department of yearning

I’ll try to get back to it soon and build up another queue, but for now I’ll probably be posting more of Vienna Waits For You when each chapter comes out!

If that is something you might want to read, you can see the full chapter on my AO3 under the same name, or through this link:

arranged marriage aus

- “if you smile like that, people might think you’re happy about this.”

- “for the record, i voted against marrying you.”

- “we’re getting married tomorrow and i don’t even know your favourite colour?!”

- “if either of us falls in love with someone else, we should probably tell the other…”

- “you do realise we’re meant to be pretending that this was our idea, right?”

- “my mother already loves you and it’s making all this shit worse.”

- “the kingdom is celebrating and i’ve never been more annoyed in my life!”

- “i don’t actually hate you.”

“that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all day.”

- “you know, i was prepped for so many things, but finding you in my bed after our wedding was not one of them.”

- “we’re married now, can you please stop looking at me like i’m a political inconvenience??”

- “if we get through this banquet without an international incident, i’ll consider it a success.”

- “the problem is that you’re actually significantly more tolerable than expected.”

- “are you always this difficult?”

“we’re married now, get used to it.”

- “you know, most people date before arguing about budgets and chores!”

“… we’re married!?!!?”

- “the treaty simply says we have to share a residence, not that we have to like each other.”

- “everyone keeps congratulating me as though this wasn’t essentially a diplomatic hostage exchange.”

- “you… kissed my hand.”

“there were people watching.”

“…right”

- “we’ve been married for six months and i still feel like i have to introduce myself every time i see you.”

- “i was told you’d be cruel.”

“and i was told you’d be boring as fuck.”

“…slightly cruel.”

“slightly boring.”

- “i really can’t decide what’s more annoying: the marriage, or the fact that you’re actually attractive.”

- “if we’re going to be professional spouses from now on, you should probably stop flirting with me during diplomatic negotiations.”

hidden relationship aus

- we’re secretly dating and nobody at work knows, but someone keeps walking in at the worst possible moments, but we’ve become experts at springing apart and making it seem like nothing happened

- our entire friend group thinks we’re platonic, meanwhile we’re sneaking of during parties to make out in hallways and empty kitchens, and eventually the group starts to notice that we disappear at the same time a lot

- our teams hate each other and our coaches would lose their minds, but we’re finding it increasingly more difficult to care

- we agreed dating would ruin everything and now we’re sneaking around our own apartment like criminals because no one can know we broke our only rule

- our relationship becomes tabloid material if anyone finds out, so every public appearance is an exercise in self restraint, but every private moment makes it so much harder

- we’re secretly together, and also both bridesmaids/groomsmen, so we’re trapped at wedding events for a week while trying not to look suspicious and we’re FAILING

- nobody on the team can know, except we’re both incredibly competitive and possessive so keeping our feelings hidden during games is practically impossible

- we’ve been dating for months but we haven’t told our families, and then we’re assigned the same room during the trip and we’re now trying to explain why that’s a problem without suspicion

“things are going terribly wrong” christmas aus

- we arrive separately but my family immediately assumes we’re dating and by dinner, we’re sharing a bedroom because ‘obviously the couple gets the bigger room’

- we’re supposed to be travelling home but a blizzard shuts down every road and now we’re spending christmas eve in a seemingly hotel with only one room available

- i haven’t seen you since we broke up but our families are friends and now we’re seated next to each other at dinner and both still angry

- someone keeps hanging mistletoe everywhere and we spend days avoiding it, and then we both walk around the corner at the same time

- we hooked up at the office party and it was supposed to be a one time thing, and now we need to survive the rest of december pretending everything is normal

- we’re both in the wedding party and everything that can go wrong does so now we’re somehow responsible for saving christmas AND the wedding??

- one fake holiday relationship + 3 nosy relatives + 6 days trapped in a house = catastrophic levels of tension

- we’re neighbours and our christmas light competition has escalated beyond reason and everyone in the street is taking sides

- all flights are cancelled so we’re stranded together on christmas eve and nobody is having a good time until we decide to make the most of it

- every christmas we come home and see each other and nothing significant happens, but now i seem to be falling for my childhood friend.

