⇝ STORY/ART EXCHANGE -- First "I Love You"
my part of the story/art exchange with the talented and gorgeous @ariparri!! she requested the first "i love you" between her oc Veruca McQuaid and a character from the video game hogwarts mystery Diego Caplan and she gave the green light for me to share this with y'all!! thank you again for doing this trade with me ari!! if you ever need another fic for dieruca just hmu, i'll do it free of charge <33
It was another one of their usual dates -- not that anything with Diego Caplan could be considered usual, but sometimes, Veruca McQuaid appreciated the familiarity of a red carnation and the stunning smile of her charming handsome man more than any surprise said handsome man could cook up in his clever head.
By sometimes, she meant all the time. Just like how her head rested on Diego’s shoulder, tilted up to watch the stars in their never-ending dance, and how in her hair tucked a carnation the color of her cheeks when a certain someone’s charm got too much to handle.
There was a quietness to the couple, a quietness that didn’t need to be interrupted with awkward chuckles and attempts at conversation. Even without sneaking a peek, some part of Veruca knew that Diego was more interested in the light in her eyes than that of the skies, but she kept her gaze on the night sky still, green eyes trained on the cold white glow above, waiting for him to open his mouth.
“Veruca?” Softly uttered, a barely-there ask of her name.
Green eyes left the skies and onto the brown-haired boy beside her.
Coughing, Diego’s fingers tucked a lock of raven-black hair behind Veruca’s ear. An odd expression was etched on his face, a mix of adoration (that was something she saw in her own face when Diego was around), happiness (that too, was often mirrored by her), worry (wait, what?), and something else she wasn’t sure of.
His hand hadn’t left her face yet, Veruca felt her head lean into his warm palm like a reflex, something she knew to do without having to even think about it; and met brown eyes with her green.
That mix of emotions was still there on his face, unguarded and wide-eyed and smiling softly. Diego’s palm squeezed her cheek for a second more, then left her face at the same time as the odd look faded from his face.
She finally found her voice, “Did you want something?”
Her question must’ve been a knife, slicing through the quietness blanketing them, because Diego huffed out a small “heh” of amusement and shook his head quickly.
--------------------
The second time that the look struck was when Veruca sat across from him in a tight-packed cafe, sipping coffee in painted floral china and watching another couple a few tables away from them showing off their abilities of not needing to breathe.
“How long do you think they’ll last?” she smiled at that, placing her cup on its glod-framed plate.
Tapping her cheek in thought, Veruca’s eyes flitted away from the kissing couple, “Five minutes,” her smile widened at the boy whose face held a cheshire cat grin that echoed her own, “what’s your guess?”
Light bounced off Diego’s brown hair as he shook it, “Why would I think about that when you’re here with me?”
Warmth bloomed over her cheeks, heat creeping up her forehead and down her neck. Veruca sipped her tea in reply, hoping that the teacup could hide the lower part of her face -- judging by the smirk that spread over Diego’s face though, it didn’t work.
They were back in Hogsmeade for a date of sorts -- more accurately, Veruca was just back to drop off something for Dumbledore, and her boyfriend, ever the charming suiter, pulled out his puppy eyes and asked for a pre-duel date.
He then linked their arms together and Apparated the both of them to the little town outside Hogwarts before Veruca could even ask what was on his agenda for this little date.
With a smiling sigh, Veruca finished her tea and pressed the heel of her other hand to her cheek, hoping that her hand would chase away the warmth from her face. The crampedness of the little shop didn’t do her any favors; being a weekend, the day brought couples from the school down to Madame Puddifoot’s for a heated cup of tea (and a heated makeout session, but that was neither here nor there). She wasn’t particularly enamored by the frilly pink-washed shop, but since this was a “stroll down the memory lane”, as Diego called the way he held her hand while they tracked down old haunts and memories, she’d agreed to stop in the cafe; after all, they did come here for one of their first -- Veruca wasn’t sure what to call that time when Diego successfully discovered her favorite flower then took her for a walk in the woods and a cup of tea in Madame Puddifoot’s.
