's! Now, instead of doing the usual shonen anime thing and having the final battle be a big physical rumble, Steven has to make peace with himself and take an active role in coping with what all the fighting has done to him and what effect it's had on who he is (and who he wants to be). There is no sudden "I love myself!" answer, either. It's always a process.

Drew Green and Maya Petersen, who came on board as storyboarders officially in Future, also weighed in on writing for a "mature" show, how to deal with Steven being a "moral compass" while being sort of unreliable, and what they learned as Crew that they didn't know as fans. Drew didn't know Garnet never asks questions. Jack didn't realize the show never deviated from Steven's point of view. Taneka was nervous but excited to collaborate. Kate was worried about how established the show was and what to do as a new writer to contribute appropriately.

Maya was on the old Crew but not as a storyboarder, so felt like some of the "old" ideas ended up not being appropriate for the "new" Future in an embarrassing way--and dreaded the idea of dealing with Steven's emotional problems when they were similar to stuff she'd been through. She also was personally behind the idea of Steven wanting to dump his problems by becoming Stevonnie, and got to work with Etienne Guignard on inventing the Pearl creation backstory with Volleyball.

There's some discussion of "depression hobbies," stress, and the show's pacing. And they say Etienne was entertaining at pitches. There's even some discussion of how Greg is taken off a bit of a pedestal because his terrible restrictive life in the suburbs sounded wholesome to Steven and Greg presented it negatively.

And then there is some information about how the Crew felt behind the scenes due to fan reactions and negative press. Ian discusses feeling offended when the Black characters are described as bad examples, as if their cartoonized but realistic-in-context features are automatically caricatures.

Rebecca Sugar felt beaten down by some of these narratives and began to access mental health services, inspiring some of the content of "Mindful Education." A long reflection from Rebecca discusses people's infighting about her show and what she had a responsibility to show or not show in the story. She learned a lot about bullying from Cartoon Network's anti-bullying program and learned that bullies thrive on whatever attention you give them--unless it is made clear to them by a peer group that no one is impressed by their cruel actions. Also, not all negative feedback is bullying. Constructive criticism is different. Self-awareness can help you avoid internalizing what bullies might do or say to you.

Segueing from the discussion of how people are affected by and connect with the show, we then discuss how they chose as a team what should be covered as the show came to a close. They didn't have time to do quite a few stories they wanted time for, like a Rhodonite story, a Lars side story, and Diamond "prehistory" and religion; all of it was put aside for the main arc with Steven.

They thought people would find those stories about Homeworld and Off Color history very interesting, but so much of the show had been about Steven's Gem adventures, so keeping him mostly on Earth seemed appropriate. The acknowledgment of his battle damage, of his trauma, was necessary and real, and helpful in an important way to the core audience.

Oh, and there was some stuff about a cheeseburger tree. Don't ask.

In discussing the "reverse escapism" of the original show (Gem aliens are intrigued by everyday human culture, and realism is necessary), Rebecca says her views have changed on escapism and gets why some people want a soothing feel-better show. She acknowledged also that her own escapist dreams-come-true fulfilled in the show didn't feel like escapism because they were givens to the majority of mainstream culture, but were never guaranteed to marginalized people.

Rebecca ties in her several-times-told story about "Love Like You" and how the middle bit was when she didn't feel she was worth looking up to, and the realizations she had to tie the beginning to the end. Feeling like someone will like you less if they know you more is terrible. So sometimes a show like this can be helpful in telling people that they belong when their fantasies are things like "I want to be loved" and "I want to know I exist."

In Future, Steven has to connect to who he is and love that person--and understand that person enough to finally feel that even if he's not fixing their problems or saving their world right this second, Steven deserves his family's love and support, and they WANT to give it to him.

There's a huge amount of supplemental material in this section so there's no way I could name it all. The charts for Future's timeline are pretty straightforward, though a few episodes like "A Very Special Episode," "Why So Blue," "In Dreams," and "Bismuth Casual" aren't specifically represented and a couple are in a different order ("Prickly Pair" was conceived as happening after "Fragments" and "Homeworld Bound").

Steven feeling like a monster, having intrusive thoughts, having not forgiven the Diamonds, and getting help/moving on--it's all there.

We have keys, color scripts, and boards for the new opening and some various backgrounds and storyboard art from episodes. Model sheets for Shep, Nice Lapis and Mean Lapis, Jasper, Steven Tag Gems, Pink Steven Powers, Monster Steven. New house concepts, Era 3 Homeworld concept art for the Diamond environments, and background art for the Reef.

New Connie and Greg designs. Concepts for Mega Pearl, the Rose Quartzes, Bluebird, and Morganite (who didn't get used). And there are some photos from recording and the conference room. There are even some extras from "Crossover Nexus," the crossover with OK K.O.!--including an unused cut scene that included Ruby and Sapphire fighting. The rest of the book is a bunch of adorable Crewniverse art--extras, blog drawings, promos, and gifts to each other.

NOTABLE

The first timeline chart in the book features a cool sketch of the original Off Colors, which at the time this planning document was drafted included unused Off Colors Flint and Chert.

We knew of their existence already because of an episode of the podcast, but these two unexpectedly appeared as incidental characters in the Steven Universe Future episode "Homeworld Bound," identified only in the credits. Sad to think that instead of banding with the Off Colors, these two were probably shattered for their crime (being Quartzes who don't want to fight) and that's why we see them being repaired in this episode. Later, there's some brainstorming for types of Off Colors and "a Ruby that wants to wear limb enhancers" is mentioned as well.

It looks like there was also originally more juice to the story of tracking down the events of the war culminating in Pink Diamond's assassination.

One of the timelines talks about Steven thinking it makes sense that Pearl can't talk about her involvement because she might have been a double agent, explaining why Rose Quartz always knew what Pink Diamond was doing. It seems like that bit was supposed to be included in Garnet's version of the story she believed in "Your Mother and Mine." Seems like they originally conceived Garnet's story to inspire the Off Colors to become pirates and freedom fighters, though in the show's canon this storytelling happened after Lars had already reinvented himself the way he did.

Sadie was also supposed to be sending letters to Lars via Steven, which is funny since the "Letters to Lars" episode is just a montage Steven letter. And of course it's specified that Steven was supposed to get Pink Diamond flashbacks by going to the Palace on Homeworld.

The second chart in the book makes references to Sadie's reinvention of herself as a parallel to Lars, Greg, and Pink Diamond all doing the same thing, and how positive it is to embrace such a thing--a version of yourself that YOU create.

I love that Yellow Diamond's arm ship arm-wrestling the Cluster was always part of the plan.

There's some more explicit direction to have Connie help Steven understand the Diamonds as "strict parents," and a lot more emphasis on everyone realizing Rose had been inspired by THEM rather than them all following her.

White Diamond is presented here as if she thinks of Pink Diamond as a "daughter" (whom she now understands she has "lost"). There are notes on how the Diamonds have a responsibility to their children and should attend to it before just continuing to make more.

One of the concept art images for the Off Colors features Rhodonite crouching by Padparadscha saying "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you." It's very interesting because she DOES seem to protect Padparadscha in the show, but doesn't seem confident about it in her final version, even though it does seem like she'd be "programmed" to guard aristocratic Gems because of her Ruby and Pearl makeup. Cool.

A "Crew Cameos" spread was included, which is of great interest to some of us who loved seeing the Crew insert themselves into the show. Not every SU Crew person who's been represented in a crowd was there, but this crowd included Amish Kumar, Kat Morris, Amanda Winterstein, Angie Wang, Lamar Abrams, Emily Walus, Mary Nash, Joe Johnston, Christy Cohen, Danny Cragg, Hilary Florido, Danny Hynes, Matt Burnett, Ben Levin, Elle Michalka.

The official national flower of South Korea, Hibiscus syriacus, is the name of Pink Diamond's flower.

One of Steven Sugar's comments about the silhouette difference between humans and Gems points out that humans have ears. This seems to be pretty good confirmation that they are not supposed to have ears, despite that sometimes we'll see ears drawn on them in some frames.

Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is characterized in this book as "self-hating" in a really interesting way, saying that because she believed she was not capable of compassion, she practically worshiped those who demonstrated that ability and thought they were so much better than her--which is described as "intoxicating" and resulted in others being drawn to her. How interesting is that!

Timelines reveal that early plans for Pink Diamond's first Pearl originally had her getting destroyed by Pink during a game, and then her destruction was rewritten as a punishment from the Diamonds after Pink Pearl defended Pink Diamond to the other Diamonds. They went back to the idea of her getting hurt by Pink for the final version, though the cracked face and control by White Diamond was not on the agenda until they started writing "Change Your Mind."

10.

The approximate ages of the major characters, based on emergence, are revealed on these timelines. It begins with a cracked-planet-looking graphic depicting four tiny Diamonds emerging at 20,000 years ago. Some suspicious "blacked out" redacting surrounds a long timeline tail that goes back before that, which may mean there are secrets they still don't want to reveal. But the dates go like this:

20,000 years ago: The Diamonds emerge.

11,000 years ago: Pearl is custom-made for Pink Diamond.

8,000 years ago: Sapphire emerges (on Homeworld).

6,000 years ago: Ruby emerges (on a colony).

5,750 years ago: Garnet is formed.

5,600 years ago: Lapis is poofed and put in the mirror.

5,200 years ago: Jasper emerges (on Earth).

5,050 years ago: The Cluster is planted.

5,000 years ago: Amethyst emerges (on Earth).

4,500 years ago: The Crystal Gems found Amethyst.

3,000 years ago: Peridot emerges (on Homeworld).

40 years ago: Pearl found Lapis's mirror at the Galaxy Warp.

And of course we know 14 years ago Steven is born!

11.

Originally the Diamonds were based on a quartet of themes: Love, Fear, Pride, and Sorrow. It got too complicated to keep and it was abandoned, with Pink's identification of "love" being described as "particularly outdated."

12.

Notes on a sketch say that Pearl was inspired to become bold and unashamed because Pink's questions drove her to have opinions, and it's said that Rose "fell in love" with her boldness.

13.

Rebecca tells the story of driving off a ridge and getting stuck in the desert, comparing this to Ruby's tumble during her Wild West adventure and using it as inspiration. She's told this story before but here it is in print. She also included the story about using the flowers from a friend's wedding to put in Ruby's hair.

14.

Rebecca describes having to "fight" notes she was given when it had to do with Ruby and Sapphire's relationship. One she describes as NOT fighting was for a signing card depicting Ruby and Sapphire dancing. It was called "too romantic" and she decided not to worry about it since it wasn't the actual show content.

She was also scolded over her book The Answer because the powers that be expected her to downplay that relationship. She always argued that queer youth deserved these things.

15.

Tom Herpich describes being inspired to name Blue Diamond's comb "Comby" because he was watching the news about Comey getting fired from the FBI. It's also a mineral-related term and I always assumed that reference was intentional, but maybe it's not and this is the only intended significance to Comby's name?

16.

Rainbow Quartz 2.0's design is not discussed, though the other two new Fusions from "Change Your Mind" (Sunstone and Obsidian) were. RQ2 has some sketches included, but no accompanying narrative in the text.

17.

A sheet of corrupted Gems and their healed selves is offered, though it doesn't appear to be final. The obelisk in "Serious Steven" is labeled Albite. The unnamed Worm Monster, Desert Glass, and Watermelon Tourmaline are included. An unnamed birdlike Gem represents the Big Bird monster from "Giant Woman." The crab monster from "Arcade Mania" is labeled Blue Chalcedony. The Tongue Monster is drawn uncorrupted but not named. The Flower Monster from "Back to the Kindergarten" is labeled Grossular Diopside or Titanite. The invisible monster from "Island Adventure" is labeled Moonstone. The Lighthouse Gem is labeled White Topaz. A form for Larimar that was used in "Change Your Mind" but changed in Future is there. The Slinker is listed as Chrysocolla. And the Crab Monster is listed as Aventurine.

On the next page, this is changed to Bixbite (as it was in Steven Universe Future), and we then also have Lace Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate, Crazy Lace Agate (Fusion), Ocean Jasper, the Mother Centipeetle Nephrite (Facet 413 Cabochon 12) and three other Nephrites, Angel Aura Quartz, a hooded Jasper, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Watermelon Tourmaline (labeled as Fusion of Gem * Onion--huh?), Snowflake Obsidian, "Little" Larimar, and Orange Spodumene (who was the Worm).

18.

The Rhodonite side story would have been about the love story of a Ruby and a Pearl working for Morganite. Images of Morganite and her servants, unfused, are in the book. We do not get this additional information, but Rebecca said in a panel shortly before the book's release that Rhodonite's story would have been about finding out that she had been Rejuvenated 17 times because her components kept falling in love and needing to be reset.

19.

Referring to the Diamonds on one of the charts, Steven's perspective is "I can't believe I helped these" and then there's a censor bar. Welp.

20.

Some included art by Hilary Florido features Kevin with a souped-up Koala Princess car and another where Kevin is staring at himself in the mirror in front of an altar to himself.

21.

Rebecca's sweater collection is included in the Crew art.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

#steven universe #steven universe end of an era #su spoilers #long post #su merch #myblog

142 notes · View notes

jaynaneeya · 3 years

Text

The Headless Criminal

First of all, Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story, the next big Shipwrecked Comedy project, is getting very close to its Kickstarter goal, so if you haven’t checked that out yet, and you’re seeing this before July 18, 2021 at 7:00 pm PDT, head to this link, and consider contributing a few bucks if you can.

