Marz' Talez

Red, White, and Royal Blue | Rated E | Single Dads Alex & Henry | Fluffy Vibes and Happy Endings

Alex has the whole Cool Papi thing down. Sure, his son was bullied out of his old school just for wearing bright colors and nail polish. But Pablo's back to his usual, confident self, and Alex has found a way to balance home schooling with running his cafe. There's just two little tiny problems...

1) Alex is terrified about what'll happen when Pablo starts High School in the fall. So terrified he's gone to fuckin' Reddit for help. 2) He's just met Henry, a stupidly hot, incredibly smart, and genuinely kind single dad, and his daughter Emma.

Pablo and Emma become fast friends, and Alex feels immediately drawn to the Henry. But when a surprising past connection comes to light, Alex and Henry will have to find a way to nurture their blossoming romance while helping their kids adjust to big changes.

You can read Chapter 16 HERE and Chapter 17 HERE.

This story started as an outline for a 5k one-shot. And while I overshot that by 115,000 words, I couldn't be more proud of what it became. To all the endlessly wonderful and incredibly brave trans, non-binary, and genderqueer friends who inspired this story, I love you, I see you, and thank you.

Also a huge thank you to @jackzimmermemes, @exitariel000, and KnowledgeIsCake for beta-reading this and making it far better than I hoped it could be. Your wise words and giddy screeching helped me more than you know.

Finally, thank you to the people below for not murdering me for tagging them twice a week since the beginning of April. (Please feel free to ignore this as always)

Game Changers Series/Heated Rivalry | Rated M | Post The Long Game | Soft and Fluffy Hollanov

He looks down at his fiancé’s face again. Ilya’s beautiful all the time, but there’s something uniquely breathtaking about him when he’s sleeping. Shane’s noticed the tension he carries behind the easy charm and heart-stopping smiles, but it all disappears when he’s here.

Here, in bed with Shane, in their home, Ilya Rozanov is soft.

And as he settles down to sleep next to the love of his life, Shane knows he wants to learn how to be softer too.

Or

Shane learns to find happiness, one moment of joy at a time.

You can read Soft & Joyful by clicking the link HERE. This is my first Hollanov fic so I hope I did Shane & Ilya proud.

Tagging a few lovely mutuals because at this point I just like being a low-key menace

Heartstopper | Rated M | Musician Charlie Spring | Angst with a Happy Ending

Charlie tells himself he doesn’t think about Nick Nelson anymore.

It’s been so long he can barely remember the strawberry-blond swoop of his hair or the way light twinkles across the warm honey brown of his eyes. He doesn’t still feel the lingering warmth of brushing fingers or the ghost of a spark against his lips. He doesn’t look for him in every crowd. He’s a 28-year-old man for fuck sakes. He doesn’t have time to think about the boy he was in love with at 14.

Okay, so maybe Charlie still thinks about Nick Nelson a lot little.

Or

Nick ran away after their first kiss and right out of Charlie's life. 14 Years later, Charlie's an activist and YouTube sensation who's sworn off love. Until Nick Nelson stumbles back into his life.

You can read this story HERE. This story is part of the 85 Moments of Forever collection to celebrate the release of Heartstopper: Forever!

Tagging a few lovely mutuals:

Hey Hi Hello y'all!

Trying to get better about remembering to this regularly. This week, I'll tag @run-for-chamo-miles since they gave me a lovely shoutout on Sunday and are a lovely human in general!

First up! I'm writing my first Hollanov fic! It started as a birthday gift for a friend but I finally got around to reading The Long Game and other ideas are simmering. This little fic is just fluff about Shane learning to find happiness in moments of joy.

Soft.

It’s not a word Shane ever thought he’d use to describe Ilya Rozanov. Ilya is hard in so many ways: the hard lines of his muscles, the firmness of his presence, the impenetrable barrier he often hides behind chirps and charm. Knowing Ilya is hard, and being with Ilya is harder.

Or at least, it was. But Shane’s been realizing lately how much of that is his fault.

Ilya stirs a little in his sleep, his lip twitching for a moment for easing into something calm and relaxed. 

Soft. 

It’s not a word Shane would use to describe himself either, but he’s been thinking about it more lately. Shane’s always thought he was straight-forward, apart from the big secrets he’s carried. He sets a goal and does whatever he has to to get to it. He doesn’t beat around the bush or waste time on bullshit. Shane Hollander is determined. Shane Hollander is direct. 

