#SWAW Day 3: Romance

[lizzybeth1986]

Coffee-Brown Eyes

Book: Perfect Match

Pairing: Sloane Washington x Hawthorne Park (black m!MC), Sloane Washington x Alana Kusuma (briefly).

Rating: PG

Summary: A small drabble about Sloane's struggle to look people in the eye.

Word Count: 886 words

Note: My HC for Sloane has always been that she is autistic, and one of the things some autistic people struggle a lot with is eye contact. So this is an exploration of Sloane in that context. The quote in my moodboard for this comes from writer and artist Judy Endow (Here's an article she wrote on Autism and Eye contact, along with her artwork on the same! I highly recommend reading it!)

Tagging @choicesficwriterscreations for Fics of the Week

(Faceclaims:

Hawthorne Park - Daniel Kaluuya

Sloane Washington - Nelly Muse)

"Coffee?"

Their fingers brush as the cup passes from his hands to hers; Sloane allows her touch to linger a second longer on Hawthorne's knuckles. From underneath her lashes, she steals a moment's glance into the laughing warmth of his eyes.

She doesn't notice how fleeting that one look is - she never will - but he does. They've been together long enough for her to feel as comfortable with his touch as she would her own, yet the one thing that remains a constant is the persistent wandering of her eyes.

Sloane sips the brew in front of her with her eyes closed. Black, no sugar. Nothing to mask its sharp, invigorating bitterness. Sloane likes her coffee the way she likes her chocolate, the way she likes Hawthorne's eyes. Dark, sharp, shining. Deeply overwhelming.

She peers in Hawthorne's direction again. He isn't looking, thank God, but she can still see his face from this vantage point. She can still see his eyes. A tiny thrill shimmies its way through her spine.

It's so much easier like this. Eyes are fascinating things to look at, really. All those colours, all the myriad changes in hue when the lighting or mood was slightly different. When she was a child she would stare, enthralled, at pools of limpid blue and sea green, searching for shades she knows she would never find in a mirror. But now she's older, now it's darker colours that hold her attention.

She loves looking into people's eyes.

But only when they aren't looking back.

Not that Sloane had been aware of this trait of hers, not until the last few years. She'd spent almost all her teen years and half her adult life not even thinking about whether she looked at people differently from everyone else.

It's one of the first things I noticed about you, Damien would tell her one night in Indonesia, staring listlessly at a campfire. And it made me wary. Most of the time you'd never look anyone in the eye. Made me wonder what you were hiding.

A corner of Sloane's mouth quirks up a little. She did have plenty to hide when she first met them all, that was true. As for the rest...clearly Damien knows by now that she could be spitting truths while having the same restless, roaming gaze.

Of late she's begun to notice the same restlessness in Zinnia's too. Limpid and sky-blue, they widen and constantly seem in search of something. Sloane has often wondered if, subconsciously, she'd had something to do with that. Could she have passed on a trait she hadn't even noticed in herself, to the Match she helped create?

"Probably," Alana whispered against her curls last night, her curves moulded against Sloane's own, her fingers tracing lazy patterns of fire across her stomach. "When you do try to look someone in the eye, you're painfully obvious about it. And I do mean painful, beb. Because you look like you're in literal pain when you have to do it for that long. Zinnia has that look too."

Sloane was surprised enough to stare at her girlfriend, long enough that she could feel the aching strain at the corners of her eyes, images like whitened nerve-endings dancing around her field of vision.

Alana smiled, her deep brown eyes glistening. In this light, they seemed to possess the texture of velvet. "Twenty seconds."

"What?" The tip of Sloane's tongue nervously touched her bottom lip, forcing Alana's gaze from her eyes to her mouth.

"The longest you've looked into my eyes," she let out a throaty laugh, covering Sloane's lips with her own....

"Earth to Sloane," Hawthorne's deep, rumbling voice takes her out of her reverie. "Drink up, honey, or your coffee will go cold."

Sloane's smile is heart-stoppingly sweet, Hawthorne thinks - especially with how she holds the mug so close to her and casually shrugs her shoulders. "Imagine that, our very own homemade cold brew."

Hawthorne silently raises his own mug, his hand gripping the windowsill. The sunlight streams in from the window, bathing his face - his eyes! - in light.

In the shadows, his eyes are dark, almost black. They're already the colour of the deepest, sharpest coffee. You could almost fool yourself into believing such eyes were incapable of changing colour, of possessing an entire bouquet of hues and shades. Lord knows she'd believed that enough in front of the mirror as a child.

In sunlight they're twin pools of honey, she can almost imagine that colour flowing in thick, cascading waves. In sunlight they're the colour of tiger eye gems - glowing golden. Under her eyelashes, Sloane stares shamelessly, breathlessly, hoping against hope Hawthorne will take at least a little longer to look back. This sight is too beautiful for her to turn her eyes away from now.

Unbeknownst to her, Hawthorne stifles a smile. He has long since trained his eyes to shift their gaze away a little longer. Long since learned to resist the temptation of letting her know he's watching her watching him. Long since allowed his eyes to be the ecstatic twin objects of her admiring gaze, rather than enthusiastic participant.

