She genuinely cannot disinguish between attraction and envy when there's a pretty girl in her orbit, and it doesn't really matter, because she hates both of those feelings. She's not about to let some beautiful girl with huge doe eyes break her heart, or steal all the boys' attention, OR distract her to throw her off her game, no siree, absolutely not. All pretty girls activate Crystal's Mortal Kombat mode. It's kill or be killed out there.

That's why Niko is so special; she comes into Crystal's life during the one moment when Crystal is in a space to regard a girl of her own age as a friend, not a threat or a rival or a future heartbreak. It's probably the first time in years Crystal has had a real friendship with another girl.

For half a second, Edwin’s vision was filled with a beautiful, ethereal sight. Charles had turned his face up in surprise, eyes wide and lips parted, and his brown eyes reflected the cloud of golden shimmers hovering above him. He was bathed in a gentle light, surrounded by a galaxy of tiny stars.

- Like Fool's Gold by @roseganymede95

this is one of my favourite fics (tied with every single other of their fics, of course!) that i recently gave a reread, and this description is so lovely that i just had to draw it <3

bonus, because i can take nothing seriously:

Summary: The pre-canon adventures of Edwin and Charles. In which they love each other a whole lot and neither one has any idea how to be normal about it.

Author: @roseganymede95

Submitter: @Fivewinterstones 

It just never occurred to me that this was allowed? It’s like, as a kid who thought adults were boring, it never occurred to me that I would still want to have fun as an adult. I always thought I would grow out of this.

But now I’m an adult, and I still want to have fun, and holy shit! There are people out there who want to have fun too! And we can talk to each other! And create together! And be excited about things!

When I was in high school I would have denied to your face that I had ever head of fanfiction. But now I’ve written over 250,000 words of it. I’m proud of it. I’m happy about it. Unfathomable to younger me.

I have been tagged by @williamvapespeare to share a snippet of something old that seems worth revisiting. I'm going with this little gem from Like Fool's Gold that has become extremely relevent in my current longfic, RIP to Orpheus but I'm Different.

Here it is, the original Holmes and Watson discussion, lifted from the first chapter of the the first fic I ever wrote for Dead Boy Detectives:

“You’re getting pretty good at this, you know,” said Charles. “Like dead Sherlock Holmes.”

“Nonsense,” Edwin scoffed. “The Sherlock Holmes books only have one detective. That would make you Watson, which is ridiculous.”

“I’d make a great Watson!” Charles protested.

“Watson is meant to be an audience surrogate,” said Edwin firmly. “He’s there to follow Homes around and tell the reader how brilliant Holmes is. If Arthur Conan Dyle were writing about us, he would include a third person to tell the reader how remarkable both of us are. It would be unwieldy.”

He didn’t notice until he stopped speaking that Charles had stopped following him. Edwin stopped too, now, to look back at Charle’s face across the few yards of distance. Charles wore a strange expression, head cocked to one side with all the usual humor gone from around his mouth and eyes.

At once, Edwin felt terribly nervous. Had he said something wrong? Charles didn’t really want to be Watson, did he? What if Watson was his favorite character and Edwin had just insulted him? 

“Charles?” Edwin asked carefully.

“That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” said Charles, something like wonder in his voice.

“Oh.” It was a good thing Edwin couldn’t blush. He would most certainly be blushing right now if he could. 

Charles grinned and picked up his gait again to resume their walk home. “You’re something, you know that?” 

For what it's worth, I don't think Edwin's assessment of Watson is accurate. The character is a lot more complex and competent that Edwin's giving him credit for, here. But I think it's also true that Edwin objects pretty strongly to any implication that Charles is his sidekick.

Charles, meanwhile, wants to be Edwin's sidekick more than he's ever wanted anything.