Shane Hollander is hard (Fuck, he’s glad Ilya didn’t hear him think that.). He’s hard-headed. Hard to be friends with. Hard to get to know. He’s hard on himself. And as he’s been realizing lately, hard to be with. 

‘I already chose you, Shane.’

Those words still haunt him. They fill his nightmares; the ones where Ilya leaves. The ones where Ilya’s plane didn’t land safely. And even when he’s awake, they linger in his mind like a darkness that never breaks in the light, under his skin like an itch he can never scratch away. He knows things are better now: Him and Ilya are engaged, they’re getting married this summer, they’re talking more honestly than they ever have. But he was still hard to be with. He still is. 

He looks down at his fiance’s face again. Ilya’s beautiful all the time, but there’s something uniquely breathtaking about him when he’s sleeping. Shane’s noticed the tension he carries behind the easy charm and heart stopping smiles, but it all disappears when he’s here. 

Here, in bed with Shane, in their home, Ilya Rozanov is soft. 

And as he settles down to sleep next to the love of his life, Shane knows he wants to learn how to be softer too.

Next up, another snippy from my upcoming Heartstopper fic Always, Forever, Running Back to You. This time, Charlie's got sex on the brain.

There’s a lot that Charlie’s never understood about dating. 

Now granted, he doesn’t have a lot of good dating experience to pull from; his previous 12 ‘dating’ experiences look like a charcuterie board of hot dumpster fires when he lays them out in therapy. Sure, he can look at what his friends have done, but there’s not exactly a lot of consistency there: Tao & Elle courted at the speed of two drowsy, indecisive snails. Tara & Darcy went from ‘What do you mean I’m a lesbian?’ to the living embodiment of u-hauling before they even finished high school. Tori and Michael, are, well, Tori & Michael. And Charlie really tries to not think about what Olly & Alfie get up to. 

All he knows is that no brother should ever know that his sister’s safeword is.

The point is, this whole (dating? Courtship? Mating ritual?) thing him and Nick have been easing into since the night he stayed over is uncharted territory for Charlie. Nick’s been incredible, letting Charlie take the lead on everything from physical affection to not labeling the time they spend together as dates to keeping this whole thing on the down low. He’s been considerate, patient, and incredibly thoughtful, all things Charlie really doesn’t know what to do with coming from someone he’s incredibly into. Even weirder, being incredibly into Nick feels good. Ben touching him always felt acidic, James half-heartedly agreeing to dates: cold and empty. But everything with Nick feels warm and soft.

And Hot. And herein lies the problem. 

See, Charlie likes sex. He used to hate it, back when all he’d really experienced was being some dickhead’s living breathing sex-toy. But after Charlie booted ex #12 out of his life, he decided he was going to swear-off dating and spend the foreseeable future working through his sexual baggage. He called it his sexual walkabout. Sahar called it his ‘slut era’. Darcy called it something too graphic to put into words. 

And it worked. Who knew that setting boundaries and being more selective than ‘This emotionally unavailable guy looked at me!’could help someone learn to enjoy sex. Besides, with how often he’s working and traveling, keeping things casual worked for him. He even found himself a few ‘special acquaintances’ (Sahar calls them his fuck-buddies. Whatever you’re thinking Darcy called them? Think more explicit) spread across the globe. 

Pez Okonjo spread out beneath him in London. Kit and Theo worshipping every inch of him in Paris. Charlie even found himself tied to a bed in Ottawa as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov  brought him to the edge and held him there for hours at a time. 

But none of those nights were half as hot as Nick just existing. And it’s been driving him crazy.

Finally, work continues on outlining my novels. I have so many ideas but I'm limiting myself to three outlines then choosing which one I want to do the most! Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have a snippy of the one I'm leaning towards writing: a sapphic road-trip thriller full of magic, danger, and me trying to get past my imposter syndrome around writing sapphic romance

One last thing: Pride month started this week! And while I'd love to just spend it partying, queer people all over the world are under attack. Pride is, always has been, and always will be a protest, so this Pride, I'd like to encourage y'all to fight back however you can: Go to a local drag show! Find community organized events instead of pinkwashed corporate bullshit! Volunteer with or donate to organizations that are on the frontlines, like the Transgender Law Centre . And if you can't do any of that, remember that Existence is Resistance. By being queer, you're part of a bigger community, even if you can't do so openly.

