#geam

Okay it's been a hot second since I posted a snippet cause life is bonkers, but Arranged Marriage fic is still getting closer to being finished!

Chapter 7 is at 7k right now so it might not actually be shorter than the others lmfao But spoiler alert: they're both fully in love at this point! A happy ending is real and true!

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Gem’s not used to sharing her bed, and she’s almost certain she ends up kicking Etho a couple of times in the night, because at some point she wakes to him gently encouraging her onto her side away from him.

“Sorry,” she grunts, and she feels his mouth against her shoulder — the briefest of kisses that silently tells her not to worry — before he pulls the covers further over the both of them.

He doesn’t curl up behind her to hold her close, but there’s the warmth of his back against her own as she shuts her eyes and drifts off again.

The next time she wakes, she’s vaguely aware of being sprawled out on her back, one arm tucked up under her pillow. There’s not much feeling in her hand, her fingers tingling, and she grunts, pulling it free.

With her other hand, she rubs at her face, taking in the gentle aches of her body before she realizes there’s a strange kind of heaviness across her breastbone.

She takes a breath, the feeling moving with her, and when she finally opens her eyes and looks down, she realizes it’s Etho’s metal hand, his fingers resting at the hollow of her throat.

When she darts her gaze across to him, he’s watching her in return, and based on his expression, she thinks she’s caught him — he was touching her while she was asleep.

She offers him a slow smile, letting out a breath as she starts to roll onto her side to face him, but his arm flexes, his hand pressing her back down to keep her right where she is.

Some fun from chapter 6!

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Even in a waterproof hat and coat, Impulse is still getting wet, his blinking erratic as he keeps the rain out of his eyes.

“We should be getting home,” Gem says, turning to be able to grab at Etho's shirt where Impulse can't see, and she tugs to make a point.

Etho nods beside her, his hand sneaking back to find hers, holding it tightly.

“Yes,” Impulse agrees, “I should also — ”

He points vaguely in the direction of town, nodding, but for a long second, he doesn't move.

“We'll see you tomorrow for dinner?”

It takes Gem longer than she'd like to admit to realize he means the Saturday dinner in town.

“Yes,” she promises. “We'll be there.”

Impulse nods again, gaze darting between them, like he still can't believe what he'd seen, and then scrambles into motion all at once.

“Have a good day,” he tells them, offering a distracted wave as he sets off at a quick pace, tucking his head down against the weather.

Gem watches him silently, waiting until he rounds the next corner, disappearing from view, before she turns toward Etho.

Leaning forward, she presses her face against his chest, body shaking as she laughs as silently as she can.

“Oh my god,” she says, muffled by his wet shirt, “they're gonna be unbearable tomorrow.”

“We don't have to go,” Etho points out, and Gem draws back with a loud breath, laughing again.

“That would fuel them, Etho.”

Only just seeming to realize the implication of them not showing up — what they might be doing instead — Etho's gaze darts away from hers, and Gem leans into his space again, squeezing the hand she's still holding.

“C’mon,” she says, “let's get out of here before it gets worse.”

On Saturday I woke up and hated it and scrapped it and rewrote 1000 words of first kiss.

On Sunday I woke up and hated it and scrapped it and rewrote 1000 words of first kiss.

forgot about posting a snippet again because i'm a clown. have a little spice as repentance!

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It’s still dark out — no light coming in through her window — and she’s not entirely sure what’s woken her.

But when she rolls over, she startles to find her bedroom door open, a figure standing in the doorway.

“I thought you’d left,” Etho says, voice rough, like he’s only just woken up himself, and Gem pushes herself up onto one elbow.

“What?” she asks, entirely confused. “Why would I leave?”

She can’t see much and finds herself reaching for the small lamp on the nightstand, switching it on to offer a little light.

Which feels like a mistake when she realizes Etho’s still mostly undressed, wearing only a pair of soft cotton pants, slung low on his hips.

He’s not particularly muscular, but his chest is defined with a smattering of hair across it.

There’s more hair — darker — trailing down from his naval, disappearing beneath the waistband of his pants, and it’s so unexpectedly lewd that Gem forgets herself for a moment, mouth falling open.

“It may have been a dream,” Etho admits, sounding more awake, yanking Gem out of her thoughts, her gaze snapping back up to his face.

“What?”

Etho folds his arms, as though suddenly self conscious about how he’s dressed, but it doesn’t make it any easier for Gem to think.

“I think it was a dream I had — that you left,” he explains quietly, and Gem sits up fully, taking in the words.

She wonders if the mix of tonics gave him bad dreams and confused him enough to make him believe they were real.

I forgot the days of the week. Have Scar's debut in arranged marriage AU!

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The bell above the door jingles softly as she enters and she has to give the door an extra nudge to close it behind her — the wood slightly warped perhaps from age or weather.

It’s smaller than she expects, but that doesn’t mean there’s less for her to browse. Every shelf and surface is covered with things. Though not in the same way as Etho’s house.

The shop itself is pristine. There’s no dust, no cobwebs tucked in the rafters overhead. The items being sold are neatly arranged and sorted, and it’s clear that whoever owns the shop deeply cares for it.

“Well, hello there,” a voice says, startling her, and she turns to find a man in a wheelchair making his way toward her, a warm smile on his face.

“Hello,” she replies carefully, and his smile softens.

He appears younger than Etho, maybe by a handful of years, and the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up, his forearms lean.

“Welcome to Trader Scar’s. You must be Gem.”

She blinks, grazing her palms across her dress nervously.

“You know who I am?”