- everyone knows i’m in love with you except you and then someone suggests a christmas party kissing game and i spend the entire evening trying not to make bad decisions

Vienna Waits For You

A Wolfstar Fanfiction || Full chapter on my AO3

This work is based on one of my university aus where they spend a group term in another country and learn to live their domestic life together out there.

———

Heathrow airport was vast with impossibly tall ceilings that disappeared into strips of white light that made the browning walls yellow and a row of check in desks that appeared to go on forever.

Truly, the first thing Remus had noticed was the noise. No matter which his head turned, Remus could hear suitcases clacking over the tiled floors from the abundance of families that crossed in front of them. The crockery clinking in the background complimented the odd aroma of coffee and fried breakfast surrounding it.

James walked straight through it all like he’d been there a hundred times before.

“Come on,” he called without looking back.

Remus adjusted the strap digging into his shoulder and followed before he lost sight of James completely. Just as he began to catch up, there was a tug at the handle on his bag pulling him backwards. The yank had avoided his collision with the businessman who hurried past them with a briefcase swinging at his side as the overhead speaker crackled out a name and flight number. The smell of cigarette smoke that clung to the man’s coat filled Remus’ nose in the dust of the rushing man, which was just as gross as it was tempting. Remus looked back to see who had saved him from the inevitable crash and saw Sirius wearing a mocking smirk. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. Remus thanked him and straightened up his bag once again.

Their group stood out without trying. Sirius had brought far too much luggage, and Peter was already complaining that he was sure his case weighed more now than when he’d packed it. James ignored them both and grinned, looking like the airport brought him all the entertainment in the world.

Remus let them drift ahead for a moment. He looked around and saw a child who’d wandered too far before being pulled back by an impatient parent, and zoned out, honing in on the snippets of conversation that seemed to disappear as quickly as the people who spoke them. It was the sharp smell of floral perfume that followed the old ladies in front of him that broke him from his frozen stupor.

He’d never been on a plane because he never had a reason to. Holidays weren’t something his family had done, and travelling abroad had always appeared unreachable. It was reserved for people who used their passport more than once—if any—before they expired, and people who knew what they were doing, where they were going, and what they were supposed to say once they reached the front of the queue.

He watched a departure board flick from one destination to the next. Most of the names meant nothing to him, but Vienna stood out. This would be his chance to escape the small quiet life that awaited him at home. He’d be leaving the house he’d lived in his entire life; the periodic dinners, his fussing mother, his cluttered bedroom with scratch marks along the wall. No more covering the evidence of his claws with old posters, or piling up books because he’d run out of space. He could sleep in a room bigger than his slightly-too-small one. He wouldn’t have to fix the sink or the toilet, it would be his Dad’s job now and he can finally put down the newspaper and make conversation with his wife, Remus’ mother. Although Vienna offered a new beginning, Remus was hesitant to say the least. Life back at home was all he ever knew. Yes, he was an independent young man in his early twenties now, but still, it was difficult to leave everything behind and start afresh.

Remus caught up to his friends and stood unmoving behind them. In fact, none of them were moving. The waiting turned out to be worse than leaving. There was queue after queue checking passports and tickets but finally, a woman in a navy uniform smiled with eyes that made them seem transparent before waving them through.

James spent most of the time talking to Sirius, Peter, and a man who’d made the worst mistake of his life standing beside James for more than thirty seconds. Remus wasn’t convinced that James ever noticed when conversations became one sided.

Their gate was nothing more exciting than a row of plastic chairs that faced thick windows. Outside, aeroplanes crawled across the tarmac with a slowness that made them seem much smaller than they did from the ground.

“You look stressed out,” Sirius said.

Remus glanced over.

“What?”

“You’ve checked your passport like six times.”

“Twice,” Remus cocked his head and corrected.