A clink of china tugged her back to the lacy tablecloth in front of her. Green eyes glanced up just in time to see that same odd look from their picnic date night reappear in Diego’s chocolate-colored eyes: the mix of happiness, adoration, and worry (she still had no idea why that would show up; was Diego planning a surprise for her and didn’t want her to find out?), and the something she couldn’t read.
Veruca brought her teacup down silently; reaching for Diego’s hand, she wrapped her fingers around his with no problem. The action seemed to tug the boy from his thoughts back to the bustling reality, and he swapped his smirk for a softer, gentler smile.
“Did you know you look really pretty in that outfit?” Came the question before Veruca could ask one of her own.
She glanced down at her clothes: it was her usual attire of a purple top and a floral dress, with the addition of the coat and gloves she would don while doing her job; hardly anything unusual about it, not to mention “really pretty”.
Looking back up, Diego held a red carnation in his hand. Sqeezing hers in the hand that was still interlaced with her fingers, he leaned over to tuck it behind her ear.
“But now you look fantastic.”
--------------------
Veruca circled Diego, noting how his body pulled taut in anticipation for her to make a move; she knew her posture mirrored his, her heartbeat crescendoing as she went over the spells she aimed to use in her head once more.
He struck first -- she dodged the bolt of red light, casting her own charm in retaliation.
Multicolored flashes lit the room as she blocked, dodged, and fired spells. A strand of her hair came loose from her messy bun and blocked her vision; she moved to bat it away.
That second of carelessness was all it took.
“Flipendo!”
A grunt escaped her lips as Veruca was knocked off her feet.
A wand barely scraped the skin of her throat.
Silence.
“And that, my dear, is why you should tie your hair tighter.”
Diego stood above her, ready to help her up.
She grabbed his hand readily, pushing the rogue strands of her dark hair back, “I’ll keep that in mind next time.”
That got a chuckle out of her boyfriend, and he tugged her to the bench outside of the dueling ring.
Sitting down and popping open the cap to her bottle, Veruca gave Diego a quick once-over: it wasn’t obvious, but he was just a little bit nervous. The dueling season had arrived once more, and another match for him was coming soon; she had no doubts about Diego’s capabilities as a duelist -- in fact, Veruca felt sorry for the poor person who was about to get their pride demolished and their ego bruised -- but she knew that apprehension went hand-in-hand with anticipation, and she also knew that the best thing to do when Diego was nervous was to --
“Hey!” His voice held no real malice as Veruca nudged the crook of his neck with the top of her head, “What’s this for?”
Mouth twitching upwards at the smile in his voice, she replied, “It’s bad to think so hard, Caplan; you might die of overheating.”
“Ah,” he laughed, “but that’d require me to not overheat at the sight of you.”
Veruca hid her rapidly heating face by poking Diego’s middle with a soft finger.
At this rate, she would be the one to die of overheating.
He only laughed louder and moved Veruca away from his neck; eyes twinkling, he pressed a chaste kiss on her burning forehead and leaned back on the drab green of the bench. Veruca’s forehead creased lightly as she watched his eyes fixate themselves on something that wasn’t there, the furrows deepening when he showed no sign of pulling himself from the bubble of his presumably-uneasy thoughts.
It wasn’t out of the blue for Diego to be nervous, but it never got easier for Veruca to watch him go into these anxiety-induced bubbles; it was like they were separated by an invisible barrier, one that not even reducto could bring down.
The only thing she could do to help when he got stuck like this was to be here, at his side with his hand in hers, pushing his shoulder-length hair back when it dropped in front of his eyes, to just be a presence that he could lean into, for him to know that he wasn’t alone and that someone just knew that he was going to do well no matter the opponent he was to face.
So, she stayed like that, a quiet pillar of support that Diego could lean on. Veruca was never good with words, but she didn’t need them to let him know that she was there, that she was the shoulder he could lay his head on without eyes to judge him.
After a while, a weight lifted himself from her shoulder.
