more or less

explicit | 115k | ongoing → part i / part ii / part ill / part iv / part v / part vi

"Why’s your phone off?”

“What’s it to you?” Leaving his keys dangling from the lock, River turns on him, cheeks flushed with anger and the bite of the cold in the concrete stairwell. “What fucking business is it of yours where I go or why my phone’s off?”

“If you’ll remember, we’re on an op together, with a murderer on the loose—”

River immediately cuts him off. “Fuck off about the op, Spider. In fact, just fuck off. In general.” He flings an arm out to gesture to the stairwell.

James huffs a hollow laugh. “Christ, you’re such a prick—”

“Oh, I’m the prick, am I?”

The face River makes—the disdain dripping off his words, the self-righteousness, as if River’s never been in the wrong his whole life; it lights the short fuse of James’s anger and he raises his voice to a shout:

“Yes, River, you are! You are the prick! You’ve got no idea what you’ve put people through today, have you?”

Silk ~part iv

summary:

The pub Louisa finds is rowdy; patrons streaming in and out through the open doors and spilling out to the smoking garden. It’s too much– she turns and leaves. Around the corner is a dimly lit spot with a far more manageable atmosphere to drink herself to better spirits. It seems she’s not the only one. The pale hair is hard to miss even in the dark

cartwebb secretary au

> River recieves gifts: dead bugs in the mail. he's like ew wtf disgusting but also intrigued. obv knows who they're from, his peculiar friend. Spider is all yay courtship 🥰🕷🪱 but if pressed to explain he'd laugh it off. "hey, i'm just messing with you, Cartwright"

> they work together for MI5, see each other every day in the office. the attraction is there, but River is shy... Spider picks up on it and teases him bc he's a brat and just here to have a good time.

> something leads to a fight, things get physical and both discover it turns them on. they start doing stuff but it's not a relationship bc they never talk about it (canon btw, relationship in a limbo if you never establish that you're dating...). they don't even need to have sex here, just kinky play and maybe masturbating in separate rooms (as per movie)

> this lasts for a while until river gets scared, the shame of dating a man or finally finding something that fits him sexually but is too emasculating (dom sub play, humiliation etc.) makes river pull away, seemingly ending the relationship. spider is sad :( and pissed! (maybe that's why Stansted happens... or whatever)

> both try to move on. river (or spider) starts dating someone else, a nice healthy relationship without any excitement. one thing quickly leads to another, suddenly he's engaged.