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growing pains : a svt 97 line smau

synopsis : people say that you’ll experience three kinds of love in your lifetime. the first is an idealistic love, the kind that feels straight out of a fairy tale. the second is the hard love, the kind that will leave you with lessons about yourself and the love you want and need to experience. finally, the love you never see coming. this is the story of your three loves.

pairing : svt 97 line x gn!reader 

notes : non-idol au, coming of age, angst, fluff, my attempts at humor

will probably contain : food mentions, suggestive humor / content

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[ parts + note under the cut ]

Ryland Grace was not a sad man waiting for his demise. He was happy. He loved teaching, his students were SO important to him. He had a good life.

But he didn't fit societal norms and that somehow made his life less valuable? The way Stratt saying "oh you're not married, you don't have any immediate family or even a dog" was treated as part of an explanation as to why he should be more willing to go on a SUICIDE MISSION?! As if that somehow made his life less important? As if it made him some sort of expandable material?

It's genuinely so sad how realistic it is. It's also part of the reason why I wholeheartedly believe in aroace Grace. It's just such a common experience within the community that even if it's unintentional it feels like finally getting some sort of representation.

Yes, I know we're all already mad about every male lead being presented as a 'rake', but the thing is that even though he slept around, Benedict was not a rake. And I've got a whole explanation for it.

Anthony and Simon were true fuckboys, yes and they slept around with prostitutes in classic rakish behavior. Even Sienna, while being an opera singer, did engage in sex work. And it was clearly established that Colin was only going to brothels because he thought that was what he was supposed to do (bless him i love how much he's enjoying being Lord Whistledown).

On the other hand, Benedict was rarely ever seen with sex workers. All his past relationships were that, relationships. Madame Delacroix, the art model lady, Tilly and her dude friend (I've forgotten his name sry) we're all people that he met and had the flexibility to fuck around with. When he said he was 'A lover of pleasure', he was right. All the people he's been with were separate established individuals.

As Violet called him out, his issue was being noncommittal. He was in casual relationships (the guy in s4ep1) or probably how I see him is that he would meet someone he liked, spend time in a very indulgent way with them, they'd get attached and he'd go- yeah no I don't do that sorry (like Tilly). He was simply not convinced to be in a serious relationship.

Hence; despite sleeping around plenty and having had lovers, Benedict was not a rake.