Veruca turned to meet the eyes of Diego Caplan, eyes the color of coffee and chocolate and the soil that they planted the carnation seeds they’d gotten in, eyes that swirled with a quiet adoration that she was sure he could see in hers as well.
There were some other emotions in those brown eyes too; Veruca wasn’t in the mood to decipher them though.
Veruca was never one for lovey-dovey “It was like the sun came out of the clouds when he smiled”s or “his smile was like an angel actually came down from the heavens”s, but watching Diego’s face slowly grow more animated was actually as if the rain stopped and the gray clouds were chased off by marshmallow-white clouds, and she emotions could only brighten as he did.
And she only beamed brighter when Diego offered her a carnation transfigured from a stray pleat from the rug in the dueling circle, his own grin cheerier than before.
Standing up, Veruca offered her hand to him, “Think you’re ready for another match?”
His hand wrapped itself around hers.
“I’d like nothing more, my dear.”
--------------------
Pushing yet another stray lock of her behind her ear, Veruca wondered if she should take up Diego’s advice and ditch the messy bun look -- it was getting irritating to have to brush her hair away every time she made a sudden movement or two.
She probably won’t be changing her hairstyle anytime soon, but it never hurt to browse through some possible options.
But, that was something for another time; right now, Veruca needed to complete the scene she’d set out to create before Diego found her. So she placed the plate of grapes and cherries down on the checkered tablecloth and moved the pair of wine glasses to make sure that they wouldn’t fall and potentially smash into myriads of tiny little pieces.
Pulling out the wine from the basket she brought, Veruca smiled at the label wrapped around the bottle: a bottle from Limmiani wine products, just like the rose wine they drank when they had --
Was it foolish to blush when one was thinking of their first kiss? Veruca was pretty sure it was at least some degree of lame while she fanned herself with her free hand to cool herself down, setting the bottle of wine down and moving on to the loaves of bread and cheeses she stowed in the wicker basket.
The occasion? A celebration, one to celebrate Diego’s win against his opponent in the dueling match. She’d already started preparing this morning when Diego pressed a quick kiss to her cheek for luck and hurried off to do some last-minute preparation, but when Tonks gave her the go-ahead to set out the picnic, she let out a breath of relief that her boyfriend had won yet again and hurried to Westside Park to set up everything.
With a sigh, Veruca sat back on her heels, darting eyes making sure that not a single thing was out of place. It would never do to have spilled wine or food or anything just as disastrous, and she aimed to do everything in her power to prevent it.
A wave of her wand and yellow flickers danced on the walls and floors of the pavilion as orbs of light floated up obediently and settled in various places, illuminating a little circle around the picnic.
“Just like stars,” A voice remarked, one that Veruca turned around immediately at, “Is this the reason you were busy, my dear?”
Diego must’ve changed before he came here, exchanging his dueling outfit for a sleeker, more elegant look that brought out all his best features more than his usual clothes. Veruca threw a hasty glance up at the glowing spheres, sighed a soundless sigh of relief when none of the shining globes seemed to be one second from implosion, then nodded at her boyfriend.
“Do you like it?”
Laughs escaped Diego as he tried to touch one of the orbs with the bouquet of carnations he had in hand, only for it to float even higher, spinning in place as if jeering at his inability to fly like it could, “Like it?” He asked, crossing the gazebo to scoop Veruca in his arms, much to her surprised laughs, “I love it! Just as much as I love you --”
Green eyes widened.
Brown eyes did too, after a second that was crawled for more like a year.
Slowly, Veruca was set down on her feet, Diego’s face now showing that mix of emotions once more, Veruca wasn’t sure if the world suddenly got its noise turned off or if was it just her ears blocking everything but Diego’s words.
And the worry in that look made sense -- Diego didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable or feel pressured to say it back.
“-- And you don’t have to say it back, just so you know; take as much time as you need to --”
“Yeah,” Veruca found herself interrupting, nodding her head (her face was probably the same color as the red cherries on the picnic blanket), “Should we continue?”
“Yeah,”
Green eyes met brown, “Yeah.”