Second of all, as soon as Ryan Garcia was revealed as one of the heads, I knew I needed to write a sequel to the fic I wrote a few years ago about time traveling Eddie’s ghost. If you want to read it, it’s here, but it’s very long, so in summary: Eddie is brought back as a ghost against his will after the events of Poe Party and is told that he has to either complete his unfinished business or forget about it in order to move on. He learns how to time travel and encounters James and Lily from kitr, who remind him of Edgar and Annabel, so he decides to ruin their lives, which leads to him bringing Lily back in time with him. She keeps meeting and falling for people who remind Eddie of Poe, so he has to keep breaking them up for revenge, and definitely not at all because he’s jealous. When Lily dies as Vivian Nightingale, Eddie realizes that he has to go back and establish her memorial ball so the events of Poe Party will happen the way they’re supposed to, and we left him hoping that this would complete his unfinished business. So here’s what I’m currently imagining happens next:

Eddie was out of ideas. He had gone back in time, established the Vivian Nightingale Memorial Ball, even orchestrated the meeting between his living self and Oscar Wilde just to make sure everything happened the way it was supposed to, and still he could not move on to the other side. Perhaps that psychic had been wrong about unfinished business. Perhaps being summoned as a ghost was permanent.

He went back to the future and haunted Lily’s grave again. Part of him wanted to find a way to bring her back, but to his surprise he found that his biggest reservation was that he didn’t want her to also be stuck with no way to find peace. This made no sense, of course. Eddie reminded himself that he wanted her to be miserable, because she reminded him of Annabel, and well… now that Eddie thought about it, that didn’t make any sense either. “Ugh, what am I even DOING with my afterlife?” he shouted, kicking her headstone in frustration.

Suddenly, the cemetery began to melt away. Had Eddie lost his ability to control his time travel? He felt a peculiar sensation in his neck, and he looked down to find that his body had disappeared. He quickly shut his eyes and begged everything to return to normal, but when he opened them again he found himself in an unfamiliar room, face to face with someone unpleasantly familiar.

“Well, well, well,” Eddie sneered. “Edwin. Allan. Poe.”

The other man furrowed his brow in confusion. “I thought Poe’s first name was Edgar,” said a voice behind Eddie that he thought sounded like Lenore.

“Are you sure it wasn’t Edward?” asked the man who looked like Poe but clearly was not.

“Good thing you’re a science teacher and not an English teacher,” quipped the Lenore double as she wandered into Eddie’s line of sight.

Eddie felt like he’d landed in his own worst nightmare. He wanted to leave, but his limbs seemed reluctant to move when he willed them to. “Where am I?” he demanded. “And who are you? And why can’t I-?” Eddie was interrupted by his own arm, which had finally decided to move, but not the way he’d wanted it to, and he ended up whacking himself in the face. When he glared at the offending arm, he noticed that it bore absolutely no resemblance to the arm he was normally attached to.

“I’m Ichabod Crane, and this is our – well, my – I mean, it’s my house, and it might be yours, too. My roommate doesn’t have a head, you see, and we found yours hidden under some floorboards in a haunted house. Matilda’s a witch and she knows how to attach heads to bodies, so that’s how you got here.”

Ichabod smiled in what he clearly thought was a friendly manner, but all Eddie saw was a smirk. Roommates with Poe’s doppelganger? Even if this had been his body, which it obviously was not, he wouldn’t have been able to stand it. Using all his willpower to remain calm, Eddie began, “I am most certainly not your roommate, and this is not my-”

He was interrupted once again, this time by a scream from the doorway. Eddie was prepared to see someone who reminded him of Annabel, but he was unprepared for the startled look of wide-eyed astonishment on her face. She recognized him.

Ichabod rushed over to her. “Kat, darling – I mean, not darling, that’s awkward, I would never call you that – well, not never, but we don’t know each other well en- sorry, I mean, uh… Kat, what’s wrong?”

For a moment, she looked as though she might faint, but instead she spoke, in the same desperately trying to remain calm tone that Eddie had just been using. “That head looks terrible on Headless’s body. It’s clearly the wrong one.”

“True, it doesn’t seem to fit, but I feel like we should at least give him the same courtesy we gave the others and allow him to tell his story-”

“No!” cried Kat, lunging toward Eddie.

Was this somehow Annabel’s ghost? Or was it, could it possibly be… “Lily?” he whispered as she approached him.

Instead of responding, she put one of her hands under his chin, grabbed his hair with the other, and tried to yank his head off of the body. Eddie hadn’t been able to feel physical pain since his death, but this hurt. “Stop! Let me talk to you!” he protested, but she ignored him.

“Ichabod! Matilda! Help me get this hideous head off!” Kat shouted as Eddie yelped in pain and anger. Hideous?

“Do you know this guy, Kat?” Matilda asked, sounding amused.

“Do you?” Ichabod repeated, sounding anxious.

Kat seemed to suddenly realize what she was doing. She released Eddie’s head. After taking a few steps back and a few deep breaths, she said, “Sorry. No, I don’t know him, but I do know that his head doesn’t belong on that body, and I’m so desperate to help you find the right head. We’ve been trying for so long, I’m starting to get frustrated and impatient. So can we please take this head off and try another one?”

Matilda narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but when Kat met her gaze unflinchingly, she shrugged and said, “Well, I certainly agree that this is not the correct head, so I guess you’re right, might as well move on.” She began chanting a spell.

“No, wait!” Eddie cried, but it was too late; a moment later he found himself back in the cemetery, his head reattached to the rest of his ghost.

Was Lily still alive somehow? Or had she come back as a ghost without telling him? That couldn’t have been Annabel; that girl had never been capable of violence, and if she had somehow developed a taste for it in death and now wanted revenge on him, surely she would have tried to strangle him, not pull his head off. But Lily had been his friend. Why wouldn’t she want to see him? If she’d figured out that he’d been sabotaging her, surely she would have confronted him. He resolved to get to the bottom of this. All he had to do was figure out where and when Ichabod Crane lived, and then he could take his whole ghost self there. She wouldn’t be able to get rid of him as easily that way. If nothing else, she at least owed him an explanation. Whether this was Eddie’s final bit of unfinished business or another wild goose chase, only time would tell.

#HeadlessSeriesFic #headless series fic #headless series #shipwrecked comedy #can't wait to see how thoroughly this is contradicted by canon #please help make this series happen!

18 notes · View notes

mattzerella-sticks · 3 years

Text

⭐2020 Fics in Review ⭐

Happy New Year’s Eve! 💫💫💫 2020 sure was a year... between everything that was happening on the macro (the pandemic, elections, etc.) and on the micro-level (shows delayed, some ending - disastrously, so much drama, etc.), the past 12 months felt like a blur. Especially since we’ve been inside and realized time is an illusion!

But, there were moments where I was able to ground myself in the present and not be swept away by the tide. Most of them were because of fanfiction. Whether writing or reading, fanworks became a soothing balm. And I’d be remiss (and breaking tradition) if I didn’t reflect on my past works of 2020!

I’ve written 43 fics across a wide array of fandoms - the most being Supernatural, with 9-1-1, DC Comics, Marvel, Boku No Hero Academia, Stargirl, Star Wars, Hollywood, and RWBY sprinkled in. I really branched out this year, and am looking forward to what I will write in 2021. Maybe new fandoms? Maybe an original work? Who’s to say!

Thank you to all those who’ve read my works, and am grateful for both your support and continued engagement - can’t wait to see you in 2021 with me 😁

Here are my works!

9-1-1 (TV Show)

Caught (Evan ‘Buck’ Buckely/Eddie Diaz, side Athena Grant/Bobby Nash, side Maddie Buckley/Howie ‘Chimney’ Han)

Photobooths are prime for catching special moments and making them last forever, even if they are less both and more open spaces with a backdrop. When Athena, Bobby, and Michael stumble upon one such moment between Buck and Eddie, what will they do?

And how will it affect Maddie and Chimney?

Lumped Together (Evan ‘Buck’ Buckely/Eddie Diaz, side Henrietta ‘Hen’ Wilson/Karen Wilson, side Maddie Buckley/Howie ‘Chimney’ Han)

As an apology for keeping her thoughts about medical school secret from her wife and partner, Hen takes them (and Maddie) out for lunch. With the promise that it would only be them. And for the most part it was. Until Buck and Eddie strode in with every intention of eating Takoyaki.

Just not with them.

Armed with new information, what's a girl to do? Hen spends the next day fighting back the natural instinct to tease her friends about the wonderful step they've taken together in their relationship. Can she make it home without saying anything? Or will she give in?

DCU

Lonely Together (Barry Allen/Bruce Wayne, past Barry Allen/Iris West, past Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle)

Barry needs others, yet whether by his enemies or his own actions, he ends up alone. After Iris leaves him, Barry feels as if he drifts through life. Like lightning humming in the air without a rod to ground him.

Until he struck another lonely soul and entered a relationship he never thought possible. Now, months since he and Bruce began sleeping with each other, Barry feels settles. At peace in a way he hasn't felt in a long while. Since he and Iris started petering out.

But it's not love... is it?

Come Home (Jason Todd/Kyle Rayner)

Jason Todd gets a message from Bruce. He's surprised to see it. Then, he's surprised by the message itself. Hearing Bruce's final message stirs something inside of him, urging him towards a place he's avoided ever since his and Bruce's falling out. So he gathers his things, and then... waits.

He can't leave yet. Jason doesn't know why. Bruce gave him a mission, just like old times. Except it's not, because he... Jason can't move. Can't even stand.

That's how Kyle finds him.

Restless (Barry Allen/Bruce Wayne)

Returning home from a mission in outer space, the team picks up a distress signal off-course. They rush off to help, landing on a strange alient planet teeming with life. Especially within the plant kingdom.

While guarding the Javelin, Bruce and Barry encounter one such member while engaging in some familiar fight-flirting. Will its effects spell trouble for the League, or help these two relax their guards long enough to explore new possibilities?

(Hint: It's a little bit of both)

Marvel

Hot Seat (Peter Parker/Johnny Storm)

Spiderman likes Johnny. Like likes him. And he thought Johnny felt the same. He wasn't wrong, but Johnny like liked someone else, too. Someone he actually wanted to pursue, over Spiderman.

Unfortunately that someone is Peter Parker.

However, after a terrible misunderstanding, Johny isn't too keen on seeing either Peter or Spiderman; the longer this confusion left unresolved, the more Johnny's hurt would fester. Can Peter find a way to make Johnny listen?

Hollywood

Merrily We Roll Along (Archie Coleman/Rock Hudson)

With their careers still on the rise and no peak in sight, sometimes Archie's and Roy's lives get a little too busy. Understandably so. Archie's in the midst of writing his next screenplay while the latest opens across America. Roy spend more time on set than at home working on his latest project. When their schedules allow it, all they want is to be together.

Can they enjoy a simple morning together, or will the clouds of Hollywood cast a heavy shadow over their sunny day?

RWBY

Lucky You, Huh? (Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi)

After all that happened, it's time for the dust to settle. Choices were made. Now, the consequences for certain actions need to be carried out.

Even though he fought alongside her to save Mantle, Robyn Hill couldn't help save Clover from the whims of the Council. Without a job or home, Clover needs to find a way to carry on.

If anyone understands what that feels like, it's Qrow. Never being one who can communicate his feelings well, would he be the best to comfort the other man. When he's the only one who can, what does that mean for Clover?

Star Wars

Fourth (Poe Dameron/Finn)

What's a man and his co-general to do when they're on a mission together on a planet known for frequent sandstorms?

Flirt? That is a possibility. And definitely the one they take.

Stargirl

I’m Here (Courtney Whitmore/Yolanda Montez, past Yolanda Montez/Henry King, Jr.)

Coda to 1x10 "Brainwave Jr."

Losing Henry was sad, but it's not the first person Courtney knew whose future was snatched by the Injustice Society of America. That doesn't make his death any less tragic. It does remind Courtney how screwed up and dangerous her life was. At least she was able to wake up the next day and keep moving. And so was Beth, and Rick. But Yolanda...

Where was Yolanda? Courtney needs to know.

Crusher (Lawrence Crock/Paula Crock, Pat Dugan/Barbara Whitmore, Lawrence Crock/Pat Dugan)

When Lawrence met Pat, he saw another body that could benefit from some exercise at his gym. The more they interacted, became friends, he saw that body doing other things in other places. And his wife is totally supportive of this. While in the midst of an afterhours training session, Lawrence drags his feet on telling his friend a few important things. Egged on by Paula, will he say what's on his mind? How will Pat react?

And does Pat have a secret or two of his own?

Boku No Hero Academia/My Hero Academia

Little Secrets Everywhere (Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijiro)

Mina thought letting Bakugo read whatever was in her folder wouldn't be too bad. Maybe he would snipe at her for her less than perfect English translation and sentence structure, slap her on the head with the balled up assignment. What she wasn't expecting was for him to charge with hellish fury towards her in the common room with all their friends to see.

One careless mistake leads to many things coming to light. Everyone walking away with something new to think about.

Boku No Fundanshi (Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijiro)

Bakugo Katsuki is a top student at the premier hero academy in the world. Bakugo Katsuki is a boy with the ability to use his sweat as a weapon, each droplet containing enough nitroglycerin to obliterate a phone book. Bakugo Katsuki enjoys reading manga where boys fall in love with one another. Two out of the three are commonly accepted facts. The final one is a heavily guarded secret that Bakugo protects with his life. At least until his vigilance lapses, and he loses a doujinshi.

Will he be able to recover what he lost before anyone realizes it's his? Or, by the end of this, will he have found something he didn't know he was missing?

Portmanteau (Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijiro)

Portmanteau (port·man·teau) n. a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others

Like Bakugo's chosen hero name. But was that his first choice? Kirishima doesn't think so, after finding a damning piece of evidence hidden within his notes. Except it's not what he thinks, at all...

Supernatural

Real (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Coda to 15x09 "The Trap"

Morning after, and Sam spies a little something blossoming in the kitchen. Something that stokes the fires of his curiosity. When the scene ends, he walks in with an intent to investigate. Learn about the strange magic that happened before his eyes. How quickly Dean and Cas's relationship repaired. And what brilliant new shape it took on after Purgatory.

Will Sam be satisfied with the answer?

Half-Priced Chocolates (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

The day after Valentine's Day is great for many things. Basking in the glow of a night well spent, sharing the joy of love with your family, and eating chocolate priced considerably lower than it was the day before.

