could you maybe write something where akk calls aye his home?
i absolutely can do that, nonny, thank u for asking! have a little bit (1.5k. of course.) of long-distance akkaye :') loosely related to the last prompt but fine to read without it
💜
“Akk, are you sleeping?”
Aye’s voice is tinny, the noises of a subway station behind him just the right side of too-loud through Akk’s phone speakers to catch his slow-moving attention. His headphones must have slipped out; he doesn’t remember it happening.
“No,” he answers, like a liar, and pushes himself upright on his dorm bed with some effort.
He’d given up on holding his head up to look at the screen part way through Aye talking about one of the other international students he works with and her hopeless crush on a Thai grad student senior of theirs that Aye is 100% sure is taken, and all of the accompanying drama. “You think P’Win has a partner already.”
“That’s the last thing you heard?” Aye asks, pouting a little on the tiny screen under his big blue scarf. His cheeks are pink. It’s really, really cute. Someone passes behind him; Akk thinks he hears the edges of a robotic voice making an announcement. “I don’t just think so, I know so, and I was telling you all the evidence.”
“Do you have a conspiracy board for this too, or am I still special?”
Aye says something extremely inappropriate for a public place in response, but he says it in Thai, so he’s probably safe. Akk still opens his mouth to scold him on principle, but he’s caught by a yawn before he can say anything, jaw cracking unpleasantly.
Aye’s expression melts from put-upon irritation to fondness so quickly it’s impressive. “You don’t have to stay up so late for me,” he says. “Don’t you have class in the morning? At nine, right?”
“Don’t remind me,” grumbles Akk with a sigh, but he swings his legs over the side of the bed, picks up his phone sans headphones, and heads into the bathroom barefoot. “It’s not really so late. And besides, you’d pout if I went to bed without calling. It’s our day.”
Their day, Thursday specifically, had been the day that worked best with both their busy schedules and the six-hour time difference for most of the first semester of their time apart. They’ve missed only once, during Akk’s midterms, and Aye had texted no less than thirty times that day, all test-taking memes and supportive emojis. Now, though, Aye’s classes combined with his new work in his university's tutoring center run into the London evening; it’s midnight in Chiang Mai.
Aye says something in response, but whatever it is is drowned out by the noise of a rush of people behind him, all probably getting off of a train.
“What?” asks Akk, propping his phone against the bathroom mirror and grabbing his toothbrush.
“If it’s really not that late, then why are you falling asleep while I’m talking, hm? Am I so boring to you?”
Akk rolls his eyes, squeezing out a little toothpaste, and says, “Maybe I just didn’t want to hear you go on and on about P’Win anymore, hm?”
As expected, Aye zeroes in on that immediately. “Aww, is my baby jealous?”
Akk sticks his toothbrush in his mouth to avoid answering and weathers the ensuing and expected storm of teasing very bravely, if he does say so himself. He lets the ease of falling into a familiar dynamic soothe the very slight sting, and he listens patiently without showing even a hint of a smile on his face at how pleased Aye looks to have ‘won’ that admission.
“And he’s almost as handsome as me,” Aye is saying, in his most annoying tone of voice, when suddenly he seems to stutter for a moment, his expression freezing in place on his face. It’s odd enough that Akk makes a questioning noise through his mouthful of toothpaste.
“Akk…” Aye starts. He looks conflicted now, mouth turning down even as he speaks. “You’re not — really, though, right?”
Akk blinks. Then spits. Then says, “No,” even though it’s not 100% true.
His face must show it, because Aye’s frown droops even further and he says, clearly enunciated, “It’s not like that. You know I’m just—”
“Teasing,” Akk interrupts, having mercy on him. “I know. Aye, no, you’re fine. I don’t actually think you’re serious, or you wouldn't have spent the last half hour explaining why P’Win is absolutely definitely taken anyway.” And you wouldn’t usually worry that I did, Akk thinks, so why?
Usually, if he thinks he’s gone too far, Aye just drapes himself over Akk like a particularly affectionate cat, no matter what he’s doing. He kisses his way back to forgiveness, he brings Akk dinner or looks over his homework or buys him stupid, cute little charms to put on his phone keychain, and Akk always lets him even and especially if he isn’t actually mad, and — he can’t do any of that, six hours and half the world away. Oh. This is that communication thing they’re supposed to be better at by now.
