#{askmeme

Friendly / Casual

“Hi… I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m…”

“Hey there, mind if I join you?”

“You look like someone I should know… am I right?”

“Hello! I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I was hoping I’d run into someone like you.”

“Hey, do you come here often?”

Curious / Observant

“That’s… interesting. Where did you get that?”

“I couldn’t help but notice you from across the room.”

“You seem… different from the others I’ve met.”

“Do you always walk around with that look on your face?”

“I’ve been wondering about you… what’s your story?”

“Something about you feels familiar… have we met?”

Shy / Hesitant

“Uh… hi. I’m not great at this, but…”

“I… I didn’t mean to intrude, but…”

“Hello… I wasn’t sure if I should say anything, but…”

“I guess this is awkward, but… can we talk?”

“I’m not sure how to start this, but…”

“Sorry, I just… had to say hello.”

Flirty / Playful

“Well, hello there… didn’t expect to see someone like you here.”

“Do you always make an entrance like that, or am I lucky?”

“I was hoping fate would lead me to you tonight.”

“You have the kind of face I’m going to remember.”

“I was wondering… could I tempt you into a conversation?”

“Careful… I don’t usually smile at strangers… but you might be worth it.”

Mysterious / Intriguing

“I’ve been waiting for someone like you.”

“You wouldn’t understand if I told you… but maybe I’ll try.”

“There’s something about you… I can’t quite place it.”

“I don’t usually talk to people, but you’re different.”

“Not many notice me… yet here you are.”

“I have a feeling we’re going to see each other again… sooner than you think.”

Bold / Direct

“I’ve got a feeling you and I are going to get along.”

“You look like trouble… am I right?”

“Let’s cut the small talk—what are you really about?”

“I think we need to get to know each other.”

“I don’t waste time… but I might make an exception for you.”

“Don’t look so surprised. I talk to interesting people first.”

Playful / Humorous

“I swear, if you say you’re new here, I’ll laugh… but welcome anyway.”

“Well, someone had to break the ice, might as well be me.”

“If we’re supposed to be enemies, I think you just lost that chance.”

“I’m not great at first impressions, but let’s see how this goes.”

“You seem suspiciously interesting… I approve.”

“Guess what? You’re officially my new acquaintance.”

That said, in the interest of learning even more about my faves, the non-spoiler inducing question that I’d love to have answered is: 🧩 What tiny habit of the other do they find unbearably adorable?

For Harry and Theo, Severus and Remus, and Fred and Blaise please!

Thank you so much!!

Oh, this is so sweet, thank you! I'm so glad people feel like they know the characters so well.

What tiny habit of the other do they find unbearably adorable? I'm going to answer in teeny tiny microfics. Heads up to everyone, these are all my version of these characters from my fanfic series, The Heir to the House of Prince. Enjoy!

And thank you for this fun evening break for me, I had a big breakthrough on my novel today and it was so nice to relax by writing these teeny tiny microfics.

Harry

It's the click of the tongue. It took him a while to notice it, Theo is a silent reader, unlike Harry, who shuffles and fidgets and sighs and asks questions. Theo can sit still for hours, simply turning the pages, happy with Harry flopping against him in multiple different positions. But the click. At the right side of his mouth, his expression immovable. At first, Harry thinks it's because he's in the wrong position, so he moves away but Theo pulls him back. Then he thinks it's a swallow, maybe Theo's thirsty, he takes it as a cue to bring a cup of tea. Theo is too immersed to drink it. Finally, he asks. Theo looks bemused, scanning the paragraph he just read for the answer.

'Oh, it's just that they presented a thesis I hadn't thought of. It's new to me.'

Harry smiles to himself. He clicks when he's excited. Harry decides to try and produce that sound in as many circumstances as possible.

Theo

In the middle of the night, Theo is often woken from slumber, but he never resents it. Harry is affectionate during the day, but always guarded. Deep in slumber, Harry flings his limbs all over Theo. Tonight he wakes because a face plastered against his neck, an arm stretched across his torso, and a leg tossed over his thighs. Extricating himself to a more comfortable position is always a delicate process, and if Harry does the thing ...

'Nmph,' Harry huffs. 'Nuhuh.'

It's enough of a protest for Theo. He smiles, heart full, and can't possibly move.