He rolls a little closer, until she can see he has green eyes.

“I know everyone in this town,” he tells her. “But I don’t know you, which means you must be the poor sucker who married Etho.”

Gem shifts, taken aback. “Excuse me?”

The man laughs, but not at all unkindly, fidgeting his wheelchair from side to side.

“Etho’s an acquired taste,” he explains. “I doubt you’re enjoying it at the moment.”

He presumes a lot, and Gem’s face burns with embarrassment — mostly because it’s true. He doesn’t know her, but somehow he knows exactly how she’s feeling.

Etho should take notes.

“He’s my husband,” she says, for a lack of anything better to say, a lack of argument against the fact that this man is right.

Little something from chapter 2 this week. Let the record show that I wrote in sheriff!Skizz before he decided to be a sheriff in HC11. But it all plays into my agenda perfectly.

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Gem’s hands are clammy when Impulse leads the way into the saloon, and Gem thinks the only reason she doesn’t turn around and flee is because Bdubs is right behind her.

He sets his palm to the small of her back as though reading her mind.

“They won’t bite,” he promises, and Gem lets out an uncomfortable breath.

But Pearl wasn’t lying — Gem’s already been introduced to almost everyone there, and Pearl herself is at the bar, chatting with a man who’s almost as tall as her.

She spots Gem immediately, waving her over with a smile, and Gem finds herself moving on unsteady legs.

When she’s close enough, Pearl sets a hand on her shoulder and leans in, almost a half-hug.

“Remember to breathe,” she whispers near Gem's ear, offering Gem a gentle smile when she pulls back, and Gem tries her best to mimic it.

“You must be Gem,” the man beside Pearl says, and Gem finds herself glancing all the way up at him and nodding.

She can’t find her voice, but the man smiles warmly, holding out one hand for Gem to shake.

“I answer to most things, but you can call me Skizz,” he says. “I like to pretend I’m the sheriff around these parts.”

“You are the sheriff,” Pearl says with a sigh, as though it’s a joke she’s heard often, and Skizz smiles broadly.

This week, you get a tiny snippet from chapter 4 of the gemtho arranged marriage au!

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“Have you settled on a name for your horse?” Bdubs asks after supper the next night, and Gem puts down her almost-empty wine glass and hums quietly.

“May,” she admits, something she’s been turning over in her mind since the day before, and Bdubs snorts.

“Because she always comes before June?” he asks with a sly grin and Gem shakes her head.

“Because it’s better than calling her Etho’s Apology.”

That earns her a full laugh and Gem spares a glance across the room at the bar, where Etho’s sitting beside Doc.

Doc’s had his sleeve rolled up, pointing at various parts of his metal arm for the past half hour, and Gem has no idea what he’s saying, but Etho hasn’t been contributing much.

“Rolls off the tongue easier,” Bdubs agrees before lowering his voice to something more subtle. “Has he apologized?”

Gem looks back at Bdubs, not entirely sure she wants to discuss it, especially not in public, but she gives a quick nod.

Bdubs’ shoulders sag as though relieved. “He said he had, but you can never be sure with him.”

A little something something from chapter 4 of Gemtho Arranged Marriage AU. Unedited as always, so if you see errors, no you don't.

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Gem sits on her porch the next morning, eating a slice of pie for breakfast and enjoying the silence. She hadn’t expected to feel lighter after their conversation, but when she looks over at Etho’s house, the knot in her chest doesn’t feel as tight. Like one day it might unravel and free her.

She’s sipping at her coffee, when his front door opens and he steps out, holding something in his hands.

He glances over, seeming surprised that she’s already there watching him, and offers a tentative wave.

Gem doesn’t wave back, but she lowers her mug and lets her head tilt in an unspoken question.

“Morning,” he says when he finally makes his way over to her, and Gem realizes he’s holding some kind of material.

“Morning,” she says back, but he doesn’t try to step up onto her porch.

Instead, he stretches one arm out toward where she's sitting, offering up what he’s holding.

“What is this?” she asks, even as she sets her mug aside to accept it.

Etho doesn’t explain, and Gem — impatient — shakes out the material to find what she’s been given.

“Pants,” she says, staring down at exactly that — they’re threadbare around the knees, clearly pre-worn, maybe by Etho himself, but they’re definitely a pair of men’s pants. “What are these for?”

“Wearing,” Etho says smartly, and Gem lowers her hands to be able to shoot him an unimpressed look.

“I’m not going to stitch them for you,” she replies, indignant, because if Etho wants her forgiveness, this isn’t the way to go.

Etho straightens a little, shaking his head.

“No,” he says quickly. “They’re for you — to wear.”

Gem stares back down at the pants.

“Why would I wear these?”

“For riding,” he explains. “Your skirt — ”

She remembers all too well the moment she’d ridden into the barn with her dress hitched up so that she could sit in the saddle properly. He'd seen it.

“Bdubs has a new batch of horses,” he continues. “I thought you might like to pick one out.”

Her gaze snaps back up to him.

“To keep? As my own?”

He nods, tucking his hands into his pockets, and Gem’s grip tightens on the pants.

She could finally have her own horse to take out to the lake, to ride into town, to do whatever she so pleases.

“When could I pick one?” she asks, and it’s clear he hears her enthusiasm, because his shoulders push back as though his confidence is returning to him.

He knows he's done something right.

“Bdubs said he’d be around the house all day, so if you’re free we could — ”

“I’ll get changed,” Gem interrupts, and this time, the corner of Etho’s mouth twitches.

He watches her for a moment and Gem worries perhaps he’ll change his mind.