I love y'all so much. Happy Pride and see y'all next week.

Tagging a few lovely mutuals below

Thanks to @anyroomsrio, @dizzymisslizzie, @miss-minnelli, and @run-for-chamo-miles for tagging me! I'm pretty sure it's Wednesday somewhere right?

First off, a huge thank you to everyone who's read, kudos'd, and commented on Stars, Skies, and Saturdays! I'm still processing that it's over, but I'm so grateful for everyone's support!

This week I've been working on my fic for the Heartstopper 85 Moments of Forever countdown. This fic is my first-ever canon-divergence fic, where Nick never came to Charlie's house after their first kiss. 14 Years later, Charlie, now a famous musician and activist, runs into his first love, and isn't quite sure how to handle it.

For a moment Charlie thinks he’s drank so much espresso today that the stubborn thought of Nick Nelson has turned into a full-on hallucination. But he quickly realizes that even though it feels fucking impossible, the man standing in front of him now is very real. 

Nick Nelson’s hair still has the strawberry-blonde swoop. The fairy lights strung up around the shelter’s music room twinkle across the warm honey brown of his eyes. The rest of him has changed; He’s grown into the broad muscles of his chest and clearly knows how to choose a button-up that hugs them as perfectly as they do those strong rugby arms. The baby-fat is mostly gone from his face, replaced by a strong jaw and the shadow of stubble. He was always tall, but he somehow stands taller now, like he’s unburdened by the confusion and panic that used to weigh down his shoulders. What hasn’t changed is his smile, hesitant and soft, somehow feeling so intimate, like it’s just for Charlie. 

“Hi,” Nick says, eyes lingering a moment too long to mean nothing. 

He only looks away when Olly practically leaps into his arms. Nick gives the polite version of Olly’s manic smile, wrapping his arms around the lanky 18 year old who’s nearly a half a head taller than him now. 

“My god! You were so little last I saw you,” Nick says, that smile melting Charlie’s insides like he’s been tossed into a fucking microwave. “Now you’re a full-grown woman!” 

“Wow! A cis-het man who respects the pronouns? Solid allyship there, Nick.” Olly says, flicking her she/her pronoun pin. 

“Well, I’m… I’m bisexual, actually…” Nick says, eyes glancing back to Charlie as if desperate to see his reaction. “Not that cis-het men have any excuse.”

“Yes! The world needs more bi-hotties like us!” Olly exclaims joyfully, hugging Nick again before realizing the man’s eyes are locked on Charlie. “Oh right! Charlie! You remember Nick right?” 

Olly’s normally bubbly expression morphs into one Charlie’s all too familiar with: that stupid knowing smirk he normally only gets from Tori. God, he wishes he’d never told Olly what Nick was to Charlie. 

Or almost was. Then very much wasn’t. 

“Hi,” Charlie tries to say calmly, but instead it comes off stupidly hopeful, like Charlie’s in a romcom instead of fucking reality. 

“It’s… I didn’t expect to see you today,” Nick says. “I mean, I know you’re here all the time. The kids talk about you a lot. All good things, obviously…” 

“Really? They mostly just call me old and tell me how much cooler my sister is,” Charlie says with a laugh. 

“So the truth?” 

“Excuse you! Just ‘cause it’s the truth doesn’t mean they need to tell me to my face! Can’t they just say it in the comments like everyone else?”

“I think you’re cool.” 

Charlie wishes he were the delusional type. Then maybe he could convince himself that he doesn’t react to Nick Nelson saying that. That it’s just suddenly really hot in here.

“Oh so you’ve been keeping up with what our dear Charlie’s been up to?” Olly asks Nick with a tone of innocence and a grin of mischief. “You’re looking at the co-founder, drummer, and heartthrob of YouTube’s 27th most popular music channel! And no disrespect to our Latin Trap King Bad Bunny, but thanks to the Internet's new favourite twunk over here, we’ll be 26th in no time–”

“He’s really overselling it!” Charlie interjects with a forced laugh.