Except Sam can't enjoy any of that, because Dean won't let him. Because Dean woke up in a sour mood and has picked up the banners of war against romantic love.

Albeit, the three aforementioned things might make his conflict the shortest in history.

Spill (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Dean always thought it would take more to force him into retirement. Yet here he is, locked in the Bunker until the world figures out a cure for a deadly virus. It could be worse - at least they have a home. He cannot imagine how worse it would be if this happened years earlier, where he and Sam were trapped in a tiny motel room together. Here they have options, and miles of outdoor space they can stroll through if their options become stale.

And they were beginning to. Dean could only do so much indoors. Dean knew he needed to shake things up, but couldn't begin thinking how. Luckily Castiel has an idea, and gives him a new way of looking at their kitchen.

Supernatural Crack🩹tober

Following the Supernatural Cracktober prompt list, one day at a time.

Prompts will be listed in the notes and the chapter title.

Enjoy!

Bullets Over the Bayou (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Everyone wants Castiel Novak to quit the force, including Castiel. But he stays on despite the toxic work environment he’s surrounded by. Still believing he can do some good despite the many lines of red tape impeding him. Luckily, a pair of scissors by the name of Dean Winchester drops into his hands, and he finally feels like he can do some good.

Dean Winchester thought he would be in New Orleans for a day or two. Identify the body of his deadbeat father and then move on. No one knows he’s here. His mother and brother are blissfully unaware of the danger his father roped him into. With a parting gift of a journal, delivered to him the same day he received word about his father, Dean has become the target of a group of people who want him dead. The same people who killed his father.

Racing against the clock, can Dean and Castiel figure out what is so important about John Winchester’s journal that someone would kill for it?

Kick Ball Change (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Coda to 15x10 "The Heroes' Journey"

Dean has the Bunker to himself at a time after he and Sam regain their supernatural abilities. With nothing needing his attention, he decides taking time for himself wouldn't hurt. But the usual fare leaves him bored and tired.

So he tries something new. Something he wanted to try, but wasn't sure he would be good at. Dean starts off strong, but doing it on your own can only be so fun. Get you so far. Luckily a partner happens by and truly allows Dean to enjoy a part of himself he knew was there, but didn't want to share.

Tempered Desires (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Charlie Bradbury/OC, background Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore, background Sam Winchester/Ruby, background Sam Winchester/Mick Davies, past Dean Winchester/Arthur Ketch)

Dating, sex, and finding love were the farthest things on the minds of both Dean and Castiel. There were more important things to worry about - namely the pandemic that swept across the globe and changed everything. Navigating this new environment was hard enough without adding romance.

But fate never intervenes when you expect. From first meetings to first dates, we'll see how Dean and Castiel's relationship blossoms despite the circumstances.

Sunrise (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Dean and Sam were free. Finally, unequivocally, free.

But this wasn't the happy ending Dean had expected. Maybe in the past, having Sam in the passenger seat tearing across an open stretch of highway as the sunsets, it'd be what he wanted. But that was years ago. He's not that man anymore. Dean's tired of sunsets, of saying goodbye. He yearns for a different ending. One that's less of an ending, and more of a beginning. A sunrise instead of a sunset.

Sam has his. Dean lost his. Despite this setback, he won't stop. He'll live in memory of his sunrise.

Except, what can he do when he feels those rays on his face again?

Coda to 15x19

Fixing It (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Dean Winchester walked a long & difficult road. House burning down when he was 4, constantly being on the move until his father lost a fight with demons at the age of 25. Reunited with his mother only to lose her again. Have a son only to lose him, too. Of all the shadows that have crossed his path, he thought one of the main sources of light was his husband Castiel.

But he had to ruin that, too.

Can he ever have that shine again? Or are there things that are too good for him to hold? Will they mend what was broken?

Heart in My Hand (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

He was right there.

Cas was telling Dean everything he ever wanted to hear since meeting the angel of the Lord... only each and every word of his confession stabbed at Dean's heart. Because once he finished, there's no more time for them. For him. For any chance of happiness - all that taken away by the Empty. And now he has to carry on.

He tries. Stands, gets in his car and drives where Sam tells him. When he meets with the others, though...

Coda to 15x18 "Despair"

A Dumb Idea (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

They celebrated Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthdays, even the Fourth of July. What about the other holidays? What about Valentine's Day?

Mrs. Butters actually had a plan for that, but she left before it could come to fruition. Sam, however, stumbles on Dean and a leftover piece from said plan. Something Dean would rather Sam not see. When he does get a peek as to what it is, well... Dean and Sam have a lot to talk about.

Coda to 15x14 "The Last Holiday"

What the Water Gave Him (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

It was over. Chuck lost, Sam and Dean can live their lives how they want them. But their victory wasn't without losses. The biggest upset nearly taking Dean out of the game, happening so close to the final battle. Now he's on the other side, alive against all odds, but Sam knows he isn't happy. Not truly happy since the Empty stole his best friend.

But there's a chance they can save him. A slim chance. A risk that Dean's willing to take despite every logical nerve in Sam's body screaming at him to look for better options. That threading a needle this small is too dangerous. That they don't have to take on another big bad, not anymore. That they don't have to risk their lives anymore. Dean is far past the point of listening. Dead set on this mission, Sam can only watch.

And pray his brother proves him wrong.

(Now with art from gabester-sketch)

Acutely (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Jack said he's sorry, after getting his soul back.

Jack said he's sorry, and he's looking at Dean. They're all looking at Dean.

Jack said he's sorry, and Dean can't take it. It's too much. Like a frog thrown into a boiling pot he hops out, jumping out from the room towards safety. Doing his best not to succumb to the pain.

He can't hide forever, let the wounds fester. It's too much to deal with on his own, though. Can someone help him through it?

Leeches (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Sharing a Netflix makes sense, in hindsight. Dean gets it. But that doesn't mean he appreciates seeing a bunch of profiles after his that weren't there last he checked.

He's gonna get to the bottom of this - of when this happened, why, and how they were able to guess his password.

Revival (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Sam and Dean stand there on the bridge, the camera panning out on them as they are finally reunited in Heaven.

But then Sam wakes up.

(Coda/Fix-It Fic to 15x20 "Carry On")

Memento (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Why did Castiel have a photo of himself in a cowboy hat? Where did he get it? Who took it, and more importantly who gave it to him?

Coda to 15x15 "Gimme Shelter"

The End (We Deserve) (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Dean Winchester dies in Sam's arms.

And then he doesn't.

(How that scene originally looked...)

Constants

Meeting with alternate versions of themselves makes Sam and Dean think about what the landscape of the former multiverse might have looked like - or, really, "If there can be multiple Deans and multiple Sams, can there be other versions of things they know. Like... Baby?"

Dean says no. There's only one Baby. She's got four wheels, black paint, and has been his from the beginning. Sam thinks otherwise.

Let's explore what the possibilities of Deans, Sams, and Babys in different universes might look like.

Enjoy the Present (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Sam had a birthday, Jack had a birthday...

It would only be fitting for Dean to have one, too. It's expected, really. Yet the one Sam and Jack throw him still catches him by surprise. Maybe because he actually agreed with Butters, about having outgrowned birthdays. Or because his thoughts were pulled elsewhere because of some disappointing news.

If it's the latter, than a birthday will definitely take his mind off of that. Especially when it comes time for his present.

Coda to 15x14 'The Last Holiday'

Swallow It Whole (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

"The older you get... the less lies make everything better"

But when you've told as many lies as Dean has, it's hard to tell what's true and what's not. How can he remove all the rotten parts of himself without bringing everything down? Which lies have ingrained themselves so firmly, that removing them would change everything about who he was?

And, scariest of them all, who would he be without those lies?

Coda to 15x16 "Drag Me (Away From You)"

Desperation, Baby! (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Death took her sweet time parsing through Chuck's book, meaning Lucifer spent longer than he'd like surrounded by his former vessel, his brother, his son, and a man whose obvious longing made him want to vomit. Instead of returning with his prize, Chuck welcoming him back, he must waste his valuable time playing 'nice; with those he can't stand.

Not that it matters. They don't trust him, each member of this ragtag group of survivors watching Lucifer in shifts. Never leaving him alone.

It's Dean's turn now, and he's driving Lucifer up a wall by doing nothing at all save for broadcasting a never-ending supply of feeling. Can he cut the signal without showing his hand, or put Dean's heart to good use?

Coda to 15x19 "Inherit the Earth"

A Healing Touch/New Experiences (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Adam/Serafina)

Maybe if Cas hadn't abandoned him, he wouldn't have agreed to Adam's offer. But with free will finally theirs, Cas made his choice, and Dean his. Now he has to live with the consequences - even if they are awkward. He won't die from it, certainly.

It's only a massage.

But what Dean doesn't know, is that it's more than a massage. It's healing.

It Feels Real Good (Claire Novak/Kaia Nieves, background Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Jody sent her to Yosemite, and she brings her back. For what reason, Claire doesn't know. But it had better be important, otherwise Claire gave the Dark Figure that stole her happiness another chance at escape. Will Jody's house hold a reason important enough for Claire to let go of the heavy burdens she's been carrying since hopping through a rift into another universe?

Coda to 15x12 "Galaxy Brain"

Through the Door (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Cas tells Sam that Chuck and Amara are here. But how does he know? Sure, he could've felt them land through his grace. But all that time Sam was gone? There was enough there that he could've investigated. They'd need to know where they were anyway, when the time came.

But Cas should've known better. Now wasn't the best moment for a little family reunion, especially when there's so much bad blood it can drown them all. Yet he came, and finally got the audience he always seeked with his father.

Coda to 15x17 "Unity"

Four of Swords (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

The Four of Swords, in the present position, means you don't want to interact with the rest of the world. Because of stress, you need to spend some time with yourself - unhealthy always being 'on'. That the healthiest thing to do is to escape.

Dean might crave escape, but it's not something he thinks he can have. Something he deserves, even. After his and Sam's most recent hunt, this cancerous feeling has grown heavy and weighs him down. He cannot escape on his own, as best he tries.

Luckily a guardian 'former angel' angel swoops in at his lowest. Helps pick up the pieces as best he can and lovingly put them back together. But he can only do so much. The rest is up to Dean.

Can Dean take those final steps, say those final words, and finally free himself?

i’d like to teach the world to sing (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Castiel/Others, WIP, 10 out of 15 chapters posted so far)

Mar del Vista, California - 1972

The groovy counterculture that dominated conversation in the past few years still clings to the landscape, floating around like smoke off a burning joint. Changed by the fires of war, Manson, and life into something new. Less trusting, optimistic, and innocent.

Cas is just one of many disillusioned hippies, saddled with a general distrust even before the movement self-imploded. Wary of about everything. Perfect for his line of work, where what's on the surface might not match the truth underneath. It's not an easy life, but he's comfortable with how it goes. Coasting until he hears a case he has no business accepting. For one, it's about a missing teen. And another, it's personal.

Except Jack's disappearance, like every other case he's worked, isn't so cut and dry. Like a rock skipping across a then-placid lake, the ripples stretch far and wide. Those waves slamming at Cas; of cops, federal agents, hippie cultists, and a certain green-eyed detective who's a little too interested in Cas's investigation.

Will Cas find Jack? Or will he drown in the tides.

Checkmate (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Billie saves Jack from suffering a fatal end from her plan, and knowing Jack was safe gave Cas space to focus on his own troubles. Nearly losing his son again... revelations from Chuck... choices Dean made, were set on, until Sam broke through at the last minute - too close - they all were...

It was too much. Cas needed to digest these roiling experiences away from faces it hurt to look at. Except he stumbles exactly where Chuck wants him. After countless times praying for guidance, Chuck finally decides now is perfect for a long-awaited heart-to-heart.

Coda to 15x17 "Unity"

Slide (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

This isn't his day. It's Sam's and Eileen's. But while out on the dance floor, Dean realizes something that forces him to act. Act boldly.

It's not his day, but he cannot push back what's been there all along, dam bursting with no hope or need of rebuilding itself. He has to say something to Cas.

Why? Because it's Electric... boogie woogie woogie

(Inspired by the Suptober Day 9 prompt - Electric)

Unwrap Me (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Dean never thought he would make it this far. Nor would he have as many wonderful things that he has now. A home, friends, family, and most importantly love. With a former angel.

Given how normal his life is now, Dean decides he wants to go all out celebrating Christmas. Parties, feasts, and the perfect presents. He wants to get Cas something that will translate everything that resides in his heart. Dean believes he has the right gift, but decides against leading with it. Instead surprising Cas with it after showing him his Christmas best.

Although, during his entire time planning Cas's present, he never wondered what Cas got him...

Disappointment is temporary, but creativity is eternal 🥂 to more fanworks in 2021!!!

26 notes · View notes

madamewriterofwrongs · 4 years

Note

35 💕💕

Absolutely, dear!

Sensory Prompt List

35. Blowing a raspberry against someone’s skin

Build the Foundation

Eddie sighed when he entered the bedroom to find Buck curled away from him. It had been the silent treatment all day and frankly, it was getting a little tiring having to walk on egg shells around his husband. He’d wanted to apologize but Buck wouldn’t give him the time of day, it seemed: sitting across from him at lunch instead of at his side where he belonged, refusing to speak to him at work unless they were on a call (all Buck would tell the others was ‘he knows what he did’ and Eddie was not about to tell his friends what they were fighting about); he’d made the mistake of rolling his eyes when he thought Buck wasn’t looking and that had been a huge mistake.

Was it bad if all he wanted to do was kiss the pout off his face? He looked adorable when he was put out, how was he meant to resist those lips? It was those lips that he’d fallen in love with six years ago (the lips that had put him out of his misery when he’d stumbled through a proposal for a first date, and Buck had kissed him with a promise to pick him up at 8). How he loved those lips.

Again, not the response Buck had been looking for when he’d whined about Eddie being in the doghouse.