Severus

He hates when Remus reads his books. Severus likes leather bookmarks, he likes unbroken spines, he likes yellow post-it notes and tab markers made of silver. He does not like tea stains and crumpled up receipts and, Hades below, folded corners. But what does cool his rage, every time, what stops him from casting elaborate curses on all his books to protect them from his lover is this: Lifting a sad book left cracked open and upside down, like a stuck turtle, and seeing an underlined passage. Eyes dancing to the inevitable note in the margin: Saw this and thought of you.

Remus

There is no one on the planet as finicky as Severus Snape. Remus thinks of him like a perfectly attuned piece of clockwork or a cryptex, so easy to accidentally press the wrong buttons and ruin everything. So beautifully crafted. He considers it his life's work to be the foremost expert on this man he has chosen to love, and nothing gives him more pleasure than catching a small idiosyncrasy in the well oiled machine. It's the way Severus switches from black to charcoal grey socks after Imbolc. It's how he hand-harvests lavender exclusively from the garden at Spinner's End just for their son's headache relieving potion. Remus catches them, all the tiny raindrops of Severus' habits, and every one makes him smile.

Fred

Blaise Zabini is easy to love. His charm has the quality of making life smooth, of softening every bump, he has the talent of being agreeable. Fred gets it, he knows the value of being the unflappable one, the one with the easy joke when the tension rises, the person who can meet any challenge with a firm nod and a wink. But football makes Blaise Zabini flappable. More flappable than Ron watching Quidditch. Beautifully enraged.

'Dai!' Blaise screams in Italian at the television. 'Ma stai scherzando arbitro!'

He turns to his boyfriend, red eyes wide with fury, arms gesticulating wildly.

'Can you believe it?' He exclaims. Perfectly dishevelled. So upset.

'Fucking shocking,' Fred smiles, kissing him.

Blaise

He has never thought about his body more since he became a shield. He is always aware of the space behind him, protecting Theo, the danger in front of him, chest facing it, for ever more. His eyes are always searching, watching, noticing, assessing. He is the look out, the guard, the one the curse hits first.

Introduce yourself to the class.

“Salutations, I am Yuugumo-class destroyer, Yuugumo, I came to Nemuro base alongside my two sisters, Makigumo and Kazagumo, and my cousin Akigumo.”

“We are a polycule, living together, and sleeping together, and we hope to not intrude upon the order of the base.”

See How the People Here Live Now is that extremely rare fic for me in that I knew exactly what I wanted it to be, kept it under 10k, and managed to write it in a week (even if I wasn’t able to post it before 8.18).

The dishes scene happened for two reasons.  The first unexciting reason is that I just like to give characters tasks when I’m writing a longer dialogue exchange, because then there’s actions I can pair with the dialogue to make it a little more dynamic.  It helps keep the scene interesting and the tasks can help add to the emotional subtext of the scene.

The second more exciting reason is that there’s an intimacy to knowing how someone does their dishes.  Do they have a dishwasher, and if so how do they load it?  Do they run it every day or wait until it’s full?  If they don’t have a dishwasher then what’s their process for washing it be hand?  Do they soak the dishes first?  Do they fill the sink?  Do they do it after every meal or at the end of the day?  Are you paying attention to the people you care about?

And Buck paid attention.  He and Tommy may have spent most of their six months together having sex, but Buck was watching and learning.  Sure, he missed that Tommy was engaged to a woman, but he knows that Tommy won’t run the dishwasher if it’s just him, that he does the dishes every day, that he doesn’t like to fill the sink.  It’s a kind of domestic intimacy that I think Buck really desperately wants to have with someone.

(Also Buck’s phrasing of Tommy letting him watch, like Tommy granted permission, is hilarious because what actually happened is Buck just happily draped himself over Tommy’s back, and Tommy assumed that he was trying to start something, but no, Evan really just wanted to watch him do the dishes, and Tommy, bemused as all hell, just went along with it because he’s not dumb enough to shrug off his hot boyfriend who wants to spend time with him.)

(Also they did fuck in the kitchen when he was done.)

There’s also a sort of, not to overuse the word, intimacy talking with someone as they do a mundane chore.  Like yes, I really do want nothing more than to sit here and keep you company while you do the dishes.  I wanted to show that despite everything Tommy and Buck were still comfortable and at ease with each other.  And I wanted to contrast that with Eddie, who didn’t help Buck with the dishes and then took the broom away.  Eddie and Buck at one point did have that comfortable ease, but that’s gone now, even if Buck hesitates to recognize that their friendship has changed.