James looked up from where he’d been trying (and failing) to fold their boarding passes into paper aeroplanes.

“You’ve never flown before, have you?”

Remus shook his head.

Peter frowned. “Seriously?”

“We couldn’t—it just wasn’t feasible.”

James stared at him for a second time before breaking into a grin.

“You’re going to hate take off.”

“Oh, shut up,” Sirius said. “You’ll make him nervous.”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

“You absolutely were.”

“I’m prepping him!”

“You’re being a prick.”

That back and forth went on for a while, but concluded with James looking pleased with himself nonetheless.

When boarding was called, everyone stood at once as if the plane would leave without them if they stayed seated for another second.

They shuffled forward a few feet and then stopped… and then shuffled again.

Remus caught his first proper glimpse of the aeroplane they’d be flying in through the window. It had a huge white body with a red and blue stripe running along the side. Stairs wheeled up to the door instead of the covered walkways he’d heard about.

“They’re making us walk?” Peter muttered.

“What were you expecting?” Sirius asked. “A carriage? It’s like a thirty second walk away.”

Outside, the wind smelled different. It was cooler and sharper somehow, with the heavy scent of jet fuel hanging in the air, settling into the back of Remus’ throat as they crossed the painted lines toward the temporary stairs.

The engines weren’t even running properly yet, but they were louder than anything he’d stood beside before.

Halfway up the stairs, James stopped to look back and Remus followed suit. London stretched out in patches of green and grey beyond the runway with its grey skies to match. There was endless movement around him.

“You coming?” Sirius asked from above.

Remus realised he’d stopped.

“Yeah.”

Inside, everything felt immediately smaller.

The aisle barely fit two people trying to pass each other and the seats were narrower than he’d expected with their pattered fabric and stiff armrests that looked like they’d been polished by years of smooth elbows.

James disappeared towards the back.

“I call window!” He announced.

“There are literally assigned seats,” Peter said, checking the boarding passes. “Aaand you’re by the window.”

Sirius ignored them both and dropped into the window seat on the opposite side of the aisle.

Remus ended up beside him.

Outside, baggage carts rolled beneath the wing and a man in a fluorescent orange jacket and earmuffs waved glowing batons in slow, deliberate arcs.

The cabin door shut with a solid thud and flight attendants slammed the overhead lockers shut one after another. The sound settled over Remus, and for the first time all morning, James stopped talking.

Remus drowned everything out with the walkman James had given him and the others as a gift when they came out a few years ago. It had served him well so far, and it would now. As he pushed in the button that played his new favourite song, ‘Vienna’ by Ultravox—no, it isn’t too on the nose—so too did the engines begin to growl.

Remus wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep.

One minute James had been trying to convince Peter that aeroplane coffee shouldn’t legally be allowed to be called coffee, and the next he was waking to Sirius nudging his shoulder.

“Oi.”

Remus blinked.

“What?”

Sirius tilted his head towards the window. “Look.”

For a second all he could see was cloud. The wing dipped and the clouds peeled away beneath them. The city appeared all at once. Unlike London’s endless sprawl, this place looked contained. Streets crossed each other in neat lines before giving way to clusters of older buildings with pale roofs that caught the afternoon light. A wide stretch of water cut through the middle, glinting whenever the plane shifted. Beyond it all, the countryside seemed to begin almost immediately.

“Huh,” James said from across the aisle.

It wasn’t much of a reaction, but it didn’t exactly need to be. Peter leaned over James to get a better look, almost ending up in his lap.

“I thought it’d be bigger.”

“It probably is,” Sirius said. “We’re just very high up.”

Remus leaned closer to the window, his cheek almost leaning on Sirius’ shoulder. Cars below looked no bigger than matchboxes and trams slid between buildings like toys. Church spires poked above the rooftops often enough that he stopped trying to count them.

He wondered which one of those streets they’d spend the next few months walking down, which tram they’d end up taking every morning, and which cafe they’d make their study central.

It was strange. Vienna had existed for hundreds of years before Remus had ever thought about coming here. Now it felt just like the whole city was waiting for them.