He was supposed to be sleeping on the couch tonight, but it was his bed after all. Just because Buck was grumpy with him didn’t mean he needed to forgo a good night’s rest. He wasn’t the 20-year-old, couch surfing for a week after he told Shannon he wanted to enlist in the army. His back would not survive another freeze out from his partner.

So, he’d just have to make amends, wouldn’t he.

Buck sensed his presence as soon as Eddie stepped foot in their room but didn’t turn around; the slightest tensing of his shoulders gave him away and he knew Eddie would notice, but still, he said nothing.

When Eddie crawled under the sheets and ran a firm hand around his stomach to pull him close, Buck stayed silent again.

When Eddie peppered light kisses behind his ear and down his neck, he felt the slightest hitch in his breath but otherwise, Buck continued to ignore his husband.

This called for desperate measures.

He brushed his lips along the skin he’d memorized with his fingers, and tongue and teeth so long ago, keeping each touch light and teasing. Buck always shivered when Eddie took his time leaving barely-there kisses – he was always too impatient and Eddie loved how easy it was to make his body twitch with anticipation.

As his ministrations swept over his husband’s shoulder and over his ribs, Eddie went in for the attack.

“What the hell, Eddie?”

Buck jumped into his arms at the sudden vibration against his skin, turning to look him in the eye for the first time in hours.

“It’s called a raspberry.” Eddie shrugged innocently, hiding his wicked smile of victory.

“I know what it’s called.” Buck shoved him towards the centre of the bed so there was some thinking space between them. “What are you doing?”

Admittedly, it was a bit of a childish move, but it had gotten him what he wanted so who was he to argue with the time-honored tradition?

“It’s how I get Christopher to smile after he’s being grumpy.” It was true, he hadn’t done it since the boy declared he ‘wasn’t a kid anymore, dad.’ – and Eddie had definitely cried a little at that – but he still had fond memories of the days when it was just the two of them, and he could easily pull a giggle from the boy he loved with all his heart.

Hopefully he could do it again.

The sound that fell from Buck’s lips was decidedly not a giggle, but closer to the frustrated sigh he saved for the days when words came harder.

“I’m not being grumpy, Eddie. I’m hurt.”

One look at Buck and he stopped his playful hopes. The way his eyebrows dropped and his pout had flattened into a clenched frown: he was upset. Not pouting for a little while until they both calmed down, genuinely upset with him. It didn’t make sense.

Eddie blinked in confusion. “I’m sorry I watched Master Chef Junior without you.” He tried to sound sincere but it still seemed a little ridiculous to him.

From the way Buck sat up on the bed, eyes stunned and searching his expression, that was not what he was expecting to hear.

“You think that’s why I’m mad at you?”

His only recourse was the shrug. What else could it be? He’d spent all day, assuming that the cold shoulder was for some minor indiscretion when clearly, there was something going on that he had no idea about. Eddie tried to search their recent history for the cause of their distance, but he came up with nothing.

Buck’s sigh contained multitudes of annoyance, and frustration, and anger. “I saw the letter you got yesterday. It was at the top of mail pile on your desk this morning while you were in the shower.” He spoke with so much intention of shame, which only made Eddie feel guilty for having no earthly idea what the hell he was talking about.

He sat up to match his husband’s position, begging to find his thread of thought. “I haven’t had a chance to go through the pile, yet” he explained.

There was something in Buck’s expression that startled him: sympathy, maybe? The rest was still covered in anger and disbelief; stunned and raw. “So you don’t know?” When Eddie shook his head slowly, Buck wound up for another accusatory glare. “They’re considering your offer.”

His stomach dropped. Buck knew. He was angry. Of course he was angry. They were considering his offer and he hadn’t even told Buck about it.

They were considering his offer!

“They are?” There was no hiding the excitement that coloured his words as he curled onto his knees. This was unbelievable – truly. It wasn’t a guarantee, obviously, but it was hope. He needed a little hope every once in a while and this was-

“So it’s true?”

Eddie pulled the breaks and gaped at the still frustrated Buck before him. Regret replaced his excitement; he’d done this all backwards.

“I genuinely didn’t think they’d take it seriously;” he quickly tried to reassure. “it was well below their asking price, but I just had to know if it was even possible.” Had to know if there was even a chance that he could have it all. And, apparently, the universe decided to grant him another mercy (the first was when Christopher was born, the second had been looking up to see a shower of gunfire lighting the sky, the third had been meeting Buck). Buck; whose expression was slowly fading into a pout that could easily be kissed away.

“You did it without me, though.”

Eddie reached for his hands and his husband took them willingly, their wedding rings burning cold against their skin. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up. I know how much you liked it, and I really didn’t think they’d consider it.” It truly was a miracle that he’d received an accursed letter at all. If the price he paid for a bit of hope, was a day of misunderstanding, he would happily pay it. “Forgive me for keeping it from you?”

The coy look on his husband’s face as he squeezed his hands in response, made Eddie wary. “If you’ll forgive me for lying.”

Definitely wary. “What did you lie about?”

The shy smile burst into an open grin full of the joy he’d been missing all day. “They’re not considering your offer anymore. They accepted. I called Grace this afternoon.”

Not for the first time that day, Eddie felt his heart burst from his chest at the mental whiplash. The hope he’d held onto morphed into the exhilaration he hadn’t allowed himself to feel. They’d accepted his Hail Mary and Buck knew all about it. Christopher was going to be so…hold on. Eddie scrutinized his husband’s glorious expression. “But you were mad at me.”

Buck rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because I thought you knew why I was mad and just weren’t ready to apologize.”

Eddie snorted at him, even as he pulled Buck in for a long-awaited kiss; their reconciliation made sweeter by the prospect of this next step together.

He pulled away just far enough to stare into his husband’s eyes. “We got the house” he whispered, still in disbelief.

Buck came as close as he would to giggle at Eddie’s antics – a weighty chuckle in the darkness of their bedroom – and leaned in for another kiss. “We got the house.”

Their dream house; the one they’d viewed on their most recent day off, and had visions of waking up in the master bedroom, and building blanket forts in the living room, and making dinner as a family in the kitchen, and hanging art projects on the walls because nothing in a museum could match the master at home.

Buck’s excitement was palpable, vibrating out of his skin now that the secret had been reveal. “There’s still inspections and paperwork and a lot of headaches but if all goes well, we’ll take possession of the house about three months before the baby’s born.”

Three months to prepare their new home for an infant, lovingly surrogated and the addition to their family they’d been wanting on for years. Three months to move their teenaged son and entire life into a new home while maintaining their full-time jobs as first responders.

Eddie couldn’t care less.

Joy.

That was the only word to express the feeling in his chest at all the possibilities that lay before him and future he’d have with the man in front of him. The way everything felt bursting and yet settled with a confidence he didn’t always feel. But tonight, all there was, was joy.

“That’s not a lot of time.” He squeezed Buck’s hands.

His husband only had eyes for him, tenderly kissing their joined knuckles. “It’s enough.”

“More than enough” Eddie promised.

It was everything.

#cj writes things #gracieli #love alicia #buddie #911 fox #911 fic #buddie fic #prompt fill #fluff #married fluff

69 notes · View notes

tripleaxeldiaz · 4 years

Text

subtle as a brick in the small of my back

Eddie’s proposing to Buck. The whole team finds out first. It goes about as well as expected (not well at all)

Or: 5 times the team almost blows Eddie’s cover, and 1 time it’s already blown

read on ao3

In retrospect, Eddie really did this to himself.

But, in his defense, he had to tell Maddie — she was Buck’s sister, his only blood relative, and the only one who would honestly tell him if the ring was horribly ugly. And he had to tell Bobby — the guy was practically Buck’s step-father, and he wanted to avoid any possible lecture from his mother about not being “considerate” or “chivalrous” when it came to asking a man’s pseudo son to marry him.

He should have known, however, that it wasn’t just telling those two — he should have known it was telling Bobby, who would tell Athena, who would tell Hen, who would tell Chimney, who had already heard it from Maddie, and who was now practically skipping around the firehouse announcing it to everyone else.

Eddie watches from the kitchen as Chim flits around like a damn bumblebee spreading the good news about Buck and Eddie’s pending engagement. He’s not a holy man, but he prays to whoever is listening that Buck doesn’t find out until Eddie actually gets to ask him himself.

Whoever hears him has the worst sense of humor.

Buck and Eddie don’t like to be apart after bad calls.

This one could have been worse — four car pile up in the carpool lane with three critical injuries, all kids. They were in the ICU and expected to make full recoveries, but it’s still not easy pulling mangled bodies the same size as Christoper out of wrecked cars.

They sat close in the truck coming back to the station, thighs pressed together, shoulders overlapping. They changed together in the locker room, never far away enough that they couldn’t feel the others’ warmth. They climbed the stairs together to the lounge, Eddie’s hand around Buck’s wrist, making sure he stayed upright until they could fall onto the couch.

They’re better now, overall. They checked in with Carla and Chris (who were apparently in the process of an intricate arts and crafts project that required hot glue and a pound of glitter. Eddie can’t wait to clean that out of the house for the next 10 years). The TV in the lounge is softly playing a rerun of Chopped. Eddie is sitting in the corner of the couch, feet on the coffee table, fingers running through Buck’s short hair where his head is settled in his lap. His other hand rests on Buck’s chest, right over his heart, and he listens to Buck’s critical commentary of each chef’s use of ingredients. They know the bell will probably ring in the next 15 minutes and they’ll be right back in the truck, but for now they sink into this brief moment of peace.

Eddie’s so focused on the show and Buck’s apparently extensive knowledge of ways to prepare salmon that he doesn’t even notice Bobby coming over until the couch dips as he sits down.

“You boys doing okay?” he asks, a soft smile on his lips. Buck adjusts to see him better, sitting up to lean on Eddie’s chest, Eddie’s arm slung over his shoulder.

“Yeah, we’re good. Chris has a surprise craft for us when we get home, though I think the mess he makes will be more surprising than anything else.”

Eddie huffs out a laugh, craning his neck to kiss the crown of Buck’s head. When he looks back at Bobby, the look the captain has on his face seems...sentimental. A little too sentimental, if Eddie’s being honest.

Buck must notice it too. He cocks his head and asks, “Are you okay Cap? You’re lookin’ a little misty over there.”

Bobby smiles and shakes his head, eyes shining. “I’m good, kid. Just...really excited for you guys.”

Eddie narrows his eyes. That’s a weird thing to say.

“Excited?” Buck asks, cocking his head even more. “What, that we didn’t get crushed on the highway?”

Bobby laughs. “Well yeah, of course. But also, you know, just excited that you guys have each other to lean on in the bad times like this. And you’ll have each other for a really long time. Forever, hopefully.”

Now Eddie’s eyes are wide in panic. Seriously? You’ll have each other for a really long time? He gives Bobby a look over Buck’s head that hopefully reads as If you don’t stop talking right now I’ll spray you with the hose and I won’t even feel bad about it.

Buck — beautiful, slightly oblivious Buck — just turns to look at Eddie, a smile lighting up his face (a relief to see after the past few hours). “Yeah, I’m pretty excited about that too.”

Eddie melts a little, returning Buck’s smile. Before he can fully respond, the bell rings, and Buck jumps to his feet. He stretches, shaking off any lingering cobwebs of their last call before heading into another one. He kisses Eddie’s cheek as he passes to head to the stairs.

He watches him bound down to the truck, still smiling, before turning to Bobby with narrowed eyes again.

“I’m pretty sure my 11 year old is better at being subtle than you are.”

Bobby claps his shoulder as he follows Buck to the stairs. “Don’t worry, I don’t think he noticed anything. Consider that a precursor to my speech at the wedding.”

Eddie sighs, hopes he’s right, and follows the team to the truck.

~~~~~~~~~~

Eddie stares at Maddie’s kitchen island in the same awestruck confusion he usually has on Buffridays. This week’s spread consists of lasagna, garlic knots, summer rolls, banh mi, tacos, and what he’s pretty sure is fried cheesecake. He feels Buck come up next to him, hip checking him as he gets one of everything on his plate before returning to the couch to pick their movie for the night. Eddie follows suit, skipping the cheesecake but promising he’ll come back later, before dropping down next to his boyfriend, who immediately turns and gives him a quick peck on the temple.

Eddie does not blush and smile like an idiot, despite this being a regular thing that has occurred for the entire two year duration of their relationship. He doesn’t. He’s totally used to how much and how openly Buck loves him. It’s fine.

Maddie walks over while they bicker about what movie to watch and sits on Buck’s other side. She clears her throat, halting their argument between Booksmart and Heathers, and pulls something out of her pocket.

Buck turns toward her and freezes. Eddie looks over as well and sees her holding a scrap of dark blue fabric. It’s inky and rich and speckled with white dots, almost like…

“The Milky Way Dress? Maddie, I can’t believe you still have this, why—”

“I finally got around to cleaning out the last of my boxes, pretty much a bunch of old stuff I was not ready to deal with when I left.” She smiles, wistful and a little sad. “I found this and just thought it was time to pass it on to you.”

Buck’s in shock, Eddie can tell. His eyes are wide and his mouth hangs open like it did the first time Christopher referred to the two of them as “his dads”, or like it did when Eddie told him that he wanted to spend the rest of their lives together (and no that was not a proposal, Eddie was hopped up on drugs after falling off a second story roof at a call. He barely remembers it, save for the look on Buck’s face. Doesn’t count.).

Buck takes the fabric reverently, turning it in his hands and running it through his fingers. He turns to Eddie, a soft smile on his face, and Eddie places his hand on his thigh reassuringly. He can tell there’s a story, and he’s happy to wait until Buck’s ready to share.

“This is— wow. So my grandma was one of the main people who raised me, along with Maddie. And she was crazy in the best way, very Miss Frizzle. She used to make all her own clothes with crazy fabric, and she always made me a matching shirt or belt or something. She got this Milky Way fabric once, and I was just obsessed with it, I wouldn’t shut up about it. So she went all out — she made me a shirt, a belt, a tie, a damn suit out of the stuff. I wore them as much as humanly possible for the next few years before my parents ‘accidentally’ donated them away.”

“You wore that suit for picture day until you were 13,” Maddie reminds him.

“Yeah, exactly.” Buck laughs wetly, wiping at his eyes. “But Grandma loved it as much as I did and always wore the matching dress when I came to visit. When she died when I was 16, she made it very clear in her will that she wanted to be buried in that dress. And Maddie, genius that she is, cut some scraps off the dress so we could always have a part of her. I lost mine in one of my billion moves, but now…”

“I kept part of this scrap too, but I wanted to give most of it to you,” Maddie says. “I know how close you two were. I used it as my ‘something old’ and ‘something blue’ at my wedding, so I figured you could use it too for...I don’t know, something. Down the line.”

She catches Eddie’s eye in a silent apology. He’s glad she caught herself because he’s still a little too wrapped up in watching Buck relive all these obviously happy memories to register much of anything else going on.

He watches Buck for a little longer as he folds the fabric back up, placing it in his back pocket. He turns and wraps his sister in a patented Buckley Bear Hug, laughing as he kisses the top of her head.

“Thank you, Mads. Seriously, this is...perfect. It’s just perfect.”

“Of course, I’m just glad I found it for you. And seriously, don’t lose it. I have a feeling you’re going to need it soon.” She pats his cheek fondly, sending a not so sly wink to Eddie.

Eddie somehow manages to keep his groan in his head as Buck settles between them again, picking up the remote.

“Alright gang, I really think the only way we’ll be able to balance out all this sappy stuff is with the glorious violence of Heathers…”

~~~~~~~~~~

Laughter erupts as soon as Eddie gets to the front door of the Grant-Nash house, so he waits a minute before knocking. The door swings open, and he’s greeted by the sounds of soft jazz, the smells of home cooking, and the vision of his boyfriend looking happy, relaxed, and definitely buzzed.