It's a tiny, worthy sacrifice, for that look of pure pleasure it brings in her own eyes.

Sloane grins as she looks away. Hawthorne's own coffee must be cold now but she suspects he won't care.

Hawthorne grins as he turns towards her. One minute twenty seven seconds.

--

* Beb - Indonesian for "babe".

#sloane washington #perfect match #sloane x mc #sloane x alana #alana kusuma #sloanewashingtonappreciationweek #SWAW #SWAW Day 3 #SWAW Day 3: Romance #lizzybeth1986 #content: fanfic

[sloanewashingtonappreciationweek]

We're midway through our Sloane Appreciation Week! So far we've got some lovely art, edits and appreciation posts and I can't wait to see more of what you guys have in store!

Day 3 is all about exploring Sloane's relationships - platonic, romantic, familial. You can explore her friendships or romances, either with characters in PM or even outside of it with characters from other books! You can also explore what "family" means to Sloane.

These are primarily prompts, and they do not need to be followed on any specific day. You can even send content for a particular day before or after the day given, as long as you tag it with the correct day and theme (eg. #SWAW Day 3). We will be also keeping an extra week for anyone who wasn't able to finish content during the week.

Any content is welcome! Fanfic, fanart, edits, moodboards, interactive media, headcanons, meta, even simple posts and screenshots of scenes! Just make sure it's positive content centered around Sloane only. We also accept WIPs!

Be sure to do the following when you've posted:

1. Use the appropriate tags for the event (#sloanewashingtonappreciationweek, #SWAW)

2. Tag the blog @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek along with the co-hosts, @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes

Fan content blogs do a lot to promote the content in our fandom, so we'd love to do both a shoutout and a promotion to some of their events! Here are some you can check out if you're interested:

@choicesficwriterscreations - Primarily fanfic. They run a lot of weekly events! Here is their roster.

@choicesmonthlychallenge and @choices-february2023 - Any and all content welcome! They have a prompt for every day of the month.

@choicespride - Any and all content welcome, as long as it is focused on a queer character or theme. Currently they're running their Valentine's month event.

@wip-wipeout-weekend - If you have any WIPs, definitely consider tagging this lovely blog.

@choicesprompts - Currently on hiatus, but do check them out!

Hope to see more Sloane-focused works during this week!

Happy Sloane Washington Appreciation Week, everyone!!

#sloane washington #perfect match #sloanewashingtonappreciationweek #SWAW #SWAW Day 3 #SWAW Day 3: Romance #SWAW Day 3: Friendship #SWAW Day 3: Family

[cassiopeiacorvus]

SWAW Day 3 - Relationships (Friend/Romance/Family)

@lizzybeth1986 @sazanes @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek

Pose reference by AdorkaStock. (It's actually the same reference I used for a pic of my TRR sibs so it's cool to see how my use of a reference changes over time.)

Sliding in her with a late entry for day 3 of Sloane's appreciation week. I decided to do a selfie pic of Sloane, my PM MC Jae, Tess (my Hayden), and their daughter Ursa. The background is by Pixelberry and is the Lincoln Monument. I'd like to think they spent the day visiting Kim in DC and decided to see the sights.

#playchoices #perfect match #sloane washington #sloanewashingtonappreciationweek #cassiopeiacorvusdraws #cassi originals #tess hasn't aged and i'm shoving that existential dread back in box

[sloanewashingtonappreciationweek]

SWAW Masterlist 2023

(This gorgeous poster is courtesy our lovely @sazanes!!)

DAY 1: CHARACTER APPRECIATION/THROWBACK

Character Appreciation

Appreciation Post

Character Appreciation/Throwback by @cassiopeiacorvus

Art

Sloane Washington 🌟 by @sazanes

Edit

SpreadJoy Quote: Sloane Washington by @storyofmychoices

Playlist

Sloane Washington: Character Playlist by @lizzybeth1986

Throwback

Headcanon

Headcanons: Kim and autistic!Sloane by @lizzybeth1986

DAY 2: PENGUINS/GREEK MYTHOLOGY

Penguins

Art

Penguin Love by @sazanes

At the Arcade by @sapphicspaceart

Fanfic

Noot Noot by @lizzybeth1986

DAY 3: RELATIONSHIPS (ROMANCE/FRIENDSHIP/FAMILY)

Romance

Fic

Coffee Brown Eyes by @lizzybeth1986

Trudy Sloane by @dcbbw

Friendship

Art

Sloane and Dipper by @sazanes

Family

Art

Family Selfie by @cassiopeiacorvus

DAY 4: HOME/OUTER SPACE

Home

Edit + WIP Fic Idea

WIP: The Stuff of Exploded Stars by @lizzybeth1986

Outer Space

Art

Astronaut!Sloane by @sazanes

DAY 5: STEM

Art

The Robo-Dog Toy by @sazanes

Edit + WIP Fic Idea

WIP: Once in 50,000 Years by @lizzybeth1986

--

*This wonderful masterlist is brought to you by a number of fans who sent such wonderful content for this week! Please don't forget to take a look and comment on all these wonderful pieces!!

