#fic-ish

Instead, he opens it and finds thousands upon thousands of prayers dating back throughout the entirety of his banishment, all from the same untraceable source. He opens random ones. Some are sweet little things, "Your Highness, wherever you are tonight, I hope you sleep well."

Others are more complex, "Your Highness, I find myself in a position where I must either seize power myself or risk it falling into other, more wicked hands. My own hands will inevitably be dirtied by wielding that power, but would they not be just as tainted if I did nothing, and let worse things happen? I know what I will choose, but I still wonder what you would do in my place."

Others still make him blush tomato red up to the tops of his ears, trailing babble still imbued with frantic eroticism and clearly never meant to actually reach him, cutting in and out like a poorly tuned radio as the devotee tries to keep thoughts from becoming prayers, panted strings of "Your Highness, Your Highness, please please please..."

The prayers date back to a few years after his second banishment, which makes sense because his inbox had been wiped when he was banished. He's surprised it's been allowed to gather all of this since: he supposes it's just that no one has even thought to notice. The centuries the prayers span makes it clear they do not come from a human, which is confusing and intriguing in equal measure.

And then, early on, he finds one that makes his heart stop and then take off again at a gallop.

"None of them are quite right, Your Highness. If I carve a thousand, ten thousand, will I eventually get it right? Will I ever be able to capture the kindness and the ferocity you radiate in something as base and cold as stone? I'll keep trying forever, or until I can see you again in the flesh. Your Highness has a believer here who still offers worship."

And that is how Xie Lian realizes that Wu Ming still exists.

this is all it takes to get you sneaking glances at him? just some swirls and doodles on his skin? solomon laughs to himself in his room. perhaps he should invite you over for an impromptu magic lesson, and "accidentally" spill a potion all over his shirt, forcing him to take it off in front of you...

...or, he could just be direct and ask you if you would like to see his pact marks, no convoluted teasing plan necessary.

Oh this is random, but cute haha! To be honest, I feel like I'm the worst person to ask because I'm like-so bad at thinking of kid!fic (it doesn't tend to be my thing really lol) and also I have never actually been to Disneyworld or Disneyland or anything so I don't actually know about all the attractions or like anything much about it. That being said: I think they'd be very much like the dads who would let their child(ren) go exploring, really encourage them to be curious and to ask questions and find what interests them. In my make believe scenario in my head I think right now they just have one child, a daughter, because I will be the most cliche person I can.

So, exploring and curiosity is encouraged but Max is a bit of a worrier. The first time she fell and skinned herself playing, he had to leave the room and have Daniel handle it because he was so worked up, he almost started crying right with her.

(Daniel held him at night after that and told him it's not a bad thing to have such a soft spongy heart like Max has. That their daughter is lucky to have someone like him as her dad.)

So they're at the park and I think they probably do a bit of everything. Their daughter is 100% on a quest to rank the flavours of sweets, and Max indulges both himself and said child even while Daniel is bemoaning the inevitable sugar rush/crash from both parent and daughter later on.

I think maybe if they have a younger child during this hypothetical scenario, maybe they can't go on certain rides yet, but Daniel, adrenaline junkie that he is, wants to go on a few himself. So Max has their precious baby and maybe Daniel goes to go on a ride but maaaaybe the baby is a little bit freaked out like "wait where is my dad? where has my dad gone?" and starts to get upset and thinks something awful must have happened to Daniel. Daniel comes back out to a baby making grabbing hands towards him and clinging like a koala and Daniel can't put her down after that for a while. But that's okay-turns out rides aren't nearly as fun when the rest of the family isn't there.

(The first time Max saw Daniel hold their daughter, he knew nothing could ever take that from him. Like. Heart so big he really did think it would burst. Daniel liked to make a joke that he didn't think another Verstappen would look at him like Max does, but their child has the same intense eyes that hold so much. Also. Max wanted the baby to be a mini!Daniel so bad, and actually did get his wish in part. idk if mpreg is a thing or if it was surrogacy but she's got a head of dark brown curls, and the same heart shaped lips and gummy smile. Her eyes though? All Verstappen.)

Max loves hearing his daughter's thoughts. Full on asking her questions, and engaging with her and taking her very seriously. When she babbles that something isn't pink enough, he is like you are Absolutely Correct on that (Daniel will point out he doesn't even like the colour pink at some point and tease him for this endlessly) and he's like no, we should do something about this, and proceeds to make sure she has many pink things at Disney World.

