1. Get your outline in order.

Even if you’re a pantster, a rough outline can really help you keep on the right path. Create plot points on index cards (or virtual index cards) to view your ideas and where you plan to go with them. Does each point flow logically with the final goal in mind?

2. Check your antagonist.

Do they draw the reader to them? Is their motivation strong, and do they have enough power to make their anti-goal achievable? A good antagonist is sympathetic—but remember, not more so than the protagonist. 

3. Make it complicated....

Is your protagonist meandering from A to B? Why not make their life difficult? Throw in obstacles—then make them bigger and more complicated. With every heroic step forwards, does the villain also come closer to a win? Crank up the emotion. Make that hero earn their prize.

4. ...But not too complicated.

Nobody loves a story where the protagonist can’t catch a break. Add some wins for them, however small. Keep a spark of optimism alive to make their continued motivation to succeed believable.

5. Fuel inner conflict.

No matter how determined your hero is, a good dose of inner conflict is the ideal tool for throwing them off the right path, raising the stakes and leaving the reader rooting for them to overcome their turmoil. Pull them in opposite directions between their inner and outer goals - a struggle is compelling reading.

6. Raise the stakes.

What does the protagonist have to lose—or gain? Reinforce and heighten this as the story goes on, and remind your reader of the consequences of various outcomes.

7. Weave in a subplot.

Show the reader (and hero) the dangers of failure through a secondary character’s eyes. 

8. Throw in a midpoint reversal.

An unexpected turn of events throws the plot sideways: shock your readers or tease them with a will it / won’t it event or a secret.  Change up what the reader thinks they know to make the end unpredictable.

9. If all else fails...

If you still can’t find the right way to firm things up, reset your brain by going for a walk, taking a nap, or playing a word game to revive your energy levels or maybe find the inspiration you need. Often, just disengaging your conscious mind and encouraging your subconscious to mull over your plot can be enough to tip you over into a flow state once again. Best of luck!

Julia Pierce is a former journalist who now writes for fun. She’s also a director at Literature & Latte, creators of the writing app Scrivener—the perfect tool for planning out, adding structure to or editing your book. Get some writing inspiration on the Write Now With Scrivener podcast here (https://podcast.scrivenerapp.com)

All Camp NaNoWriMo participants receive a 20% discount on Scrivener’s regular license by entering HAPPYCAMPER22 into the coupon code text field in the web store through August 7th, 2022. If you want to try out Scrivener first, you can download a free trial that will run through August 7th, 2022.

“Deal.” Reggie pressed a kiss to her cheek, but remained in his position, only moving to wrap his arms around her.

“Noooooooo.” Julia whined again, trying not to move too much.

Reggie grinned mischievously, fully aware of what she was trying to tell him, “What’s wrong, love?”

“Too warm! Get off!” When she tried to peel his arms off of herself, Reggie simply held tighter for a few minutes. It was only once Julia stopped and looked at him with her puppy dog eyes that he finally let her go.

A few hours later and many more whining complaints from Julia, both of their phones buzzed with text messages. Julia grunted and tried to reach for her phone but gave up after a second and pouted at her boyfriend. Reggie rolled his eyes before reaching for his own phone, immediately recognising the message to be from their group chat.

—— Admin ‘Tweedle Dee’ has changed the name of the group chat to ‘The Gayng’ ——

Tweedle Dee: Okay, so Patton and I have come up with the perfect idea for this beautiful, lovely weather! How about a beach trip!!

Tweedle Dee: Why is my name still this?!

—— Admin ‘Tweedle Dee’ has updated their name to ‘Big Daddy’ ——

—— Admin ‘TD&A’ has updated ‘Big Daddy’ to ‘no’ ——

no: HEY! Why can’t I change my name?!

TD&A: No more admin for you.

Reggie laughed aloud, and Julia scooted closer to him to read from his phone. She giggle-snorted after seeing the short back and forth. The rest of the chat scrolled along, and everyone seemed on board for the beach trip, Reggie replying for both of them saying they were in. Within the next hour, they’d all planned to meet up in two days’ time and have a full day at the beach.

The day before the trip passed by as usual; Julia sitting herself in the coolest place she could and complaining infinitely about the heat, Reggie enjoying himself and toying with his girlfriend at every chance he could. Though, by the end of the day, the heat had died down a little to something that was somewhat bearable for Julia which meant she was more than happy to go along with most ideas that Reggie had – especially when it meant having him make it up to her for everything he did over the day, though she knew she was going to be expected to do the same once it cooled down significantly.

Reggie had been slightly responsible and attempted to pack the bags for the trip, but both of them realised pretty quick that they’d need to take a trip to Julia’s place to grab her stuff. They decided to do it that afternoon, saving them precious minutes of sleep in the morning. It was as they were putting everything into a bag that Reggie realised something.

“We’ve never been swimming together.” He said, a note of surprise in his voice as he turned to his girlfriend.