They sat on the checkered blanket and Veruca opened the bottle of wine, pouring out a generous portion for both of them. Meanwhile, Diego popped a few cherries into his mouth.
He took his glass with a quiet “thank you” and a small flash of his white teeth. She responded with her own little smile, reaching for a grape herself.
There was a quietness to them, not a completely comfortable one, but it wasn’t completely uncomfortable either. It felt less like a serene bubble and more like a hamster ball, like the stillness between them was a snowball on the top of a mountain, ready to start rolling at the smallest movement.
“Look!”
Veruca peered in the direction Diego pointed.
It was a butterfly, blue wings the color of a sunny sky, weaving through the spheres of light Veruca made, up and up towards the star-speckled sky.
Stars.
Millions of them were scattered throughout the blackness, twinkling like tiny jewels on a ballgown; Veruca didn’t think she remembered another time when the skies were like this.
It was beautiful.
“--, right?”
Green eyes turned to meet brown once more, but the brown of Diego’s eyes was fixed on the tango of the stars; the corners of Veruca’s mouth turned up a little bit.
“Yeah,” She leaned her head on his shoulder, “it is beautiful.”
The snowball melted, leaving only a sphere of peace around her and Diego.
Her head shifted as Diego moved, “I meant it, you know.”
Veruca’s head moved to look up at him with questioning eyes.
He smiled at her inquiring gaze, moving to wrap an arm around her shoulders, “About you taking your time. You don’t have to say it right now, or tomorrow, or even ever; just say it when you’re ready, Veruca.”
She couldn’t help it -- surging up to press a kiss on Diego’s lips, then pressing her forehead to his.
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
--------------------
Morning rays seeped through the woven threads of the kitchen curtains, soft rays creeping across the room as Veruca took a sip of her coffee, hair still down and mussed from sleep.
The smell of pancakes filled the room, Diego must’ve finished making a batch of them.
“Berries on your pancakes?” He asked, already adding them to a plate.
“Yes please,” Murmured Veruca, frowning at the empty mug in her hand.
Standing up, she moved towards the coffee pot, grabbing another mug from the little mug tree on the counter. Hands gently moving Diego so that she could get to the machine, Veruca found herself smiling at seven am when her boyfriend pressed a quick peck on her forehead.
And she would’ve gotten assaulted by a flurry of even more kisses too, had she not nudged his head away from her and back to the two plates of pancakes on the kitchen counter, “Just trying to get some coffee here.”
“Actually, it’s over there,” Diego chuckled as that quip earn him a soft punch to the arm, “But thanks for getting some for me, my dear.”
“Who says anything about you getting some coffee?”
“I’m pretty sure that Gambat doesn’t need coffee to be cheeky, unlike someone else I know.”
Veruca huffed in mock anger, then finally found her way to the savior of mornings, the coffee machine.
Pouring the drink and adding the creamers and sugars were second nature to her at this point, she didn’t need to think as she stirred the coffee and made her way back to the kitchen table -- so no, she didn’t need to think about the coffees, but rather, Veruca was thinking about something else.
Some part of her thought that the blue butterfly from the night when Diego actually said those three words out loud -- it was an improvement that she could think of that without her face betraying her beating heart -- should’ve been one that she recognized, that she should’ve known what that butterfly meant.
She had no idea what that butterfly meant.
Veruca’s hands placed her mug in front of herself, the other in front of Diego, who said a quick word of thanks as he put down the pancakes on the dining table.
But she did have an idea about something else.
Those three little words -- so much meaning in so simple a sentence -- even the very marrow of Veruca’s magic knew that she felt the same way; her new leopard patronus, the silvery animal that gave her so much surprise when it appeared, could definitely attest to that. But to say that out loud --
“Are you okay, my dear?”
A vase of carnations decorated the kitchen, a vase of flowers that she didn’t even know were her favorite until Diego showed it to her; flowers that he always took the time to get for her because he knew it would make her happy.
“Yeah,” She heard herself say, “I’m just hungry.”
She was here with Diego, he was Veruca’s pillar, and she was his, all because he didn’t stop pursuing her even when she was a complete douche to him.
