💗💗 AAA THANK YOU SO MUCH FRIENDS!!!!! 💗💗💗  i am feeling SO loved and it’s makin’ me cry a lil bit!!!!! it has been an absolutely wonderful day so far and so much of that is bc i have all of you in my life!!!!! sending u all of my love, thank u for thinking of me!!!!! 💗💗💗

Ben makes calligraphy look easy.

You keep having to remind yourself that he’s studied the art of calligraphy for years, starting from when he was a young boy. His mother had taught him. You’re just now getting started.

But even after two weeks of practicing, your attempts have not improved. Your writing looks sloppy, uneven, the ink bleeding out from the lines. Your shaking hands have yet to build up the muscle memory to steady them.

A shadow falls over you and a pair of warm, huge hands squeeze your shoulders, making all the tension in your body slacken. Ben. He’s home early today.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he greets with a kiss to your cheek, making you giggle. “Still at it?”

“Yeaaaaah,” you grimace, looking back at the sheets you’ve been practicing on. Ben takes a seat next to you and takes a closer look, shuffling through the pages. “Uh, it’s…not looking very polished. It’ll take me at least 84 years before I show any improvement.”

“You exaggerate too much,” he leans until his head is resting against yours. “You ARE improving; you’re just too hard on yourself.”

“Maybe.”

Ben sighs and brings a hand up to your shoulder, pulling you closer to his side. “When are you going to see yourself the way I see you?”

You swallow thickly, unable to answer him. Unable to completely accept that Ben sees you as if you’re such a priceless treasure that he covets. You hold yourself to an impossible standard, one that you’ll never achieve, and it’s so easy for you to belittle yourself.

So easy to proclaim that you suck at this and laugh at your own expense. That you’re silly for even trying calligraphy in the first place. 

“You should have seen my workbooks when I first started. I didn’t have the patience back then. I wanted perfection just like that,” he snaps his fingers for emphasis, “and if I didn’t get it right the first time? I’d quit.”

“Bet your mom didn’t like that.”

Ben laughs so hard that his shoulders shake. “Oh, god no. She grounded me. Dad had to play mediator between us and he practically begged me to do it so we could have peace in the house again.”

You can’t help but laugh along with him, picturing Ben as a stubborn child knocking heads with his equally stubborn parents.

“But I’m glad they didn’t let me quit. I eventually grew to love it,” his smile fades a bit, “and it makes me feel close to them. Like they’re actually here.”

Your mood sobers, remembering that Ben’s parents had passed away a few years ago, days apart from each other. Ben was devastated when he found out.

“Anyways, what I’m trying to—to get at is,” he takes a deep breath to compose himself. “We can’t expect perfection whenever we try something new. In fact, we need to accept that we’ll make mistakes. We learn from them and that’s how we improve.”

“That makes sense,” you flip through your workbook, mentally noting that there’s a little improvement between the first page and the one your practicing on now. Small, but it’s progress. “I just gotta...stay positive. Keep practicing.”

“And quit being so hard on yourself,” Ben adds. “You’re off to a great start and I’m not just saying that to make you feel better. I’m proud of you.”

You feel your eyes burn with the threat of tears and you blink them away, willing your face to stay composed. “Thank you, Ben.”

“Anytime, starlight,” he smiles so widely that the corners of his eyes crinkles. “Give me a kiss.”

“Just one?” you tease, smiling back at him. “Are you going to be satisfied with just one kiss?”

“Perhaps I should be more specific.”

“You really should,” you lean up and press your lips to his, reveling in how soft and warm they are against your own. You draw away slightly, your nose bumping into his. “So how many?”

“Trillions.”

“That’ll take 84 years for me to give you that many.”

“Then we better get started.”

This is it. This is the message that confirms Clyde is a summer baby. 

His parents and siblings never forgot his birthday. It definitely got overlooked by his friends. So yeah, sometimes it was a sad thing.

You’re right though, he does start appreciating his birthdays more when he’s with you because you never forget. You always make a big deal out of it because you make him realize that it’s important, that he deserves to be celebrated and to be showered with love. 

“Smells amazing.”

Flip’s hands skim around your waist as you stir the wooden ladle - pushing at the chili and humming to yourself quietly. He loves this part: loves coming home to the muted melodies, the smell of something delicious on the stove.

He loves coming home to you.

Hands roam under the cotton of your shirt; flattening on your stomach, pulling you flush to his own. The way you lean back into him as though on instinct...God. Will there ever be enough of this for him? Ever be enough reasons not to lavish you in kisses?

Speaking of which...

He nudges your jaw upward; finding the place your pulse jumps. Wet lips press to the curve of you: fingers squeezing, Flip’s satisfied hum reverberating through the flannel on his chest.

“Flip,” you tut, breathy in your protest. “Baby...”

“What? So my beautiful wife doesn’t deserve me treating her to a little affection?”

His teeth nip slightly at your skin there, and oh. Yes: that’s it. That’s the ticket.

“You...” you sigh, eyes closing as the spoon falls slack. “You want your dinner all burned? That’s where this is heading, Zimmerman.”

Flip shrugs.

“I could be eating something else...”

You choke on your own tongue just enough to make him smirk. Fingers massage the skin on your hipbones; making you squirm in that heady way you always do.

Fuck; he loves it. 

“I’ll go set the table. Keep my hands occupied.”

He’s a flirt.

I have to say I love the enthusiasm here as well as the soft Clyde thoughts you provided. 

Hi!

I love Christmas Clyde so much! I want to try to get some Christmas themed fics out this month, but the end of the semester has just been keeping me busy along with other personal stuff, plus I’m in this weird headspace again where I’m convinced that my writing is horrible. So I have no motivation.

Clyde definitely didn’t put much thought into Christmas before you started dating. I think that as a kid he enjoyed Christmas a lot, I feel like he helped his Mama decorate and he actually enjoyed it. I bet he misses decorating with her a lot. 

After both of his parents passed things changed. Like you said he still has a big dinner with his siblings on Christmas, but it isn’t the same.

So once you come into his life and Christmas comes around, you’re just so excited that Clyde can’t help, but feel a little more festive that year.