The landing gear dropped with a heavy clunk beneath their feet. Peter looked up immediately.

“I don’t think it’s supposed to make that noise.”

“It definitely is,” James said.

“How do you know?”

“I just do, alright?”

“Brilliant.”

The engines changed pitch. The ground, which was impossibly distant a moment ago, climbed towards them. The runway rushed beneath the wing as the tyres hit hard enough to jolt everyone forward in their seats. Peter swore.

James laughed. Somewhere behind them, someone started clapping—what a strange concept. Sirius looked at Remus.

“Welcome to Austria.”

Remus smiled before he even realised.

———

read the entire work here

friendship to romance aus

- we’ve always been physically affectionate through hugs, leaning on each other, sharing beds, holding hands, and nobody thinks anything of it. then one day, somebody asks if we’re dating and it takes a while for us both to say no

- i’ve never kissed anyone and you offer to help. this is a terrible idea but we don’t realise until it’s too late

- we’re best friends and then you start dating someone and now i’m having some very confusing emotions

- we’re drunk, single friends, and we just kiss impulsively—no big deal—aaaaaand now we’re casual fwbs which is actually a lot harder to keep casual than we thought

- our entire friend group thinks we’re dating and we spend months making fun of them for believing it; meanwhile we’re cuddling during films, falling asleep together, and lowkey acting like a married couple

- we’ve shared beds before, slept on each other’s sofas, changed in front of each other, etc, but one night everything changes

- there’s a moment that we almost kiss, then another, then another, and after about 6 months of almost kissing, our friendship is hanging on by a thread

not so fluffy road trip aus

- i have witnessed something i absolutely shouldn’t have and now we’re driving across the country under fake names and you’re supposed to be protecting me. this is going to be a long trip

- we find a dead body, and for reasons i swear made sense at the time, we didn’t call the police straight away? every decision just gets worse from there

- you disappear in the middle of the night and i follow you, but you won’t admit to me what you’re running from

- i’m escorting you somewhere and you’re handcuffed, so this relationship is either off to a rough start, or a kinky one depending on what you’re into

- somebody we both care about has vanished and the clues lead us across the country, and the longer this goes on, the more worried we are about what we’re going to find

- somebody ruined our lives so we’re going to confront them. there is nothing more to this plan

- civilisation has collapsed, petrol and trust is scarce, and it’s just me, you, and our shitbox against the apocalypse

- i’ve been lying to you for years, and i finally confess to you between countries, but at this point we’re 600 miles from home

bed sharing aus

- there was supposed to be 2 beds at this hotel. there is only 1 bed. the receptionist is deeply apologetic, but now i can’t look you in the eye

- we’re in a winter cabin and it’s freezing and the heating has failed and even the blankets aren’t enough, so suddenly sharing body heat has become a serious survival strategy

- our friendship group has gone on holiday and everyone else paired off for sleeping arrangements and now we’re the only 2 left. everyone else seems to be finding this a lot funnier than we are

- we’ve been pretending to date all week so obviously it’s assumed that we’d share a room, but correcting them would expose the lie, soooo now we’re sharing the bed, i guess

- you’re sick/injured/recovering/etc. and i’m staying nearby to keep an eye on you and our eyes get tired and we wake up tangled together

- there was absolutely no reason to buy the tiniest tent in existence, i do not care that ‘it was £20 cheaper’, it’s raining and we’re stuck in the smallest tent known to man!!

road trip aus

- my planned travel companion cameos at the last minute so i end up driving avoid the country with you instead which i’m not particularly happy about

- we broke up months ago but we worst paid for this trip and we can’t afford to cancel

- we’re travelling to the same wedding which is 20 hours away and everyone assumes we’re together before we even get there

- somebody leaves us a list of destinations to visit after they die and i didn’t expect you to complete it with me

- my back is killing me and you’re gonna throw up so we stop at the next hotel we pass. every room is booked except one, this is the only hotel around for miles. shall i just go sleep in the car?