“Ah, my knight in shining armor, come to fetch me away!” Buck smiles his lopsided smile as he lets Eddie in and kisses him soundly. He tastes like Merlot and chocolate and just Buck. Eddie’s pretty sure he can get drunk off that taste alone.

“More like your chauffeur in a shining Silverado, but being a knight sounds much more fun.” Buck falls into a fit of giggles, his head collapsing onto Eddie’s shoulder, and Eddie can’t help but laugh along with him. Few things fill him with as much joy as seeing Buck so unabashedly happy, and he’ll relish in it for as long as he can, whenever he can.

Buck grabs his hand and pulls him towards the kitchen. “Come sit, Athena said she has some wedding stuff for me before we go.”

Eddie’s stomach drops past his feet, possibly all the way to the center of the earth.

His internal monologue goes off the rails — dammit he should have asked by now, none of the big romantic plans he’s come up with seem good enough so he just keeps waiting, but maybe since it’s all ruined he’ll just do it tomorrow morning when they’re eating breakfast or tomorrow night after they put Chris to bed, and Jesus Christ he should never tell any of their friends anything ever again—

Pull it together, Diaz. Be chill. Maybe it’s nothing. Of all people, Athena would never break a secret so easily. She’s a cop for crying out loud.

“Wedding stuff?” he asks in a voice way too squeaky to ever be considered “chill”.

Thankfully, alcohol is an exceptional buffer to Buck noticing Eddie in a full on crisis. He turns to him with bright eyes and says, “Yeah, for Maddie! She told Athena she’s been dropping hints to Chim for a while now and thinks he’ll pop the question soon. She wants to get a jump start on things so they can have the wedding by the end of the year.”

Well now he’s pissed for an entirely different reason.

Before he can hit send on a text to Chim — what the hell dude are you trying to steal my thunder??? — Athena comes back to the table with three boxes full of binders, pamphlets, and fabric samples. Eddie stands to help, and she gives him a look he can’t quite read before flashing a smile at Buck.

“This should be everything Bobby had. There’s lists of venues with how many people they hold and how much they charge for food. There’s samples for place settings, centerpieces, and decorations. And there’s lists of bakeries for the cake, plus what allergies they can cater to and price estimates. I hope to God there are no other boxes but if there are, I’ll let you know.”

“Wow,” Buck marvels as he flips through a book of flower arrangements. “Bobby really doesn’t half-ass anything, does he?”

Athena chuckles as she finishes the last of her wine. “No he does not. Sometimes it’s a gift, sometimes it’s a curse that clutters up my closet for three years.”

“Well thanks very much Athena, I know Maddie will be thrilled to not plan a second wedding completely from scratch.” He hugs her tight and kisses her cheek before grabbing a box and heading to the door. “I’ll keep these safe for her until Chim gets his ass in gear. Babe, can you get the other two?”

Eddie’s already in the process of grabbing them before Buck finishes his question. He smiles soft and bright when he sees, kissing Eddie’s temple. “You really are my knight in shining armor.”

Eddie’s sure he’s got hearts in his eyes as he watches Buck leave and load up the truck. He’s only able to turn away when he feels Athena come up next to him.

“Speaking of getting asses in gear…”

“I know,” Eddie sighs. “I’m working on it. I just...it needs to be perfect. That’s what he deserves.”

“Honey, it’ll be perfect because it’s you asking. That’s all he cares about. Don’t think too hard about it.”

“Well looks like I have to do it sooner rather than later anyway. I cannot believe Chim’s gonna—”

“Oh, he’s not.”

Eddie squints. “He’s not?”

“No, those are for you guys, not Maddie. I really needed them out of the house and didn’t know how long I’d be waiting.” She levels Eddie with a look again, and he somehow feels like he’s 16 and his mom wasn’t “mad” at him for doing something dumb, just “disappointed”. “I already gave Maddie a heads up so she’ll play along. Just try to ask him before we all start going grey, okay?”

“Yes ma’am.” She smiles and pats his cheek before leading him out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen these in person since I was in high school,” Buck says as Hen sits down across from him at the kitchen table, dropping a bunch of small, thick packages Eddie can’t quite see from his post at the coffee machine.

He blearily grabs the two cups of coffee he made, making his way over to the table. He places one mug in front of Buck, earning him a relieved smile and wink as he sits down, looking over to see what Hen brought in. The table is covered in developed pictures from old disposable cameras, dozens of glossy frames of people in suits and cocktail dresses laughing, a beautiful dessert table, something that looks suspiciously like a conga line.

“Are these from an old LAFD gala or something?” Eddie asks as Buck snorts out a laugh. He holds a picture up so Eddie can see Chimney with a tie around his head, perched on someone’s shoulders, yelling at something out of frame. “Oh that’s definitely getting blown up to poster size.”

“Actually,” Hen says, “these are from mine and Karen’s wedding.”

Eddie freezes mid sip of coffee, eyes snapping to Hen, who just stares back at him with feigned innocence and barely concealed glee. Hen’s smart, smarter than all of them put together, and while he knows she won’t tell Buck anything outright, he also knows she is thoroughly enjoying this opportunity to make Eddie squirm.

“Whoa,” Buck says. “There’s got to be at least a thousand pictures here. How’d you get so many in one night?”

“We had a few cameras on every table and told the guests to go nuts. We have some professional shots of the reception, but we wanted to see it how everyone else saw it too. And we decided to wait until our 10 year anniversary to get them developed so we could have a little walk down memory lane.”

“Huh, that’s a pretty good idea,” Buck murmurs thoughtfully, still absorbed in all the pictures in front of him. Eddie agrees, the cameras are a great idea, and he tucks that into the filing cabinets of his brain to use when they have their wedding.

If they ever have their wedding.

Eddie’s working on it. Really. He’s got the skeleton of a plan that will be beautiful and romantic and not too big, but big enough that Buck will know without a doubt how much Eddie loves him. So it’ll be soon, okay? Very soon. As long as someone doesn’t ruin everything before his plan can actually get set into motion.

He sees Hen’s smile get bigger, like she can see Eddie’s brain starting to overheat a little.

She leans over the table, pointing to one of the pictures. “I also recommend doing a dessert table instead of a big ugly cake. You can do a bunch of good stuff too like cupcakes, pie, we just went to a wedding with a candy bar…”

“A candy bar!?” Buck looks at Eddie like a kid on Christmas, and Eddie files that idea away too (while also noting that he’ll have to remind Buck that they probably can’t only have gummy worms at a candy bar).

“And you guys should definitely have a live band, they’re much better at getting people to dance than a DJ.”

Eddie clocks the “you guys” and starts sweating a little more. Hen notices too, eyes widening at Eddie like she knows she went a little too far.

Buck, by some miracle, still seems caught up in the fantasy of a 12-foot table covered in gummy worms.

He looks at Hen, eyebrows furrowed. “You don’t think a DJ is better? I feel like they have way better music usually. Live bands have, like, the same seven songs, and one of them is always ‘Footloose’.”

They continue to debate the pros and cons as Eddie stands to put his mug in the sink, squeezing Buck’s shoulder as he passes. Buck grabs his hand, kissing the inside of his wrist before letting him go, all without breaking conversation on whether “Shout!” or “The Macarena” is a more annoying song. Eddie’s stomach flutters like it always does with Buck’s absentminded displays of affection, but the butterflies also seem to be saying It’s time to get your shit together and ask this man for his hand in marriage, idiot.

Eddie closes his eyes, resting his head on the cabinet above the sink.

The butterflies are right. A little rude, but still right.

~~~~~~~~~~

Eddie knew Chimney was going to be the hardest loose end to round up.

He had stood at the top of the stairs, arms crossed, as Chim came up after telling the station (and probably the entire city of Los Angeles) that Eddie and Buck were getting engaged. “Chim, man, look—”

“No worries, Eddie,” Chim said, holding a hand up to cut Eddie off. “Cross my heart, I will not say a word to Buck. I’m sure you have something big and sappy in the works, and I will not be the person to screw that up.”

Eddie deflated a bit, still eyeing Chim warily. Chim just smiled back, clapping a hand on his shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. “Look, I’m so, so happy for you guys. You’ve both been through the ringer and still managed to find each other and create a beautiful life for yourselves. You guys really deserve it, and I—” He cleared his throat as his eyes filled with tears. He opened his mouth like he wanted to keep going, but he pulled Eddie into a tight hug instead.

“Thanks Chim, that’s...that’s really sweet.” Eddie felt his voice crack around the lump in his throat as he patted his friend on the back. They pulled away, laughing quietly and wiping their eyes.

“Plus,” Chimney said, punching Eddie softly on the shoulder, “we’re basically in-laws now, so there’s definitely a bro code. Add that to the firefighter bro code, and I’m double coded, man.”

“So you’ll...double keep the secret?”

“Exactly.” Chim patted his back as he walked toward the kitchen. Eddie watched him go, still trying to put together the double code thing that was definitely not actually a thing.

In his own weird way, Chim had seemed sincere in keeping his mouth shut. Eddie really thought that had been that.

That had most certainly not been that.

Because since Chim couldn’t let out his excitement with words, he had to let it out in other ways.

Namely, tears. An ungodly amount of tears.

The whole team is in the lounge, flipping channels until they land on Say Yes to the Dress. Chim blinks at the TV, then whips his head to where Buck and Eddie are squished together on the couch. Eddie catches his gaze, watching his eyes begin to water before he’s up and running down the stairs. Hen barks out a laugh and tries to hide it in a cough. Bobby shakes his head and looks toward the sky, either asking God for strength or to smite him where he sits.

They’re at the kitchen table early in the morning, heads bent together as Buck shows Eddie a TikTok on his phone (Eddie doesn’t get the deal with these things, but they make Buck laugh so hard he snorts so he’ll allow it). They’re startled by a strangled sob from across the room and look up to see Chim rushing past them to the coffee machine rubbing his eyes, his shoulders still shaking as he adds milk to his mug. Buck shoots Eddie a confused look, and Eddie just shrugs helplessly before shooting a death glare to the back of Chim’s head.

Buck and Chim are chatting in the locker room when Eddie arrives for shift, dropping his bag next to Buck and giving him a quick peck hello on the cheek. Buck smiles at him, reaching up to push back a lock of hair that had fallen on Eddie’s forehead in his hustle to be on time (he’s growing his hair out again because he likes it that way, okay, not because Buck told him he looked like a sexy Superman when it was longer). They turn back to Chim in time to see tears begin to fall in earnest, which he quickly blames on allergies before scooting past them and out of the room.

“Is Chim like...good?” Buck asks, watching Chim walk away blowing his nose in his shirt. All Eddie had done was smile (probably a little dreamily) at some dumb joke Buck made, but that was enough apparently.

“He’s fine,” Eddie replies quickly. “He’s just...you know. Going through it. I guess.”

Bobby snorts from behind the stove as he flips a grilled cheese.

Buck sighs. “Should we remind him about therapy at least? I’m just worried he’s gonna be perpetually dehydrated or something.”

“I don’t know if therapy is what he needs,” Bobby says, looking pointedly at Eddie. Eddie throws a napkin at him.

Buck turns to Bobby confused but is quickly distracted by the hot sandwich placed in front of him. They launch into a debate on the best combination of cheese for a grilled cheese, Chim’s hydration levels seemingly forgotten.

Luckily for everyone, they’re almost in the clear. Reservations have been made, Chris’s sleeping arrangements have been confirmed, and Eddie’s even picked out an outfit. Everything is finally ready.

Eddie’s excited, more excited than he can remember being in a very long time, possibly since Christopher was born.

He also feels like he’s gonna hurl.

Hopefully that’s a good sign.

~~~~~~~~~~

He settled on recreating their first official date. It’s just cheesy enough that Buck will get a kick out of telling the story over and over and simple enough that Eddie can handle everything without involving one single other person.

It’s really nothing crazy: dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant and watching the sunset on the beach, brown bagging a bottle of wine like they’re in college. Eddie even knows what he’s going to say already, going over it again and again in his head so he can get everything out perfectly.

That first date, Eddie had accidentally told Buck he loved him. He hadn’t planned on it at all, but the words had been bubbling under his skin for so long at that point it was a relief to get them out in the open. He was immediately terrified he had said them too fast, too soon, but Buck simply pushed him back into the sand and kissed him soft and sincere, more teeth than anything once they both gave up on holding back their smiles.