Three little words.
“Hey, Diego?”
“Hm?”
One huge meaning.
“I love you.”
Silence.
Another beat.
Was it just the blood rushing through her ears or was everything holding its breath, too?
“You love me?”
She thinks she feels the table exhale like she did.
Veruca glanced up into Diego’s eyes, brown meeting green, and nodded.
Outside the window, the sun completely rid itself of its sleepiness as Diego grinned a smile so wide that it stretched ear-to-ear like he was a kid on Christmas day, “Say it again?”
And Veruca knew she was the same, “I love you.”
“Again?”
She laughed, a merry sound that gave even the berries on her pancakes more color than ever, “I love you!”
Somehow somewhere sometime between the giggles and “I love you”s, Veruca found herself trapped in Diego’s arms again.
Brown and green eyes met each other halfway through, and she touched her forehead on his.
“I love you,” It was a whisper this time, a breath that blew the bubble of serenity around them.
Diego’s eyes held no worry as he combed a flyaway strand of raven-black hair from Veruca’s face, “I love you too.”
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Hello there!
It's about time I did a post like this. Hi, I'm Charlie, known to my close friends as Charles or Ferre, and I love writing.
I'm a polytechnic student, and am currently studying for my diploma in Story and Content Creation (for media). I am a huge theatre fan, mainly Les Miserables, and I kinda go batshit crazy over Star Wars at times.
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Alright, with all the introductions out of the way, I've been thinking about being more active on Tumblr so I'll be opening writing requests to anyone who may be interested. I mainly write Star Wars and Les Mis, you may check me out at archiveofourown.org/users/CharlesAndCo for the works I have published. (I implore you to ignore my Marvel fics...) But before everything, I do have several boundaries when it comes to writing for requests, so please, I hope you'll respect them if you're thinking of requesting for any fics.
I will absolutely not write /reader fics, even gender neutral readers or male readers.
The ships I specialise in are as follows: for Les Mis, Valvert, Enjoltaire, Courfius, Combeferre/Jehan; for Star Wars: Obikin, QuiObi, Anidala. I would not be opposed to exploring other ships, but I will put my foot down if it comes to any ship I am uncomfortable with, which does not happen often but if it does, consider this a warning.
If I have any ongoing WIPs when you request, especially oneshots that are meant to be gifts to my friends, I will not prioritise your request over the works for them. I love my friends to hell and back, the only way to get around this would be to become my friend, I guess.
NSFW is... well, it depends. I may or may not write NSFW depending on how I feel about it. To put it simply, I have had bad experience when it comes to sex, and so sometimes certain things do trigger me and bring back bad memories. So unless you really think that I would enjoy writing the NSFW request you send in, I'd appreciate it if you mainly stick to SFW works. Thanks :)
If I am uncomfortable, due to any reason, with the request you send in, I will probably very politely decline to write your request.
I write trans stuff as well. HMU if you want me to write a Trans!Javert fic for ya ;))))
I'm pretty versatile when it comes to writing. If you have any specific writing genres or styles you wish me to write, include it in your request and I'll see if I can meet your expectations. For example, if you want me to write an introspection for you, say it in your request, and I'll gladly write it for you!
What you could request:
Les Mis (Musical, 1972, 1978, sigh 2012)
Other musicals like Newsies,
Moulin Rouge (movie my beloved, wouldn't mind musical too)
Falsettos
Catch Me If You Can (musical)
Little Shop of Horrors
Jesus Christ Superstar
(Maybe...?) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Star Wars (mainly Prequels, may write OT though)
If any other musicals that you might want to request is not in this list, you could check with me if I know it/would write it. And yes, Hamilton, DEH, BMC ain't on here, I will not be writing them, thank you.
More might be added, as I discover and watch more shows.
That's about it from me for now. Idk if I'll get any requests from anyone that ain't my friends (not to say that my friends can't request anything, y'all would actually have priority), but I was bored and I need to start writing more. If you've made it to the end here, thanks for reading.
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