Yusuf turned around—and immediately realised his mistake. They were both standing, eyes open, and if for one moment they were wide in shock and horror, the next they were blown great with lust. Looking at Nicolò was as looking at a distant mirage; every inch of his skin, covered and not, burned as steel under a hot summer sun, and the only thing that would cool him would be to dip into Nicolò’s waters, to drink him dry, to steal his lost breath from his mouth.
-
Yusuf and Nicolò's tentative truce is put at risk when they end up trapped in a cave together.
Download as a PDF!
Read the original here on AO3.
43 notes
·
View notes
I'm thinking that a Matt and Aaron bromance is an inevitability, actually
between them being roomies and the thing with Matt's mother bailing Aaron out and Aaron being free from his deal with Andrew to actually make friends, it's bound to happen
and i know that some of Aaron's general distaste for the upperclassmen is just him, but because a lot of it came from the isolation of being one of Andrew's people, once that's not a factor and the thing standing in the way is mostly just Aaron, it's just a matter of time
and if anyone's going to get through to him it'll be Matt. if Matt can sometimes balance Kevin out on the court, Aaron should be lightwork
(Matt also has Dan behind him imploring him to take advantage of his proximity to Aaron to further strengthen team bonds because he was always the monster that felt most unreachable)
also like. backliner solidarity
and also i really like to think Aaron develops some kind of relationship with Matt's mother, because that scene in the EC where she gives him a hug is everything
one might say Matt is Aaron's first actual friend
anyway so like
video games are a big part of their bonding. Matt is better than Nicky and Kevin and on par with Andrew so it gives Aaron a refreshing competition and it also gets him to loosen up a bit
it takes a little time for Matt to break Aaron of his habit of needing to immediately reimburse Matt every time he so much as picks up coffee for him..Aaron is at first uncomfortable with letting this kid he's never been very nice to just casually spend money on him but then he realizes it's a two way street. the first time Aaron brings Matt ice cream Matt has a whole Moment..until Dan, who was hanging out in their apartment, pipes up with a "and you didn't get ME any?" which effectively killed it
Aaron subtly watches Matt with Dan and subconsciously picks up on the way he treats her and mirrors Matt’s behavior when he's with Katelyn (because 1. Matt is smooth and suave as hell and 2. they're one of the first healthy relationships Aaron has seen up close so he uses them as a blueprint because he wants to make sure he's doing it right) and Matt is oblivious
Renee notices though and she quietly keeps it to herself but thinks it's sweet. Allison too picks up on it and she mentions it to Dan and Dan thinks it's the cutest thing and now whenever she notices Aaron behaving similarly or quietly observing them, she starts grinning and Matt will be like "what? what's so funny?" and she refuses to tell
even though it stopped for the most part once the team smoothed out their bumps, after spending time with Aaron Matt gets the others (mostly Allison) to quit talking about Andrew like he's a freak for good
you could see how Matt had a concerned-parent streak in him when Neil wasn't sleeping well and when he was getting involved with the monsters and that streak eventually carries over to Aaron too. especially where Aaron is both a university athlete and a premed student..kid has it rough. so Matt will wake him up when he falls asleep at his desk to tell him to go to sleep (the first time or two Aaron responded with a pleasant "fuck off" but now he just peels his face off his textbook and slouches to bed) and subtly make sure he's eating decent
when Matt wakes up one night to find Aaron trying to drink away his anxieties about his trial, it doesn't take him long to realize that he can't help but Andrew probably could. and something changes between Andrew and Matt when Andrew sees the concern for his brother in Matt's face
when the girls come over to hang out and Aaron is there he'll usually melt into the corner or go in the bedroom but they usually rope him into their conversations anyway. and somewhere between the tenth and eleventh time he was forced to play tiebreaker for one of their arguments he became comfortable enough around them and lost the need to disappear whenever they showed up
it's actually really beneficial to have them over sometimes because Matt is a hard person to be an asshole to, so having Allison around gives Aaron a good outlet
Matt learns quickly to leave Aaron alone for at least half an hour after his therapy sessions with Andrew
Aaron is good at being able to notice without being told when to leave Matt and Dan the apartment and spend the night down the hall or at Katelyn's
Katelyn and Matt hit it off immediately from the first time Aaron brings her over (very few people are immune to the Matt Boyd charm, I'm telling you) and he doesn't know how to take it because he's just getting comfortable with Matt after knowing him for two years whereas it's been ten minutes and these two are already exchanging phone numbers and discussing last Friday's game as if they've been friends for years
also when Katelyn becomes friends with the girls it's even worse and they just completely steal her from him
and, like Neil, they enjoy watching Aaron become a completely different, lighter person when Katelyn is around
Matt is big on like jocky terms of endearment and uses them casually all the time and though Aaron shoots him a look of distaste when he calls Aaron "bro" or "my guy" for the first time, it starts to grow on him
to the point where one time they're watching a film and Matt (who's a big talker during movies) keeps making comments until Aaron is just like "BRO shut UP" and Matt just grins and he's like "so we're bros huh?"