He doesn’t want to be so caught off guard by his own brain this time. Not for something this important.

But that all has to wait until tomorrow.

Tonight, Chris is with Abuela (who slyly offered to keep him all weekend so Eddie and Buck could “celebrate properly”, which Eddie was both thankful for and mortified by, hearing from his grandma), they had ordered Chinese, and are now watching a movie that (blessedly) has no cartoon characters randomly bursting into song.

It’s normal, domestic, something they do at least once a week.

And yet Eddie feels like his skin is on fire, his heart beating so fast he’s sure it’ll break through his ribs at any moment.

He’s looking at Buck, feels his chest on his back, his strong arm around his shoulders, drawing absent-minded shapes across his chest as his attention is focused on Bill and Ted meeting Rufus in the phone booth for the first time. The light of the TV highlights Buck’s jaw and cheekbones, casts an ethereal glow on his unkempt curls. He laughs at something, a rumble deep in his chest, head tipping back slightly exposing the long line of his neck.

He’s beautiful. Stunning, inside and out. The most amazing thing that has ever deemed Eddie worthy of attention and love, aside from his son.

And if he doesn’t ask him to be his forever right now, this minute, he’s absolutely going to explode.

He’s off the couch and striding toward the bedroom before his brain even tries to stop him. He hears Buck faintly call, “Baby? Are you okay?” but is too busy rifling through his sock drawer to answer. He holds the blue velvet box firmly in his hand and takes a deep breath.

He had been waiting and planning and trying his damnedest to keep this all under wraps so by the time he asked, everything would be perfectly romantic and swoon-worthy, a story they could tell their kids and grandkids and great-grandkids to inspire them to find a love like theirs. A moment so perfect that there would be no doubts about how desperately Eddie needs Buck in his life until he’s buried in the ground, and probably even after that. Buck deserves to know that Eddie would go to the ends of the earth to make him happy, have it spelled out in the stars just how deeply he makes Eddie feel loved and safe, and that he’d do anything to make sure Buck feels that in return, always.

But, really, they’ve never been perfect. They’re messy sometimes, and gritty. Too loud or too soft or too much or not enough. They push and pull at each other in good and bad ways, sometimes too far, but sometimes just enough that they come out even better together and apart than they were before.

They’ve never been conventional. So why bother starting now?

When he comes back to the living room, Buck is standing, movie paused, worrying at his hands as he watches Eddie walk in. He freezes as Eddie comes up to him before sinking to one knee, eyes widening as the box opens, revealing a simple, black, titanium band.

And then he’s laughing. Full body, shoulders shaking, like Eddie getting ready to bare his heart and soul to him is the funniest damn thing in the world.

Before he can dive too deeply into his wounded pride, Buck’s kneeling too, placing his hands on either cheek, eyes bright with a little mischief and a lot of love as he says, “It’s about damn time, Diaz.”

Eddie blinks, feels his shoulders slump a little. He wishes he was surprised, but he’s really not.

“Who told you?”

“Oh, no one told me, like, specifically. But Maddie finding our grandma’s dress? And Athena conveniently having all of their old wedding planning stuff? Plus, Chim hasn’t been able to look at me without crying for weeks. I don’t know if you know this, but our friends are really bad at being low key.”

Oh, Eddie knows. He had just been hoping (in vain, it seems) that Buck didn’t.

He breathes out a laugh and shakes his head, leaning into Buck’s hands still framing his face. “Well, can I at least do my speech? I have it memorized and everything. It was supposed to be for tomorrow, but…” He gestures vaguely, encompassing the whole, beautiful mess this has turned into.

“Of course you can,” Buck says, his smile growing by the second. “But hurry up, because I can’t wait to marry the shit out of you.”

And who is Eddie to argue with that?

He takes one of Buck’s hands, squeezing tight. He already knows the answer, but that doesn’t make him any less nervous.

“Evan Buckley, you are the most amazing man I have ever met in my life, and probably the most annoying.” Buck laughs again at that, and Eddie feels all of his insides swoop, his heart filling with so much adoration it’s probably about to crack. “You are unendingly selfless, unbelievably headstrong, kind and gentle, but would kill a man for the people you love without thinking twice. You have shown me more about what it means to love and be loved than I ever thought I could know. You are also responsible for about 75% of my grey hairs.” They’re both crying now, not even bothering to wipe the tears away, wearing them like badges of honor for each other. “You make me a better firefighter, a better friend, a better father, and a better man. I want to spend the rest of my life making sure you know how much I love you, every minute of every hour of every day.” He takes the ring out of the box, holding it up between them. “I want to have your back forever. Will you marry me?”

He barely has the question out before Buck is tackling him to the floor, kissing him so deeply he feels it in his atoms. He gets the ring on at some point, lips never leaving Buck’s, and they get lost in each other, in happiness, in love, in excitement at getting to spend their lives together, as a family.

Nothing leading up to this was perfect. But he wouldn’t trade any of it — their chaotic lives, their ups and downs, their crazy, unsubtle family — for anything in the world.

But next time he’s planning a surprise, he will absolutely be keeping it to himself.

#buddie #9-1-1 #911 fox #evan buckley #eddie diaz #buddie fic #it's been TWO YEARS since i wrote anything and these two finally broke me #that and the quarantine probably #ficcery #soft eddie rights

138 notes · View notes

captain--sif · 4 years

Text

When you know, you know

Fandom: 9-1-1

Word count: 1.9k

Relationships: Buck/Eddie, minor Buck & Christopher, Bobby &Eddie and Bobby & Buck

This is my Secret Santa gift for ImDivingDeep

Summary: Buck learns random facts when he helps Christopher with school projects. The team is baffled. Eddie - not so much.

Find it on AO3 or read it here:

Later, none of the team would remember what the call was even about. What they would remember however was how Buck, in a (possibly misguided) attempt to distract the young and visibly uncomfortable sex worker they were rescuing, blurted out: “Did you know that one of the most popular songs in Germany in the 80s was a song about a prostitute?”

Bobby might have scolded the young firefighter for the tactless approach, had it not worked or had the woman shown some other emotion than just pure confusion. “It was?” He motioned their colleagues to keep working.

Buck continued explaining. “Well, you see, the phone wasn’t as well-established then as it is now and this prostitute they are singing about, she was the only one that had a number you could call.” “And they made a song about that?” “A really popular song, it seems”, Buck shrugged.

Hen and Chimney slid her into the back of the truck, the rest of the team following suit shortly after.

“How does he even know that?”, Bobby asked when he passed Eddie.

The other man laughed. “Buck helped Christopher with a school project last week. They are talking about different musical decades in class and Christopher got the 80s. Don’t ask me how they ended up at European hit charts though.” Bobby shook his head and followed his team into the truck.

---

On Friday, the team was deployed to help out on standby duty at a climate strike. So far, not much has happened to demand their attention, leading them to be able to observe the protesting teens.

“Do you think they are successful?”, Chimney asked Hen curiously.

“Hard to say”, the woman replied, “They are definitely getting the attention they want, that is for sure. I don’t know enough about it though. Denny is still too young to have an interest in it.” She shrugged.

“Chris has also yet to voice an interest”, Eddie chimed in, “how long do you think we still have until they start to lecture us on politics?” Hen laughed about it.

“I think they might be successful”, Buck voiced, “considering renewable energy sources already make up a third of the energy produced on earth, there is a good chance that with a push from these kids these numbers will increase.”

“A third?”, Chim pondered, “I would have thought it’d be less. Good for the planet though.” “Yeah, I thought so too”, Buck agreed with a smile.

Expectedly, they did get some work to do, meaning right now, causing the paramedics to rush to help while Buck and Eddie stayed behind until they were needed.

“Did you learn that when researching with Christopher for that science project of his?”, Eddie asked the other man teasingly, bumping their shoulders softly.

“Maybe.” A cheeky grin accompanied Buck’s reply. Eddie shook his head fondly.

---

“A cat? In a tree?”, Eddie asked, “could it be more cliche?”

Buck only laughed and readied himself to climb the ladder.

Bobby approached the younger man to supervise the ordeal. “If he wasn’t so excited, I’m sure he’d tell you that the more cats get stuck in trees that we have to rescue, the more we get to cuddle with cute cats. Which”, he bobbed his head as if to think, all the while looking fondly up at the man reaching for the animal, “is not entirely untrue if you count holding a cat already as cuddling.”

“He’ll probably make the most of it on his way down”, Eddie jokingly replied the captain. Both men followed Buck with their eyes as he was descending, the cat clutched tight and, in fact, keeping it as close to cuddling as the descent allowed.

“You were right”, Bobby nodded in the brunet’s direction before stepping towards Buck.

He greeted them by holding the cat to their faces. “Look at the eyes.”

The two men exchanged a surprised look before doing as told.

“Did you know you can tell the time by looking into a cat’s eyes?” Realizing the raised eyebrows he met with when looking up, Buck added apologetically, “I helped Chris with a fact sheet about cats.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that fact listed on one of those before”, Bobby responded perplexed.

Buck shrugged. "I don't know when that would be useful anyway. It's still fun to know." He bobbed his nose against the cat's before carefully stroking its fur until its owners took it away from him, leaving him looking like a kicked puppy. Bobby patted him consolingly on the back.

"I think I wanna get a cat", Buck announced then, earning an amused look from Eddie.

"Does your apartment even allow pets?"

Buck sighed sadly, "I don't think so."

---

“Did you just put cinnamon into the hot chocolate?”, Eddie asked curiously, a smile tugging at his lips.

Buck turned around to where his friend leaned against the table. “I thought it might be good for Christopher. Seeing as cinnamon is supposed to be antispasmodic and supposed to stimulate the blood circulation which makes it perfect for gastrointestinal problems. He won’t even realize we’re giving him medicine.”

“And here I was, thinking you wanted to indulge him while he’s sick”, Eddie smirked, “Instead, you had ulterior motives.”

Buck started to fill the liquid into a mug he had just taken out of a cupboard. “I think when it comes to getting hot chocolate out of it, I think no one will dwell on my motives.” He grinned at his best friend. “Or would you like to dispute that?”

Eddie laughed fondly.

“How did you know that anyway?”, he asked then, “was that another one of Christopher’s school projects? Man, I really need to stop letting you help him or you will make everyone else feel inferior with all of the knowledge you amass.”

Buck bites his lip. “Does it bother you?”, he asked cautiously.

“What? That you help my son with his homework?”, Eddie asked, taken aback, “I would not know what to do without you.” Now it was his turn to bite his lip. He felt like he had said too much. “... helping my son with his homework”, he added quickly.

“No, I meant the me talking about all the random stuff I found out while researching with Christopher thing”, Buck clarified. With a playfully affronted look, he then added teasingly: “Also: is that all you keep me around for? To do homework with your son?”

“Hell no”, Eddie replied, “to both of those.” While he took his own mug of hot chocolate Buck was handing him, he debated internally if he should say more. Fuck it, he decided. “I like hearing you talk about these things. I can’t speak for anyone else but I enjoy listening to you, even if it’s rambling about German 80s songs or alternative time telling methods. And as to what I keep you around for...”, he stopped for a dramatic pause and sipped at his drink, “whatever reason I had in my mind before, it is now replaced by your hot chocolate.”

Buck stared at him, unamused. “Okay, give me your cup”, he ordered.

“Why?”, drawled Eddie and cocked an eyebrow, clutching his mug tight.

“You’re no longer allowed to drink my hot chocolate”, Buck stated and tried to get a grip on Eddie’s mug who recoiled and dodged him, every time Buck lunged forward to grab it.

“Stop it, you’re gonna spill the good chocolate”, Eddie shouted, laughing, taking a last step before realizing he was backed into a corner. Seizing the opportunity, he pushed his mug into the far corner behind him, shielding it with his body.

Buck would not be deterred from taking the hot chocolate away though, and wormed his arm around Eddie’s torso, pinning him against the counter in the process.

Shit, Eddie thought when his brain had processed their proximity.

“That’s dirty, man”, Buck mumbled when he resurged, “How could I anticipate that? You know your kitchen better than I do.” “Barely”, Eddie muttered distractedly. Buck halted and blinked at him.

Eddie forced himself to look up, fearful he’d blurt something else out. Something that would change their friendship. Make this easy banter impossible.

Buck reciprocated the eye contact, none of the men saying anything. After a few seconds, Eddie cleared his throat, desperate to distract from the fact that he got lost in his best friend’s eyes.

Said best friend surprisingly seemed just as shaken up, color surging into his face when his eyes wandered downwards and took in their closeness. When he looked back up, Eddie observed him curiously, averting his gaze as soon as their eyes met again.

Now it was Buck’s turn to clear his throat. “We should probably bring your son his hot chocolate.”

In a surge of confidence, Eddie made his smile turn into a smirk and said: “You’re not the one who can’t move because you’re being pinned against the kitchen counter.”

Buck blinked. “Right. Sorry.” He backed away and Eddie felt a pang of sadness at the sudden coldness where Buck’s body had touched his just a second ago.

In silence, they picked up the three mugs again and made their way to Christopher’s room, trading glances that were not as subtle as they thought.

Eddie stayed in the doorway while Buck handed Chris the chocolate, taking in the picture of the man interacting with his child. He’d like to keep it that way. Keep Buck in his house. In their little family.

Buck turned to smile at him, before sitting down on Christopher’s bed. All three of them sipped their drinks in silence, the sick child not having the energy to and both of the adults not knowing how to.

Christopher soon fell asleep again, as he’s been doing on and off for the whole day, making the men move back to the kitchen as to not wake him. Buck started to clean up, the silence continuing and starting to drive Eddie insane.

“This is awkward. Why is this awkward now?”, Buck finally interrupted. Turned to him. Eddie bit his lip, thinking about what to answer and how much to reveal of his own feelings. Bucks eyes flicked down to that movement which settled it for Eddie.