- your sibling is graduating and you’re going to drive the 3 days to it, and they’re my best friend so you offer me to come with, and now i’m starting to understand several things about myself

- our band is touring and 3 weeks in this van is destroying our sanity

- we run competing travel influencer pages and a sponsor unknowingly books us on the same campaign

- we’re trying to visit every national park in the country, i’m here for nature, and you’re purely here for vibes

- i flee my wedding and you pick up a hitchhiker: me.

- i have a ridiculous bucket list and you’ve volunteered to help complete it and now we’re attached

- the car dies in the middle of nowhere, the nearest town is tiny and the mechanic says it’ll take days to repair

weather specific aus

- emergency weather warnings send everyone underground, so now we’re trapped together in this tornado shelter until it’s safe to leave

- evacuation plans for the hurricane fail so now we’re stuck riding out this storm together

- i’m a sensible meteorologist and you’re a storm chaser who most definitely isn’t

- it’s monsoon season and flooding cuts off the town so now we’re isolated together for weeks

winter au

- a blizzard traps us together and neither of us is thrilled… and now it’s been 6 hours

- i’m a ski instructor at a resort and you are both my student and my biggest fucking headache

- we run neighbouring christmas stalls and spend more time bothering each other than working

- we keep meeting at the same outdoor ice rink and one of us is wayyy better at skating than the other

- there was a booking mistake. there’s only one cabin. airbnb are super sorry though; ‘have a great christmas’

autumn au

- our families own competing apple orchards and apparently this is now our problem

- every year, our town crowns the festival royalty and we both get nominated! yeah, no, neither of us wants this

- we only see each other once a year at the same bonfire celebration, but at this point we’re not sure why we’ve kept the tradition going

- look, somebody has to work the haunted hayride and i really don’t want to do it alone, so can you do it with me?

- it’s raining outside and the bookshop smells like coffee and old pages and we just exist here now

summer aus!!

woah an actually fitting au for once

———

- it’s the hottest week of the year and you’re the only one who managed to buy a pool before they all sold out in the shops, so now your house is everyone’s refuge

- i’m the beach lifeguard and spend my summer preventing idiots from drowning, and you are one of those idiots

- we run competing stalls at a local summer fair and selling more than you has become my life’s mission

- our friend group goes camping and everything that can go wrong does, and on top of it all, i’m developing a crush on you now?

- i work at an ice cream stand and you show up every day and every day you ask me questions that correlate less and less to ice cream

- we’re caught in a thunderstorm miles from home and now the scary abandoned cabin we walked past doesn’t seem so bad

spring aus!

she posts in summer

———

- our town hosts a massive spring festival every year and we both get roped into organising it despite neither of us volunteering

- i’ve spent years thinking you’re incredibly attractive, but unfortunately every spring i look like i’m actively dying whenever you’re around - are you wearing floral spray?

- we’re neighbours and our gardens share a fence, so gardening has, in fact, become a sport, and we’re both out for blood

halloween aus

yeah yeah i know it’s like july but you gotta get ahead of the game and it’s just not that deep. i did also go a bit mad with the bonus ideas but the brain was running wild.

———

- we both work at a haunted house attraction and our jobs involve terrifying customers, but we’ve become significantly more interested in messing with each other (bonus if we used to date)

- everyone assumes we’re wearing a couples costume but we’ve never met before but, hey, we might as well lean into it

- alternatively, our friends insist couples costumes are more fun but neither of us has a partner, so fake dating for halloween somehow becomes the ideal solution

- we spend the entire party flirting and we don’t recognise each other because of our costumes, so now that we’re out of costume, we’re trying to find each other with wildly unhelpful descriptions (bonus if we slept together / vampire x vamp hunter trying to blend in not knowing what’s real)

- i work at a family owned pumpkin farm and you keep showing up every weekend for increasingly suspicious reasons and come on now, it’s obvious you’re not here for pumpkins

- i run historical ghost tours and you spend the entire tour correcting my facts (bonus if the corrector is a necromancer OR is actually a ghost)