and because Matt knows that, even though it's casual, insignificant guy talk, that's the most affection he'll ever verbally get out of Aaron, he makes sure to be annoying about it and puts a "bro" in every one of his sentences
"I'm not your bro"
"ah but you don't get to decide that. bro"
"fine well you're not my bro"
"that hurts bro"
"stop calling me bro"
"can't, my guy. we're bros"
*sighs*
*nods confidently* "yeah we're bros"
(they’re bros)
386 notes
·
View notes
season five isn't going to be the byler show because we all have brains and recognize this is an ensemble sci fi show obviously, but it is kinda funny to hear people argue that because the duffers specifically point out in their pitch that will is gay and gets kidnapped soon after realizing it, then in season one have everyone who isn't "in the know" assume that this occurred because he's gay, thus really linking this realization with his disappearance both supernaturally and also to those outside of the main cast. this means that you can't separate the two. there's more to it of course, but will being gay and the consequences he faces for that is intertwined.
not only that, but they then reveal his kidnapper to be will's perfect character foil--love vs hate, light vs dark, hope vs despair, optimism vs cynicism, freedom vs subjugation, light wizard vs dark wizard, etc.
vecna spends all of season four preying on those who are traumatized and "other". he enshrouds them in their darkness until they succumb to it and believe it to be true, and gains strength from their despair.
what does will spend all of season four doing?
he stays by mike's side and banishes his deepest, darkest insecurities by basking him in his light. he listens to mike's worries and his secrets and tells him no, you're wrong, you're absolutely wrong and here's why. this is who you really are: someone worthy, capable, and strong. don't listen to that voice in your head; it's lying to you, mike. he gives mike hope and a way out of his darkness. he frees him from the grips of self-hate out of the goodness of his heart, not because he stands to gain anything from it.
vecna uses people's darkest and scariest memories to trap them and will uses one of mike's happy and safe memories to help him.
vecna gains strength from pain and rage and will gains strength from love and acceptance; acceptance that he felt from mike all his life and then acceptance that he specifically received from jonathan in the back kitchen.
time and time again, season four made sure to show us that they are two sides of the same coin and will's story cannot be extricated from mike and his romantic love for him, so like... season five is not going to be the byler show, but it also ... kind of is going to be the byler show lmao.
if season five is going to feature will then automatically it will feature mike and if it features them then it will pick up on their unfinished plot from season four and if love and acceptance are vecna's weaknesses and love and acceptance are what byler feel and receive from each other then... how is it not the byler show?
obviously other stuff is going to happen because they're not the only two characters in a romance show, but like ... to act like season four [for them] wasn't all about their relationship, the unsaid things that sit between them, and how will's love for mike is not only what made him able to finally say i love you to eleven for the first time but also precisely the love that he was trying to get from her, and that somehow that isn't going to bleed into season five and be resolved and be the exact kind of love and acceptance that will defeat vecna because will's otherness is rooted in his queerness and season five is literally his coming of age and also he's the focus and we'll be exploring his relation to everything because he is In Fact Actually connected to Everything and always has been is just .... weird. and nonsensical.
27 notes
·
View notes