Daniel, on the other hand absolutely loves to watch their daughter just Do Things with Wonder. Like she holds something in her hands just to feel the texture, she toddles over to things she wants to check out and maybe she's unsteady but she does it anyway. And if she's a little afraid of something, she'll grab Daniel's hand or Max's hand but still go for it.

(Daniel was so so scared of having kids. He'd had such an amazing example in Grace and Joe growing up and he was worried he'd fuck it up. What if he wasn't good enough? In those months before she got there, Max had held him tight, and soothed him and told him how he would always be enough, because he was Daniel and he was her father and he loved her and that was all that would matter to her.)

So they're at Disney World and they just spend the day wandering around and not with any particular itinerary because "full send yeah?" "no half sends" and yeah okay they're not racing F1 cars anymore but have you ever tried to wrangle an eager baby girl who has the zoomies? It is just as stress inducing as late braking overtake down the inside for the win thank you very much.

Surprising to everyone perhaps but Daniel, it's Max that elects for the Mickey Mouse ears. He's put them over a themed baseball cap (a sfw one unlike some others though "it's just breasts Daniel, most of the babies know what those are" "ohmygod Max") but he still relented because he doesn't want to kicked out and ruin their daughter's time. So a safe hat it is. They're sparkly too because their little daughter likes sparkly things and of course, Max likes whatever she does. Daniel will be cracking a joke in a whisper later of whether the ears stay on during sex, Max will lose his mind and start laughing so hard some other goers will be mildly concerned. Daniel will wave them off with a smile before also losing his own shit over the entire thing. Their daughter will already look at them in exasperation (she's already clocked that her fathers will be embarrassing her in public with their ways but when she's older she won't even hate it, she'll be fond of it. Teenage angst years aside.)

At some point in this little life of theirs, Daniel took up photography in a bit more of a serious way. He had the time and the money and Max definitely encouraged this (a bored Daniel is definitely not a good Daniel to have.) He always carries a camera with him but this one in particular is special because it's a vintage one because he likes the effect and how the photos turn out (and he's of the generation that loves a little nostalgia you know?) so as they go around, Daniel is getting shots and clicking away and even if Max isn't the biggest fan of appearing in photos he's always smiling in these especially when he's looking at Daniel (Martin, who was Max's best man, mentioned this in his speech. He also cried. It was both hilarious and touching.)

(Actually everyone cried. Quite a few in relief. Those were the f1 drivers who were happy these two had finally gotten their shit together. A fun fact: Charles' wedding gift to Max was to finally tell him what he and Daniel did in Vegas.)

In any case. They spend the day at the park before retiring to their definitely overpriced but they're rich so it's fine hotel room with all the amenities. Their daughter is sleeping on Max's shoulder, right into his neck, one of her favourite places, Daniel's too. Daniel has a hand on Max's lower back guiding him. Max knows that hand, always feels safe when it touches him.

A very small snippet of that ballet au I’ll probably never finish. Max and Lando are instructors and Daniel is putting together a ballet show. (Just a base for context, but it’s sorta more complicated)

“So.” Lando leans in and bumps Max on the shoulder to get his attention.

Max looks up annoyed. His girls are off at lunch but there are a few left talking with Daniel. His gestures were all over the place, as they always are. He’s very expressive when he talks, Max finds it slightly entertaining. The girls laugh at what story he is telling.

Lando points to Daniel as if Max wasn’t already staring. “You gonna hit that? Or…?”

Max’s head snaps to look at Lando, his face goes full pink immediately. “What?!” He feels called out, is he being that obvious? No he’s been professional, as he always is, right? “I- what? No.” His face shows anger, but really he’s embarrassed/flustered.

The Brit is laughing his head off. “Good!” He smacks his hand onto Max's shoulder and then pulls him in. “Then I am, what does he like?” Lando looks smug while asking, he’s smiling over to Daniel.

Daniel glances up for a moment, Lando waves, he waves back. Max is very overwhelmed, and for some reason upset that Daniel even waved to Lando.

800ish semi-coherent, nsfw words under the cut

I had a random idea. I’ll tell a little story via text message. More installments to come. 

Part 1: Cute Doggos

i’m literally writing this fic Right Now dhfdhls

“For all of us, yes,” says Mr. Giles, then eyes Jenny, very clearly sizing her up.