Aye is still staring at him with giant, horrible pleading eyes, because he doesn’t believe him, and he shouldn’t because Akk is still sort of lying.
Akk sighs. “I’m jealous of anyone who gets to see you all the time.” He can’t keep looking at Aye, his gaze drifting towards the edge of the bathroom counter. “Just a little. That’s all it is. I’m— glad you have Thai friends, actually. You seemed a bit homesick lately. I think it’s cheering you up.”
It’s silent for a little too long, and Akk finally looks up to make sure nothing’s happened to the connection and finds Aye with one hand over his mouth, eyes still huge but soft around the edges now.
“What,” he mumbles.
“My boyfriend is the sweetest,” Aye says, as he’d feared he would, all earnest and sincere and completely without the teasing edge, which makes it worse.
Akk jerks his head away again, in a motion he couldn’t control if he wanted to. He puts his toothbrush into the cup with more force than is strictly necessary. “It’s just the truth, isn’t it?”
“Phi reheated omelets on his break the other day and I thought I was gonna cry for a minute,” Aye tells him, laughing an embarrassed little laugh. “They’re not right here. They’re all undercooked and flavorless.”
“Did you get to have any?” asks Akk, imagining Aye looking (up, statistically) at this mysterious P’Win with his awful begging eyes.
“I wouldn't steal my senior’s lunch.”
Akk can’t help the little satisfied twitch of his mouth at that scandalized tone. Aye steals Akk’s lunch all the time. “Too bad. I get it a little, though. I really miss the way my mom prepares things.”
Chiang Mai is easily 14 hours of travel from his house, more if you count having to switch trains, and he’s only been back once. He dutifully calls his parents every Sunday, but they don’t really have good enough reception there for regular video calls.
Aye makes a sympathetic noise, then glances at something up and to the right of the camera. He frowns. “Baby, I have to go soon.”
“‘Kay,” answers Akk, raising a hand to cover a sudden yawn.
“Don’t worry about me too much,” Aye says, smiling at the screen all little and v-shaped. “I’m okay. I’ll go to a market and get my own ingredients and make my own omelet, and I’ll text you all the time, and I’ll call my mom twice so she can pretend I’m her favorite over you. Don’t you get too homesick either, okay?”
“Even if—“ Akk starts, hesitates, then forges on. He can say these things; he’s worked to say these things. “Even if I visit,” he tells Aye’s tiny, beloved face, miles and miles away and here in his dorm bathroom, “I’ll still be homesick until you come back. You’re my home.”
Aye stares at him, mouth open for a minute, then demands, “Pick up your phone.”
“What?”
“Just do it. Pick up your phone.”
Slowly and distrustfully, Akk takes his phone off the counter and holds it closer to his face. “Wha—“
Aye’s screen moves suddenly closer and then goes dark, the sound weird and muffled. “Hug me,” he says, just barely audible.
Akk laughs a little, breathless and pointlessly fond. What must it look like, to those people in the subway station? Alone in his own room, though, he doesn’t hesitate to pull his phone to his chest, right over his heart.
After a moment, though, he gives in to the temptation to peek and finds the screen still dark. “Aye.”
The station blurs into view again behind an Aye who looks notably pinker than before, a rush of people just like the last one passing behind again. “You’re so — I love you so much,” Aye tells him, sounding helpless, “and I miss you. It’s stupid that term break is still so far away.”
“Aye,” says Akk again, unable to stop grinning if he’d actively tried. “Don’t be late for your train.”
“They’re always late for me,” grumbles Aye, but he sighs and says, “Go to bed, okay? I’ll talk to you later.”
“Love you too,” Akk tells him, just before hanging up so he doesn’t have to deal with whatever new heart-squeezing thing Aye’s face is going to do at that.
Just before he actually gets into bed, quiet in the sudden silence of his empty dorm, his phone lights up with a text: "❤️❤️❤️❤️"
And far away, in a subway car in England, Aye barely represses a little noise of delight to receive “❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️” in return.
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It's here it's here it's here!!
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 500ml bottle from Palestinian Nabali Olives via Equal Exchange
prolonged pretentious food blog-esque review under the cut:
I once read in a book or a magazine or somewhere that of all the grocery items you should splurge on, a good olive oil is an investment. It will last a while even in a busy kitchen, and its flavor will transform those veggies and bread you got on sale.