“I hope I didn’t misread this now.” He moved towards the other man whose eyes widened. “I think”, Eddie explained, as he got closer, “that it feels weird because we grazed a line both of us did not try to cross until now.”

“Yeah”, Buck drawled, his eyes not leaving the other man’s even for a second, “I didn’t mean to. Does that mean you want to cross it now?”

“If you want to cross it too, then yes.” Eddie stopped in front of his best friend, oh wait, is that term even right anymore, looking at him expectantly.

“I definitely do, yes”, Buck exhaled and closed the gap between their bodies. Their lips found each other, the two of them not hesitating to drape their arms around each other and melting into the kiss.

When they parted, Buck sighed. “As nice as this is, now I dread going to work tomorrow.”

“Mhm”, Eddie replied, going in for another kiss, “I don’t want to be the one to tell Bobby.”

“Oh”, Buck’s face scrunched up in thought, “I was thinking more about the teasing from Hen and Chimney that I’d have to endure.”

Eddie grinned fondly. “I promise I’ll make it worth it.”

Find it on AO3

#Buddie #secret santa #evan buck buckley #evan buckley #Eddie Diaz #Buck #eddie #christopher diaz #bobby nash #fic #911 #911 fox

39 notes · View notes

the-barrens-are-ours · 6 years

Text

Happy Holidays!

Hope you’re having a great holiday season @are-you-reddie-for-it

Here’s some Reddie from your secret Santa

Word count: about 5,800

Warnings: some swearing

Eddie hated being a poor college student. He wasn’t sure how much more annoying life could get than living in a cramped dorm on campus, spending half of his week in classes, spending the other half working on homework and projects for said classes, eating cheap, gross food, and, worst of all, having to do his laundry at the filthy yet reasonably priced laundromat downtown.

Given, life could certainly be a lot worse, but it also could be a lot better. Most of it did come back to Eddie’s shit luck and exhaustion making him make stupid decisions though.

For example, Eddie had forgotten to check the weather forecast Monday before class and had to trek back to his dorms across campus without an umbrella during a horrendous thunderstorm. Everything in his bag got soaked. He also forgot to set an alarm Tuesday and woke up fifteen minutes late for his lecture. On Wednesday, Eddie had gone out to get soup and tripped when he got back to his room and dumped it all over the clean pile of laundry folded up on the floor at the end of his bed. And that particular event, of course, led to him realizing Thursday night that he had no clean clothes left.

It was 1 AM and Eddie had just finished writing up his microbiology essay that was due at 9 o’clock sharp in the morning, and he was ready to change into his pajamas and pass out. When Eddie opened up his wardrobe door though, he can face to face with empty space where his clothes should have been. Throwing his head back in annoyance and letting out a heavy sigh, Eddie glanced over at his hamper full of dirty clothes with guilt and irritation. It was his fault he had to deal with this situation right now but he also couldn’t believe he had to deal with this situation right now. He just wanted to go to bed, make it through tomorrow’s classes, and relax and recover as best he could over the weekend from this especially long, tiring, and terrible week.

But now, at 1 in the morning, Eddie was left without clothes because he slacked off slightly on doing laundry over the weekend and somehow managed to spill soup on the clothes he did clean. His only choices now were to do laundry or go through his hamper in hopes of finding clothes that were somewhat clean that he could wear again in the morning. While the latter did sound appealing at this late hour of the night, he detested the thought of having to wear dirty clothes, even if it were only for a day. He refused to lower himself to such barbaric standards.

Sighing, Eddie slipped his shoes on, grabbed his wallet, keys, and laundry bag, and headed out.

The night was chilly, and the cold air made Eddie’s lungs hurt whenever he inhaled too deeply. He was fortunate enough that some laundromat owner saw the potential in opening his business within walking distance of his college campus where hundreds of poor young adults didn’t own their own washers and dryers. Eddie was even luckier that it was open 24/7 because said laundromat owner also knew that college students were terrible and had awful schedules that made no sense, like having to do laundry at one in the morning.

Eddie was exhausted, and his feet dragged as he made his way down the familiarly illuminated street to the small shop where he always did his laundry. He was glad to see the store’s lights on as he approached, and that it was mostly empty inside besides some old man sitting in the corner near a dryer.

The bell gave a happy jingle as he entered, and Eddie quickly made his way over to the nearest washer. After digging through his wallet for a moment, he was able to find the right amount of quarters needed for the machine. He tucked his wallet back into the back pocket of his jeans and dumped his entire bag of laundry into the machine. He usually took the time to sort through everything and wash lights and darks separately to prevent any colors from bleeding and staining any of his clothes, but at the current moment, Eddie was beyond caring.

In fact, he was so far beyond caring, that he took off his jeans and threw them into the washer as well. He didn’t even care that he was standing in his boxer shorts in a laundromat at what was now one thirty in the morning. The only other person in the building had hardly even looked at Eddie since he walked in. He was sure the man didn’t care what Eddie was wearing at such an ungodly hour.

After inserting his quarters and starting the machine, Eddie went over and slouched into one of the hard plastic chairs that lined the edges of the store. Eddie didn’t bother bringing any detergent or softener with him so his clothes would be washed yet barely considered clean. He was way too exhausted to bother with such things though. His future self could get annoyed at him later for all he cared. Right now, he was tired, and the laundromat was rather warm and quiet besides the comforting rumbling sound that came from the two running machines in the store. Eddie felt his eyes drift shut, and he decided as long as he didn’t fall asleep, it would be okay to rest them for a moment. Just a moment though.

Eddie woke up what felt like only moments later with a sharp and sudden jolt.

He shook his head, feeling momentarily sharp and alert in comparison to how exhausted and slow he was only a little while ago. It took him a moment to remember what he was doing in this place that clearly wasn’t his room in the early hours of the morning. One glance at the dryer rumbling in front of him was enough for him to remember just where he was and what he was doing though.

He sighed in relief. He may have fallen asleep for a bit there, but everything appeared to be fine. The old man was still sitting in the corner of the store for some reason, he was safe, and his clothes were still right where he had left them in the dryer.

Eddie froze.

He didn’t leave his clothes in the dryer. He specifically remembers putting them in the washer before he sat down. Was it possible he swapped his laundry over in his sleep? No way. He only took a brief power nap and he has had no history of doing anything in his sleep, much less something as complex as moving his laundry from one machine to another and starting a dryer. He stared at the dryer in confusion, concern, and horror.

“Oh shit, you’re up.” A voice spoke up next to him, laughing.

Eddie turned and saw a boy about his age with glasses and wild black hair at the machine next to him. He was smiling a dumb smile at Eddie.

“When I got here your washer was beeping and you were passed out drunk so I just moved your stuff over to the dryer so they wouldn’t mildew in the machine.”

Eddie stared at him, all the alertness he just had was gone, replaced only with dazed confusion. Everything felt like a dream. It must have been a dream, Eddie decided. How else could that amused smile the boy was giving him be that bright?

It took him almost a solid minute to be able to do anything besides gape at the boy. At last, he swallowed and spoke up. “Thank you.” His voice was rough with sleep and cracked halfway through his first word. He cleared his throat, his face flushing slightly as he tried again, speaking clearly. “I mean, thank you.”

After saying that, he paused for a moment, thinking over what the boy had said to him.

“Wait a minute, you touched my laundry? And I’m not drunk.” He scoffed.

The boy snorted. “Sure you’re not drunk. Why else would you be passed out cold in a laundromat at two thirty in the morning with no pants on?”

“For your information, I’m a sleep-deprived college student, not a drunk. I just accidentally forgot to wash my laundry and happen to fall asleep big deal.” Eddie’s face burned red as he processed the second part of the kid’s question. “And I took my pants off to wash them.”

He stared at Eddie for a moment, his face unreadable, before shrugging. “I guess we’ve all been there, done that. Though it was definitely a bold choice to take your pants off and fall sleep with” He jerked his head over towards the old guy, lowering his voice. “That dude over there. He hasn’t moved, said, or done anything since I came in an hour ago and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he robbed and stabbed you in your sleep.”

Eddie frowned at the old man who only continued to stare at the running machine in front of him. “Eh, I doubt he’d hurt anyone, he looks rather- Wait. Did you say when you got here an hour ago?”

The kid quirked his eyebrows in confusion, adjusting his obnoxiously large pair of glasses on his face. “Yeah?”

“That’s impossible, I was only out for a few minutes.”

He laughed at Eddie. “Ha. You’ve been out much longer than that. Like I said, you were out cold. I tried waking you up when your machine went off, but you just slept through it all.”

Eddie’s face felt red again. “Oh.” He squeaked in a small voice.

The kid just chuckled again. Eddie, thinking back over the conversation they just shared as he stared at his feet, now also remembers how the kid said it was two thirty, which was about an hour later than when Eddie arrived at the laundromat. He felt stupid. What a fool he was making of himself.

Without being too obvious, Eddie snuck a glance over at the boy cheerfully sitting a few chairs away from him. He looked like a college student. Messy hair, bags under his eyes, wearing an outfit that looks like it was bought in a Goodwill for less than ten bucks. His shirt had a concert tee on with a band logo on it that was so faded Eddie couldn’t even tell what it was supposed to be anymore. All the city names and dates listed on the back of it weren’t even written in English. His shoes weren’t even real shoes, either, but a pair of slippers with a dog face and ears on them. Perhaps the most atrocious thing though was the ugly, faded pink flannel Hello Kitty pajama pants he was wearing. They were old, covered in holes and stains, and were too short for him, resting about five inches above his ankle. This kid looked like a train wreck, and Eddie found himself unable to stop staring.

And just as Eddie’s luck would have it, the boy noticed Eddie watching him.

“You like these puppies?” The boy asked with a smirk, tugging on the legs of his Hello Kitty pajama pants. “Wal-Mart. Five bucks, Talk about a deal!” He grinned at Eddie and Eddie had to try not to physically shield his eyes from his beaming smile and radiant, energetic personality. How was it possible anyone could be this happy and lively at nearly 3 AM in a cheap laundromat? Why would anyone want to be so happy and lively at nearly 3 AM in a cheap laundromat?

Eddie stared wide-eyed at the kid, hearing what he was saying but hardly comprehending it and understanding what exactly he was saying. He just decided to nod his head and turn back to face the tumbling dryer.

Eddie’s skin prickled and he realized after another quick glance that it was because the kid was now staring at him. Not knowing what to do in this situation, he just tried to ignore the other boy as best he could and hoped his ears weren’t turning too red from embarrassment because now Eddie really regrets taking his pants off to wash them.

The kid’s staring was interrupted by the annoying sound of a default ringtone coming from the boy’s pants pocket. He pulled out a small flip phone, staring at the screen. He glanced back at Eddie. “Excuse me but I gotta take this real quick.” He got up, walking outside as he dramatically flipped his phone open and began animatedly talking to whoever was on the line with him.

Eddie watched him through the front windows of the laundromat. He sure was using a lot of hand motions as he talked. Even if it was over the phone. Eddie could have also sworn he heard him say something in Spanish with the most atrocious accent imaginable. Eddie frowned. This kid was so weird.

As Eddie stared at the boy, one of the machines started beeping next to him and Eddie jumped up to pull the clothes out of the machine as quickly as possible so he could leave. Hardly looking at the damage he probably did when carelessly washing all of his clothes together, he dumped everything from the dryer into his laundry bag, with the exception of a pair of jeans that he quickly threw on. They felt slightly bigger than usual, but he paid little attention to this. Once everything had been transferred into the bag, he tied it shut, quickly taking off out of the shop.

The boy looked over at Eddie as he hurriedly walked out and started heading back to campus. He looked confused and opened his mouth to say something to him, but Eddie was gone before he could say anything, nearly sprinting away. He doesn’t know why he was moving so fast, but something about being around that boy made his stomach roll and his face flush and he wasn’t completely sure why. Sure, maybe he was cute, but he also seemed a bit obnoxious and most definitely not Eddie’s type.

Arriving back at his dorm building, Eddie rushed to his room. His head was reeling as he jammed his room key from his pocket into the lock and shoved the door open. Closing the door rather firmly behind him, Eddie threw the bag of clean laundry down on the floor and flopped onto his bed, exhausted.

It was practically 3 AM by this point, and Eddie had to be up and at class by nine. Not even bothering to change out of his clothes, Eddie snuggled up against his pillow, determined to pass out as quickly as possible to maximize the amount of sleep he’d get. Moments later as he drifted off into sleep, his mind flashed back to the bright smile of the boy at the laundromat, and Eddie couldn’t help but smile slightly to himself as he thought about how cute he was.

Eddie’s screeching phone woke him up so suddenly he jerked trying to sit up and nearly tumbled off of his bed.

Sighing, Eddie looked at the time on his phone screen with disappointment and exhaustion. He was beyond tired, and he couldn’t believe he had class in less than two hours. Shutting off his alarm and vowing to go to bed at a decent time at the end of the day, Eddie set about getting ready for his classes. His mind wasn’t in the mood for thinking about anything other than going back to bed, but it was still able to tell him that getting dressed was a good place to start his day off right. Grabbing the bag of laundry he threw down the previous night, Eddie dumped it out on the bed and his heart stopped.

These were not his clothes.

Initially, Eddie couldn’t figure out what was happening. He had no clue whose clothes these could possibly be. And then the previous night came back to him in pieces, helping him remember.

The energetic boy with the Hello Kitty pajamas doing his laundry next to Eddie. Him changing Eddie’s clothes over to a dryer (never having specified which dryer) after he had fallen asleep. Him stepping out to take a call as the timer on one of the dryers went off. The jeans Eddie slipped on being too big. His confused look he had when Eddie left because he probably knew Eddie’s laundry would finish drying after his. He never did tell him when he started the two loads. Eddie had only assumed he started his first.

Eddie’s face burned red as he realized how stupid he was.

He had now just stolen a complete strangers load of laundry and lost pretty much all of his own clothes in the process. Now, all Eddie wanted to do was crawl back into bed and never wake up again.