- we’re trapped together during a storm and somebody suggests scary films and neither of us will admit how much of our worst nightmare this is

- strange things keep happening in our apartment building every october and everyone blames it on ghosts, but we’re determined to prove it’s something rational, but evidence is starting to prove us wrong

- we get separated from our group in a corn maze and the maze closes and now we’re trying to find each other or the exit before freezing or being axe murdered

- we’re both absurdly competitive and the winner of this costume competition gets a prize that nobody actually needs, but we’re fighting to the death anyway (bonus if it’s a sexy costume competition gone wrong)

- every halloween, monsters can walk openly among humans, which i’m convinced is a myth… until i meet you

- we work together in one of those temporary halloween shops, literally the entire business exists for only 2 months of the year, and in those 2 months we’ve managed to turn each other’s entire worlds upside down

- i arrive at a costume party but it’s the wrong address! i don’t even realise for several hours because everyone just assumes i know someone else

disability aus

in honour of disability pride month in july!

———

- you’re blind and we keep running into each other everywhere and eventually i realise it’s because your service dog is obsessed with me but you love it too much to take it to be retrained so now you just stay near me so your dog doesn’t get distracted looking for me… and now i’m slowly becoming obsessed with you

- i’m fluent in sign language and you are not, but after meeting someone important to me who’s deaf, you quietly start learning so conversations get easier for you

- you’re a wheelchair user and i use a walking aid but there’s only one accessible apartment and we both need it so now we’re trying to find a solution that isn’t ‘let’s move in together, stranger’

- i have an autoimmune disease and everyone sees me on my good days and assumes im fine, but you’re one of the first people to the bad days too, but you never make me feel guilty about them, so.. thanks

- we’re teammates on the wheelchair basketball team but we’re also absurdly competitive and every practice is a battle

- i’m a museum guide and you’re a frequent visitor who has trouble walking, and after noticing your accessibility issues, we work together to improve your experience as well as everyone else’s

- you have mobility impairments so i’m assigned to share lecture notes with you, which then turns to study sessions, coffee runs, and spending far too much time together

- i have a chronic pain condition, so people assume im constantly rude, lazy, dramatic, or antisocial, but you’re the first person who just asks questions instead of making mean assumptions

- we’re both recovering from recent injuries where i have fractured and broken bones and you have dislocations and neither of us wants to be in physical therapy but now we’re becoming friends

- i have severe walking difficulties and you are a wheelchair user and an airport assistance oversight has left us navigating our own way with delays and cancellations as the cherry on top

- i’m an accessibility consultant hired to improve accessibility and you’re a deaf employee who’s convinced that hiring me will change nothing, but you’re slowly realising that i’m actually good at my job

- i’m blind and use a guide cane and you literally walk into me because you’re looking at your phone and i am not amused, so you spend next the week trying to apologise

- i’ve known your family for years and somehow nobody thought to mention how attractive your deaf sibling is and now i’m trying not to make a fool of myself

- i have physical limitations and everyone on the trip is worried that it’ll be difficult because of my accessibility needs but the actual difficult part is spending 10 hours a day trapped in a metal box with you

- you’re the blind employee who’s always ordering books in braille and i’m the employee who keeps helping by buying books in more accessible formats, and eventually we’re recommending books to each other more than doing our jobs

- we’re competing for a spot in the same national paralympic team and i didn’t expect my biggest competition to become my favourite person

- i get blood sugar drops/seizures/fainting spells a lot and you have ptsd so we tend to see each other in the lift of our apartment building a lot. except that said lift breaks ALL THE TIME and we’re super pissed off and now we’re working together to campaign against the landlord

- i’m autistic and you’re hard of hearing and we became online friends years ago and when we finally meet in person, we’re both self conscious about the things that we accepted about each other long ago

- i volunteer at a rehabilitation centre that you’re at after your dual sensory loss and becoming deafblind and you’re convinced i’m only there because i feel sorry for people but you couldn’t be more wrong