But the Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil sold on Equal Exchange is actually a reasonable price. $85 for 6 bottles breaks down to just over $14 a bottle. With inflation especially, I'm used to spending $16+ for olive oil in slightly bigger bottles (750ml vs 500ml) from companies like California Olive Ranch.
The product is made of Nabali olives indigenous to Palestine, and its liqueur on a white plate is a pale gold hue reminiscent of honey. I'm used to more, well, "olive" green oils. Even with my sinuses acting up right now, I detect a familiar aroma upon cracking the bottle.
Here's the thing: I could eat olive oil with plain, crusty bread for hours. I'm weird about olive oil. It tastes like salt without salt added. Maybe it's because I actually did have to do that a lot of the time as a kid. Wheat reaches its peak in the oven, olives reach their peak in the press. Then they marry on your palate.
I often find myself chasing the particular taste of a particular olive oil i enjoyed growing up. In the supermarket, oils are labeled "mild" "smooth" "robust", but not only can I not translate those into a taste, the mouth-memory I have of that oil isn't able to be categorized by words. Maybe I remember it more like the hopping line on an EKG's slippery paper or a polygraph test.
When you smell olive oil, it's saying hello, and you're introduced to the first jump on the chart by being reminded of honeysuckle or salty butter or even black tea, or thousands of other things (it will come from your own memories, after all). The Equal Exchange Extra Virgin Olive Oil's aroma did remind me of tea, but also avocado, but the kind you might find in a boba tea. Rich and subtly sweet.
I had warmed up some canned chicken soup and splashed the oil on top, and it added richness, mingling well with the sharp cheddar cheese I also crumbled on top. I only had brown bread and a single English muffin in the house, and they had to be toasted, but the oil soaked somewhat into the dense multigrain bread. It may be thinner than olive oils I'm used to.
My multigrain bread and soup were great, but to really test the oil, I did toast my single English muffin with its tomorrow expiration date and threw its weird cardboard bed into the recycling. I poured the oil onto the plate and dipped.
On its own, it's peppery. It tastes so similar to that flavor I remember, and then its EKG dips and hops again with a spark of bitter lemon rind and finishes creamy. It's such a unique oil.
Per Canaan Palestine, another place you can buy the country's homegrown oil, the Nabali olive's name "refers to the ancient Canaanite city of Napoli known today as the thriving Palestinian city of Nablus. This variety is the mother of the Arbequina olive variety well known in Spain and Italy." What history does this tiny fruit hold? Doubtless Biblical figures, apocryphal or real, held it in their hands, heard the wind rustling the leaves in its trees.
But olive trees are not safe in Palestine. Not one being, from birth to elderly, is safe in Palestine. It's sobering to buy products, like my green and yellow (olive colors!) kufiya with its olive-leaf shaped embroidery, or these magnificent oils, when I'm not sure the artisans or farmers or anyone they love will live another five minutes, let alone a day. The oils arrived at my house in record time after I purchased them, but the people of Palestine are killed trying to find food for their families, or return with food to find said families as martyrs.
I should have found this delicious oil under better circumstances. I should have been dreaming of going on a tour to different olive farms, the way I could in European countries where the relatives of this olive grow, just to sample and buy souvenirs. What friends would I make on a trip like that? What cats would I pet? I would be a tourist, tasting of the culture the way I taste this oil. Commerce is not activism when the stakes are this impossibly high.
I am fortunate to have bread in my house and a family un-martyred, living in a country that currently bankrolls the annihilation of an entire people as well as their history, culture, and progress. I can't out-spend the United States on weaponry by well-intentioned patronage. I can only be a physical body to throw against the machine of premeditated genocide at every opportunity I have, and lift up the voices of those experiencing this nightmare.
I have already given one bottle to my housemate, and one will go to another when he gets home, and once I run out of relatives I still speak to, I might go downstairs to the neighbors to give them some. At which point I will probably still have another bottle to offer, and although my friends would be a good bet, I think a better idea would be crossing the street, taking an opportunity to meet people I haven't spoken to, and offering them a chance to taste a country their televisions and newspapers only tell lies about.
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Hey honey buns!
I'm just sitting in my corner shipping Wade, Peter, their past loves, other Spider-people, and Symbrock, in various configurations. Original fanfiction and reblogs of art and errata. NSFW content.