Julia paused mid action and looked at him, “Huh, you’re right… That’s actually kinda weird.” The sudden change in Reggie’s eyes made her stomach sink a little, “What are you planning now?”

Reggie held his hands up in a display of innocence, “Hey, it’s nothing. I’m just curious…” He lowered his hands slowly and practically crawled over to Julia, who was seemingly paralysed by the sudden intense gaze he’d directed towards her, “What does a petite chaton such as yourself wear when dealing with the water?”

The woman flushed slightly, but managed to at least remain somewhat poised, “I mean, it’s nothing special, if that’s what you’re wondering…”

Reggie laughed softly, the exhaled breaths fanning across his partner’s face due to how close they were. The hand that wasn’t holding up his weight came to rest on Julia’s hip, “I was only wondering because you might surprise me.”

It was Julia’s turn to laugh. She’d put the pieces together and was just waiting for him to come out and tell her she was right. As she waited, Julia moved herself a little closer to her boyfriend, stopping just a hair away from kissing him, “Would it be such a bad thing if I did surprise you?”

“Not at all, love.” Reggie lowered his voice to a murmur, “But if you did surprise me, I don’t think you’d be a fan of the possible reactions.”

“Oh?” Julia feigned surprise, her voice matching his in volume, “What kind of reactions are you talking about?”

Reggie smiled knowingly, “You’re not that stupid, love. I know you know what I mean.”

Julia giggled and just barely brushed her lips against his, “But I want to hear you say it, pretty boy.” She half-expected him to actually respond to her when there was a slight pause after she finished speaking, but instead Julia found that Reggie decided to kiss her deeply. It was only brief, but it did leave her just craving more.

“Now, why don’t you show me?” Reggie said confidently, watching his girlfriend intently. He pulled out of her space when she showed signs of actually doing what he wanted, moving to sit on the edge of the bed while Julia walked towards the bathroom to change.

Just before she stepped through the doorway, Julia turned and looked back at Reggie, “Return the favour?” There was another pause before Reggie smiled and nodded. He stood and made his way back down to the bag he was packing before. Julia was evidently pleased with his obedience and headed out to change.

It took Reggie almost no time to change into his swimwear. After throwing his clothes in the wash basket, he moved to look himself over in the mirror. The short, bright orange swim trunks fell to just above his mid-thigh, showing off just the right amount of leg and skin. He spun to check himself from every angle, appreciating the way the trunks showed off his butt so well. It was only a second later that a movement in the doorway caught his eye and he turned to see his girlfriend re-entering.

He was completely unsurprised to see that the one-piece she was wearing was black, rather it was the amount of coverage that caught his attention – or rather what it was lacking. Reggie honestly wouldn’t have expected her to wear tied halter neck, but he wasn’t about to complain as it showed off just that little extra skin. He silently managed to get her to turn slowly, giving him a chance to also see the low-cut back that had several crossing strips of fabric across its lower half as the only coverage.

Both of them took a moment to truly take in their partner’s choice of outfit. It didn’t take too long for Julia to muffle a laugh by biting down on her lip, “I don’t know why I didn’t expect something like this.”

Reggie narrowed his eyes a little in suspicion, but couldn’t help the slight lift at the corner of his lip, “What do you mean?”

“It’s just that this-” She indicated to his only piece of clothing, “-is actually so you and yet, I expected less.”

The man scoffed in mock offence, taking a seat on the edge of the bed once more, “It’s no fun to show off everything all the time, chaton. There’s no mystery if I wear less.”

Julia giggled again and moved to stand in front of him, clearly starting to feel more comfortable in herself as they were still acting as they usually would, “Oh, so it’s for the mystery, huh?” She teased him playfully.

Reggie had clearly had enough of her jabs at him and decided to turn the tables. Before making any comment about her outfit, he grasped her by the waist and pulled her onto his lap harshly. His girlfriend squealed and held onto him tightly as she was moved, making Reggie’s smile grow larger. “Enough about me,” he said as Julia caught up to her surroundings, “How about we focus on you?” One of his hands reached out to her back and ran up the expanse of pale skin, making the woman in his lap squirm slightly.

Julia made a squeaking noise as she wriggled, “Noooo, you know that tickles, stop!”

“So much on show for all to see, yet only I can do this.” Reggie dragged his hand back down, ignoring her squirms. This had happened enough for him to learn her limits and they were nowhere near that yet. He instead focused on the slight darkening of her cheeks as he spoke.

Julia mumbled something under her breath, still squeaking every now and then from the ticklish touch she was receiving, “Shut up…”

The rest of the evening had them forgetting about the unpacked bags on the floor. Reggie was determined to ‘exhaust his reactions now so they wouldn’t come back up later’, though both were fully aware this was one of the weakest reasons either of them had given in order to get them into bed. The swimwear was eventually discarded, thrown back towards the bags that rested at the foot of the bed as the couple enjoyed their evening.

 ----

The next day, they arrived a few minutes late to their meeting point for the beach. They appeared with their belongings, only to be greeted by a vaguely annoyed Roman.