And as appealing as the idea was, he, unfortunately, still had things he needed to do. After all, he didn’t stay up late last night working on his microbiology essay to just not turn it in on time.

Awkwardly, Eddie shifted through some of the shirts he had taken last night, looking for something he could borrow for the day. He would try to think of a way to deal with his whole clothing situation later. For now, he had bigger issues to deal with.

Finding a black shirt with a yellow smiley face looking thing on it that looked innocuous enough for him to wear, Eddie swapped around the shirts he was wearing. Besides a few pairs of shorts, there weren’t any other pairs of pants so Eddie was stuck wearing the jeans he fell asleep in. They were a bit baggy, but nothing he couldn’t live with for a few hours. After deciding he had everything he needed, he shoved all the clothes back into the bag.

He had fallen asleep in his shoes, so he didn’t have to worry about them as he gathered everything he needed for his class before heading out. His morning routine for 9 AM class days involved getting coffee before class, so Eddie made his way over to the University Center.

The coffee sold at the shop inside the building wasn’t very good, but Eddie also happened to know that his best friend was working his early morning shift there on Fridays, which made the place worth going to on a regular basis.

Bill looked up and smiled at Eddie as he made his way over to the small coffee place. After looking over Eddie’s appearance though, his eyebrows furrowed slightly with mild concern as he awkwardly laughed at his friend. “Jesus, Eddie, you look like shit.”

“Thanks, Bill, I feel like it.” Eddie sighed, leaning heavily against the counter as Bill made him the usual cup of black coffee he orders.

“I don’t doubt it,” Bill said, handing over a hot cup to Eddie. “What happened? And since when do you like Nirvana?”

“What? Nirvana? I don’t like Nirvana, I’ve never even heard them.”

Bill gestured to Eddie’s shirt. “You’re wearing one of their tees though.”

Eddie felt his face turn slightly pink. “It’s uh… It’s not actually… mine.” Eddie finished in a rushed whisper, quickly taking a sip of coffee as he hoped Bill wouldn’t realize what he said.

As luck would have it, Eddie was not fortuitous enough to have that happen.

“Oh my god, Eddie!” Bill laughed, gently hitting him on the shoulder. “Who’s the lucky guy? I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”

Eddie groaned, covering his face with his open hand in embarrassment. “He’s not… he’s not my boyfriend, Bill, I just have his shirt.”

“Ohhh,” Bill nodded in understanding, smirking. “Eddie, you dog.” He winked good-naturedly.

If Eddie’s face got any hotter than it was at the current moment, it was going to burst into flames and burn down the entire University Center. “No, I just… stole his laundry by accident.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Bill’s grin just kept on getting bigger. “You stole someone’s laundry?”

“It was an accident!”

“How could you steal someone’s laundry by accident?” Bill was laughing, having an absolute field day with the whole situation.

“I don’t know! I guess I just wasn’t paying attention.” Eddie sighed, defeated. “And now I’m stuck with some complete stranger’s clothes for god knows how long. Maybe even forever!”

“Whoa there, Eds, calm down.” Bill gently set his hand on Eddie’s shoulder to comfort him. “I’m sure he realized what happened and is trying to figure out some way to resolve the situation too.”

“Yeah, let’s hope so. Anyways, there’s not much I can do about this now, I have class in less than a half hour. I need to get going. Here,” Eddie stuck his hand in his back pocket, reaching for his wallet.

Eddie’s week just couldn’t get worse.

“Oh, mother fucker!” He all but shouted, finding his back pocket empty, void of the wallet usual kept there. It only took a second for him to remember a very sleepy Eddie shoving said wallet into the pants pocket of his own pair of jeans before taking his pants off and throwing them into the washing machine before passing out.

Bill looked at him, alarmed. “What? What happened?”

“I left my wallet in a pair of pants that I washed last night. It’s gone with all the rest of my clothes. Everything in there probably got wrecked too from going through the wash.”

Bill looked at him in disbelief and slight amusement. He obviously knew that losing your wallet was terrible, but the number of things that could go wrong for Eddie in one week was comically high. Eddie supposed if he didn’t have to deal with this situation, he’d have also found it funny. Unfortunately, he did have to deal with it and he felt like crying in all-out frustration.

Bill noticed this, demeanor quickly changing to caring, concerned, and determined to help and support. He walked around the coffee store’s counter to give Eddie a hug. “Hey, don’t worry about the coffee, Eds, I’ll cover it. You head to class, and when we’re both done with school for the day, we’ll meet up and make a plan to track down this guy. He’s probably looking for you too, and who knows. Maybe he even goes to school here.” He gave a sniffling and angry Eddie a reassuring smile. “Just try to get through your class, and then we’ll figure something out, okay? Promise.”

Eddie nodded his head. “Okay. Promise.” He wiped his face, making sure there weren’t any tears on it. “Thanks, Bill.”

“Anytime. Now get on out of here.” Bill shooed him away, towards the exit of the University Center in the direction Eddie would want to go to get to the lab for microbiology.

Eddie headed out, trying not to think about all his missing belongings, the too big stolen clothes he was wearing, and the radiant boy who he’d have to try and track down later.

In what had to be the most surprising turn of luck of the century, Eddie didn’t even have to go out looking for the kid from the laundromat.

After a grueling microbiology lecture that Eddie had to struggle to stay awake through, even with coffee to keep him up, he was now making his way back to his dorm room to try and take a nap. He only had one class on Fridays because Eddie was determined to make it an easy day when arranging his school schedule. This meant more classes Monday through Thursday but left him with more weekend recovery time.

Bill, however, had a class just after noon, which left Eddie with a few hours to kill before he had to meet up with his friend to figure out just what to do. He was sure he could have come up with a plan for this situation on his own, but he was panicking too much at the current moment to do much of anything productive. Bill was smart and a calming presence, so Eddie knew it was in his best interest to just wait for him.

When Eddie turned down the dorm hallway in the direction of his room though, it was like God himself had come to apologize for the week of hell Eddie suffered through.

Sitting in front of his door, right next to a basket full of clothes, was the boy with the curly black hair and obnoxious glasses he had seen at the laundromat the previous night.

Eddie stared at him in disbelief. Surely, this must have been a dream. He pinched his arm. The boy was still sitting there, playing some type of game on the DS he held in his hands, completely oblivious to Eddie’s staring. He also was wearing his own pair of jeans and another band shirt that definitely wasn’t Eddie’s, which was a relief. He was way bigger than Eddie was, and it would have been a disaster if he had to wear his clothes like Eddie had to with his.

It wasn’t until Eddie was standing almost directly in front of him did he finally glance up at him. His tongue was sticking out of the corner of his mouth from concentrating on his game and his eyes had a certain glint to them that he couldn’t help but think of as cute.

After seeing Eddie, the boy quickly jumped to his feet. “It’s about time you showed up, Edward, do you know how long I’ve been sitting here? Let me answer that: too long. Now you better have a damn good reason for keeping me waiting this long. And your apology better be sincere and poignant too.” He huff, crossing his arms in mock scorn like an angered parent.

Eddie, once again, found himself feeling confused and flustered by the boy’s presence. “W- what?”

“You may have stuttered just there, but I most certainly did not. Do not make me repeat myself, mister, because if I have to there will be hell to pay.”

Eddie stared at him in disbelief. His mouth was turned downwards and his eyebrows were furrowed, but there was a lighthearted glint of mischief in his eyes as he focused his stare on Eddie. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, undoubtedly looking like a fish as he stared at the other boy, unsure of what to do with this situation.

“How do you know my name?” Was all Eddie was able to say.

The boy’s face relaxed back into its normal, happy look. He laughed, rather obnoxiously, in Eddie’s face, and Eddie tried not to scowl at him. He was a lot more annoying than he remembered.

The boy pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Eddie who fumbled to catch it. It was his wallet. The leather it was made of cracked and falling apart from going through the washer and dryer. After a quick look through, it looked like everything was still there.

“Since you were stupid enough to leave all of your clothes at the laundromat, I decided to be a good samaritan and return them to you. Luckily for me and unluckily for you, you left your wallet in the pocket of your jeans. A quick look at your student ID gave me your name and dorm building. After asking around a bit here, I was able to track down your room number. Some rather ingenious detective work on my part, if I do say so myself.” The boy smugly gave himself a pat on his own shoulder.

Eddie’s ears were pink and his face was flushing. “I’m not stupid, it was an accident.”

“A stupid accident.”

Eddie resisted the urge to growl in frustration. Before he could get another word in, the boy’s eyes traveled down from his face, taking in what Eddie was wearing before howling with laughter.

“Oh my god,” He wheezed, “are those my clothes? They look huge on you! I knew you were small, but I guess I didn’t realize how small you were last night!”

Eddie’s face went from pink to scarlet in a matter of second. “I’m not small! I’m average!” He tried to defend himself but wound up only making the other kid laugh harder at him. “It’s not my fault you’re a fucking giant.”

“Oh please,” The boy wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, mouth still bent into a smile. “I’m only like six foot four. You, on the other hand, are like five foot three. Are you sure you’re nineteen like your ID says?”

Eddie felt like he was bristling. “I’m five foot six and three quarters, for your information!”

He wasn’t sure what reaction he was hoping to get from the other boy, but pity was definitely not it. “Oh, honey,” He cooed, “that’s below average. And you’re so desperate to be taller you had to add in the ‘three quarters’ bit, aww.”

“Can you stop treating me like a fucking child cause I’m not six.”

“You sure look like you’re six.”

Eddie sighed, unable to believe he had actually just set the other boy up like that. “Look, can I just have my clothes back?”

“Are you sure you want your clothes back? I must admit you look rather cute in mine.” He winked at Eddie whose face could not physically get any redder than it already was.

“Your clothes are way too fucking big, I don’t want them.” Eddie snapped, defensively. “And don’t call me cute.”

“Aww, but Edward, you are cute, don’t you see?”

“Gross, don’t say ‘Edward’ like that. No one calls me that anyway.”

“Do you have a better name I could call you by? Mine, perhaps?” Eddie furiously ignored the wink he gave him.

“I go by Eddie.”

“Eddie! That’s adorable!”

“It’s not adorable, you asshole, stop that.”

“You’re like a kitten: small, cute, and feisty.” Another wink.

“Oh my god, stop.” Eddie brought a hand up to his temple which was beginning to throb with an oncoming headache. “Not that I care at this point, but I might as well know your name too.”

The boy pretended to swoon. “Spoken like a true romantic asking for my hand in marriage.” Eddie couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “My name’s Richie. Richie Tozier. But I’d also like to call myself yours.”

Eddie wasn’t sure how much more flirting he could tolerate from this guy. Luckily though, Richie’s phone buzzed in his pocket. After a quick glance at it, he clicked his tongue in disappointment. “Well, as much fun as this has been, I have to bounce. Since I have returned your clothes it is your duty to do the same.”

“Oh. Right.” Eddie grabbed his key and unlocked his door. He felt relieved that the conversation was over, but also slightly let down that Richie was leaving. He wasn’t sure why because the boy was annoying and got on every last one of Eddie’s nerves in a way no amount of good-looking could justify, but he almost enjoyed being around him in a weird way. After he had his clothes back, he’d probably move on and he and Eddie would never speak again. He grabbed the bag of laundry, handing it over to the other boy who followed him into his room.

Richie set the basket full of Eddie’s clothes down on his bed, before slinging the bag over his shoulder. He looked around Eddie’s room, nodding his head. “Not a bad room. The design is simple and tidy. Look forward to spending more time here.” He winked yet again.

“Oh please. What reason do you possibly have to be inside my room at any point in the future?” Eddie was hoping to shut down his flirting by indicating there was no way the two of them hooking up would ever happen, but he realized too late he had just inadvertently set him up again for another joke.

Richie didn’t jump instantly in with a joke though. “Well, for starters, I’m leaving my laundry basket with you and taking your laundry bag. Obviously, we need to give these back to each other at some point, don’t we?”

Eddie stared at him. He wanted to mention the fact that he could dump out the basket of his clothes onto his bed and Richie could dump his bag of stuff into the basket and the two could go on their own merry ways. He picked up on what he was indirectly trying to say, and for some reason found himself going along with it.

“You’re right, of course.”

“Also, you’re still wearing my clothes. And as much as I’d enjoy seeing you take them off in front of me, preferably slowly and in a scandalous way, I could also just pick them up later when you’re wearing your own clothes again.”

Eddie looked away, shyly. “Yeah, you can pick them up with your basket later.” This had to be by far the lamest excuse to see each other again ever conceived.

“Lastly, your room is a much nicer room to hook up in than mine.” He smirked and Eddie hit his arm.

“What makes you think we’d hook up?” Eddie meant to sound annoyed but he doubts it came out sounding that way.

“You have yet to shoot me down, so I’m sure that means you’re at least interested slightly.”

Eddie was flustered once again. He hadn’t directly shot down anything he said. Perhaps that was intentional. “I suppose you’re right.” He said quietly before quickly changing the subject before he had to say anything else on the matter. “Didn’t you say you had some place to be?”

Richie smiled. It was genuine like it was last night and not flirtatious like it had just been. He looked really happy, and that made Eddie’s heart happy too. “Yeah, I do. I’ll see you around though, Eddie.”

“I guess I’ll see you around too, Richie.”

The boy waved at him, shutting the door behind him as he left. Eddie waited a second before grinning to himself. Looks like they’d be seeing each other again after all.

Eddie looked over at the basket of clothes on his bed, noticing a slip of paper sticking out on top. He grabbed it, rolling his eyes as he read over the ‘call me - richie xoxo’ scribbled on it in sloppy handwriting with a phone number printed underneath it. Eddie was beginning to feel like maybe this week wasn’t actually half that bad.

As he pulled out a shirt to hang up though, he noticed how the few white tees he had turned pink from the one red polo shirt he owned. Okay, maybe his week wasn’t the best.

But Richie sure made it a hell of a lot better.

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #bill denbrough #the losers club #it movie 2017 #it stephen king

18 notes · View notes