#My Work and #My Memes have original content, or search by story title in the tags below for inspo and excerpts. Story descriptions below the cut.
Questions welcome! Look for #ask game for ideas.
Follows from my secret identity @harrowitzer
AO3: BunsOfHoney | Buy me a kofi
For the record, my favorite/recommend works are:
Snake Oil
Better than Beyond Beef (and Tear You Apart)
The Bell Jar (and Bed Bugs)
Watching You Watch Me
Toxic
Xanadu AU
Ongoing relationship AU, mostly cannon but a little head cannon. Peter's in college.
Pumpkin Spice
Peter hates Halloween, and Wade tries to get him in the mood with gifts of a decorative gourd and expired Halloween candy. Violence ensues. Rated T.
Touching Exchanges
Spider-Man and Deadpool have been fighting together a lot. Peter is growing increasingly... excited...by the various ways Wade touches him while they're working together. Rated E.
Sense and Insensibility
Baby's fist fanfic! Spider-Man and Deadpool have been palling around for months now, fighting together and building a rapport - but could it be something more? A major conspiracy falls in Peter's lap, and he and the Avengers need Wade's help to solve the case. To make matters worse, the mission takes Deadpool away right when things are getting steamy. Will the dynamic duo save the day, and will love win? Only Wade knows, because he read ahead. Thanks @babyblankyerror for some cute art :) Rated E.
Also there's an alternate Chapter 15 with a panic scene (rated T)
Love Heals All Wounds
One thing no one ever tells you about being in the Avengers: it's fucking hard work. Inspired by the art of @kodomon. Rated E.
Crime Rates and Ice Cream
It's too hot for the rooftops. It's too hot for leather and spandex. Peter and Wade look for something to cool them down. Something sticky and sweet, maybe. Inspired by @thefuzzyaya. Rated E.
Along Came a Spider
Wade is quite insistent about the inappropriate use of a nursery rhyme in the dressing room of a pop-up costume shop. Rated E.
Spatch' It To Ya
Wade's miffed when Peter doesn't call or text that he's running late. Oh and they're married now...A cute little spanking fic. Rated E.
Other AU
Toxic
Peter wakes up with a familiar if unsettling alien friend. He introduces them to Wade (it doesn't go well), fights some crime, learns about phenethylamine, and tries to start unraveling the mystery of Venom's illness. Oh, and don't forget the tentacles. Rated E. (In progress)
BAMFs
5 times Assassin!Peter tries to kill Wade and 1 time he doesn't. That's it, that's the fic. Rated E (In progress)
The Bell Jar
Wade and Spidey are friends, but Wade doesn't know the high-value mark he's just kidnapped is also Spidey's secret identity. Written with prompts from #febuwhump2023. Rated T.
Bed Bugs: the sequel to The Bell Jar with lots of food and cuddles and angst and healing. Rated M.
Snake Oil
1920s/religious AU. Peter Parker is the next in line to run the small Methodist church in Middle Grove, NY, a heritage he has begrudgingly accepted. But his flock is wooed when a snake oil salesman boasting supernatural healing powers comes to town. Peter is equal parts aggravated and entranced by the smooth-talking Wade Wilson, and the literal devil on his shoulder. Rated E.
Better than Beyond Beef Series
When a sudden explosion leaves them both badly injured, Wade discovers that Spider-Man's mutation can make him a little...feral. Wade makes an offer to help Spidey heal faster and satiate his craving. What's a little cannibalism between friends?
Part 1: Better Than Beyond Beef, Featuring Feral!Spidey, based on this post from @babyblankyerror. Rated T.
Part 2: Tear You Appart, an NSFW epilogue, basically PWP with hunting and chase scenes. Rated E.
Watching You Watch Me
Peter gets a little caught-up in watching Wade, who is caught-up in jerking it to Spider-Man pictures in the Daily Bugle. Or, five times Peter enjoyed watching Wade and one time he got caught. Rated E.
Parker Photography
"Photographer Peter Parker and his muse Wade Wilson who doesn't think is pretty due to scars but Peter thinks he's literal art." - @babyblankerror. Rated M.
Bullets and Unicorns
A 200 + 69(nice) word drabble about Peter's new gig as a cam boy. Rated M.
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