Here is the masterlist for SWAW 2022!

Until next year, everyone!!

#sloane washington #perfect match #sloanewashingtonappreciationweek #swaw #SWAW 2023 #SWAW 2023 Masterlist #Masterlist

[cassiopeiacorvus]

content masterlist

general choices content

transparents & scripts

choices failplay video series

choices mcs: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

fanfiction

a courtesan of rome

roman questions

bloodbound

death rattle

the royal romance

a lesson in sources

the royal couple: 20 years later

headcanons/prompts/appreciation weeks

bloodbound

kamilah sayeed headcanons

perfect match

hayden young appreciation day 2022

hyaw 2020: day 1

nadia park appreciation day 2023

sloane washington appreciation week 2023: day 1 day 3

swaw 2022: day 1 day 4

the royal romance

hana lee appreciation week 2024: day 1

hlaw 2023: day 2

hlaw 2022: day 1

king liam appreciation week 2023: day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5

klaw 2022: day 1 day 4

kiara theron appreciation week 2023: day 3

ktaw 2022: day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 day 6 day 7

liam headcanons

trr au

meta/essays

general

being single in choices books

the billionaire's baby

washington state surrogacy laws

bloodbound

love interest appearances & diamond scenes

a courtesan of rome

xanthe: courtesan, rival, pawn

the royal romance

the broken base of brothers beaumont

tags

cassi draws

cassi edits

#cassi originals

[sloanewashingtonappreciationweek]

SWAW Masterlist 2022

DAY 1: CHARACTER APPRECIATION

Art:

Sloane Flying A Plane For The First Time - @sazanes

Sloane With Amaranth Asphodel and Cypress Flowers - @cassiopeiacorvus

Headcanons:

Childhood!Sloane - @cassiopeiacorvus

Meta:

Rebel Goddess: An Appreciation of Sloane Washington - @lizzybeth1986

Character Appreciation:

Appreciation Post - @zoeywades-spouse

Moodboards:

Moodboard - @lorirwritesfanfic

DAY 2: "SCIENCE QUEEN"

Art:

Science Queen - @sazanes

Headcanons:

Sloane and Nadia Geeking Out Over Leonardo Da Vinci - @lizzybeth1986

DAY 3: FRIENDSHIPS

Art:

Sloane & Hayden's Friendship - @sazanes

Sloane & UWU! - @my-glitter-heart

Fanfic:

The Stars (Are Out Tonight) - @lizzybeth1986

Because of Him - @lorirwritesfanfic

DAY 4: SLOANE & FAMILY

Appreciation Post:

Sloane and Kim's relationship - @cassiopeiacorvus

Art:

Sloane and Kim - @sazanes

Headcanons:

Kim and autistic!Sloane Childhood Headcanons - @lizzybeth1986

DAY 5: ROMANCE/HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Appreciation Post:

Sloane's Love Letter to the MC - @lizzybeth1986

Art:

Engagement Ring - @sazanes

Moodboard:

Basil x Sloane - @lizzybeth1986

Ask Meme:

Sloane x Basil (MC) - @lizzybeth1986

Sloane x Theodor (OC) - @sazanes

DAY 6 - SLOANE'S JOURNEY

Art:

Sloane's Journey - @sazanes

--

Thank you so much for all the support and all the lovely content. Really enjoyed running this week and really looking forward to holding similar such events this year! But for now...if you'd like to go through the fabulous pieces we've got this year, look through this masterlist 😃 If I've missed anything, do DM and let me know.

#sloanewashingtonappreciationweek #SWAW #sloane washington #perfect match #masterlist

[sloanewashingtonappreciationweek]

We're on Day 5 of Sloane Washington Appreciation Week! Day 4 was filled with all kinds of feels, and so much love especially for Sloane and her mother Kim! And our fifth day will be just as exciting because it falls exactly on Valentine's Day!

Which is why today's theme for SWAW is Romance. Canon typically pairs Sloane with either the MC or Khaan (but unfortunately not both), but you could extend this to include other potential ships as well! It would be great to explore Sloane as an LI, as a girlfriend, as a partner...the possibilities are endless. Maybe even a Sloane Valentines post will be great!

We'll also be putting up a ship/OTP ask or two so you can use that for fun content too!

As mentioned for the other prompts, this prompt is only meant to be inspiration for the day. It is not compulsory to post your content on the same day itself - you can post it later as long as you tag the day you intended it for.

A few things to keep in mind while posting:

1. Use the tags #sloanewashingtonappreciationweek and #SWAW in your posts

2. Tag @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek and @lizzybeth1986 in your posts so we can keep track

3. Mention in your tags the day you planned the content for. Eg. Day 1, Day 4 etc.

Hope you all have a happy Sloane Week, and

Happy Valentine's Day!!

#sloanewashingtonappreciationweek #SWAW #sloane washington #perfect match #day 5 #happy valentine's day!!!