“I don’t think so.” Nick says. “I watch all your videos. I actually started volunteering at Okonjo Foundation Shelter in Leeds back when I lived there because of you. You’re… incredible.”

I'm so excited to share the whole story on June 11th!

Finally, this week I officially started work on my first original novel! I'm really excited to share more once it's ready, but I want to thank each and every one of you for constantly inspiring me to write more and reach further.

Tagging a few other lovely mutuals:

Red, White, and Royal Blue | Rated E | Single Dads Alex & Henry | PRIDE

Pride means something different to everyone. To some, pride is a celebration: being out, loud, and proud, bright rainbows and colorful flags, reclaiming a body and a space in the world they once felt forced to hide in. To others, pride is what it’s always been: a protest. They organize, they march, they memorialize every heartbreaking defeat and celebrate every monumental victory.

To the growing queer community in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Pride is both: a month to shine so bright that the safe spaces they’ve carved out become a beacon of love and acceptance. A time to gather, organize, and prepare to push back against whatever bullshit comes their way.

Pride is all those things to Alex. It’s being unapologetically himself: a bisexual, trans-masc half-Mexican man who fights to make America the land of the free it claims to be. It’s celebrating loudly and proudly with those who can, and making space for those who can’t.

Or

Alex lets Henry fill his senses (and does some filling of his own). Our family attends pride, full of love, support, respect.

You can find Chapter 15 -> HERE. Kudos, comments, and good vibes are always appreciated. This story is no fully written and the final two chapters will be post on Friday, May 22nd!

Tagging some lovely, brilliant, people who tolerate me spamming them (Please feel free to ignore this as always)

Red, White, and Royal Blue | Rated E | Single Dads Alex & Henry | A+ Dadding

“Permission to swear?”

“You’re 14 now. As long as you don’t do it in front of grandma and Abuelo, you’re good.”

“So teachers are fair game?”

“Only if they’re being problematic,” Alex says with a shrug. “But you were saying?”

“I really fuckin’ want this to work,” Pablo says. “Like, for you obviously. I know the last nine months have been a lot for you.”

“It was worth it,” Alex says sincerely. “You’re always worth it. Besides… I think we both needed time to recover.”

“Oh, 100%,” Pablo says. “But I… I need this to work for me. I need to know I can do this. And I need to remember that it’s okay to let people help me. That I’m not, like, burdening them by needing help.”

“I’ve never met someone who was less of a burden than you, Pablo.”

“You’re biased.”

“I’m also right,” Alex says, a small smile spreading across his face. “Some would even say I ‘came correct’.

Pablo chuckles, poking Alex between the ribs. “Now you’re just using it wrong on purpose!”

Or

Pablo visits his new school. Henry has a realization about Em and seeks some advice.

You can find Chapter 14 -> HERE. Kudos, comments, and good vibes are always appreciated. I'm currently writing the epilogue and will hopefully have this story complete and ready to binge by Friday, May 29th.

Tagging some lovely, brilliant, people who tolerate me spamming them (Please feel free to ignore this as always)

Red, White, and Royal Blue | Rated E | Single Dads Alex & Henry | Smut Smut and more Smut

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, Hen,” Alex says, smiling at the small gasp Henry lets out when Alex gets on his knees and settles between Henry’s open legs. “Thinking about how incredible you make me feel. How good you are at taking care of me–”

Alex’s fingers come up to the button of Henry’s jeans, flicking it open. His eyes drift down to where Henry’s cock strains against the denim, and Alex chases the impulse telling him to press his lips against it before turning his gaze back up to Henry’s blown out, hungry eyes.

“I want to take care of you now. I want to be good for you, Henry.”

“Good doesn’t– fuck –Good doesn’t begin to describe what you are to me, Alex.”

Alex huffs out a laugh as his fingers hook around the top of Henry’s jeans and the band of his underwear. “I’m trying to be hot for you and you’re getting all mushy instead?”

“Alex, you’re the hottest man I’ve ever met. I hardly think you have to try.”

“Well, I got a reputation for being a chronic over-achiever.”

Or

Alex wants. Henry reflects. Both find their true feelings between the sheets.

You can find Chapter 13 -> HERE. Kudos, comments, and good vibes are always appreciated.

Tagging some lovely, brilliant, people who tolerate me spamming them (Please feel free to ignore this as always)