“Finally!” Roman huffed dramatically, hands on his hips, “Why are you two late? You better have a good excuse!”

“We just overslept, alright, munchkin?” Reggie patted Roman’s head with a teasing smile, while Julia giggled behind him.

Roman flailed a little in order to knock Reggie’s hand away, “Whatever. At least you’re finally here.”

“Dude, it’s like only 10 minutes.” Julia retorted, checking her phone for emphasis.

Patton cut into the argument before it could go any further, “Hey! Let’s go down and grab a spot!”

Hazel, who was resting against the railing, popped up and practically ran towards the stairs that led to the beach, “Whoever gets there last has to set everything up!”

That managed to prompt Roman, Virgil and Reggie to sprint after her, leaving the others to deal with the things they’d all brought. Thankfully, with their four pairs of arms – one pair of them being Patton’s which could hold a lot of things – they got everything down with little difficultly. They all set foot onto the sand and saw the other half of their group arguing in a huddle a little way away. Patton was the first to reach them, placing the items in his arms down and stretching his shoulders. He was followed shortly by Logan and Charlotte who followed his lead. As Julia came to stand next to them, Hazel pointed directly in her face, a finger hovering only millimetres away from her nose.

“You’re last! You lose!”

Julia blinked a couple of times before pushing Hazel’s hand away, “Whatever, I don’t mind. You guys do whatever.”

Hazel grinned, “Wait, really? Awesome!” She threw her clothes off, revealing her adorable striped pink bikini before running off towards the water. The others took their time in joining the tall woman, taking care in removing their clothes. Julia remained fully clothed for the time being and began to set up the beach towels and umbrellas everyone had brought along.

“Are you sure you’re okay with doing this alone? You know that it was just a joke from Hazel, right? You don’t have to do this by yourself.” Patton’s soft voice caught Julia’s attention. He was looking down at her with a slightly concerned look, as if he was stuck between going out to enjoy himself and helping out Julia.

The short woman grinned, “Honestly, it’s fine, Pat. I really don’t mind. Go, have fun! This won’t take that long anyway.”

“Okay, if you say so. Call if you do need any help at all.” Patton reluctantly left her to set everything up.

Julia was right. It only took her around 20 minutes to have everything set out on the sand, but it did take her significantly longer before she was even considering going to join everyone else. She watched from afar, seeing them all enjoying the water and sun. Due to her watching everyone, it meant she noticed when Logan was approaching her.

“Aren’t you going to join us?” Logan asked once he was within her auditory range.

Julia shrugged, “In a bit, probably. Just kinda want to, uh… wake up and stuff. Gotta also do sun cream and all that. You know, being ginger and pale and all that, I don’t do too well in the sun.” She awkwardly laughed.

The first indication that she’d given herself away was the raised eyebrow she got from Logan, “Are you okay? Something seems to be bothering you.”

Julia tried to laugh it off, “It’s nothing, really. Just, not a big fan of the heat and sun, is all.”

Logan was still unsatisfied. His gaze was almost piercing through her body, trying to pick out every tiny detail of her being, as if he was trying to solve a puzzle, “You’re not telling me the whole truth. I’m not going to press you much further, but you know you can tell any of us if something is bothering yo-” He cut himself off as he noticed something odd about her skin.

The man took his glasses off of his face and reached into his bag nearby for a cleaning cloth. “Julia.” He addressed her, his attention down at his glasses.

“Y-yes?” She responded. It felt like she was getting disciplined in school and it was a wholly uncomfortable feeling.

Logan placed the glasses back on his face before staring directly into the woman’s eyes, “Did you, perchance, happen to stay with Reggie last night?”

Julia practically combusted as her face bloomed red. Instead of answering him, she avoided Logan’s gaze and looked down towards the towel she was sat on. She was acutely aware that she looked like a toddler that just got caught stealing a cookie before dinner, but a part of her couldn’t bring herself to face the man opposite.

There was a sigh from Logan, “I’ll take that as a yes. I will also conclude that you did also stay up fairly late, which explains why you two were not on time. I have only one more question for you.” He paused as the woman looked up at him, clearly embarrassed, “How many marks did he leave on you?”

If Julia wasn’t already entirely red in the face, that question would have been what caused her to turn even redder. She mumbled something about not being able to tell, which prompted Logan to ask her – if she was comfortable – to show him. Not only was it to satiate his curiosity, but he noticed that Julia was clearly starting to get uncomfortable from the heat as she was likely wearing two layers like the rest of them.

She sighed, “I guess I’d have to at some point… better get it over with.” Julia removed her outer layer, revealing not only her swimsuit but a plethora of marks that littered her skin.

It wasn’t only one or two like Logan had predicted in his head, it was almost as if constellations had been made across the woman’s skin. The marks were across almost every part of her skin he could see, ranging in darkness and colour. Particularly dark ones were in spots that normally would be easy to cover up but were completely visible due to the more exposing clothing.

Both of them were quiet as the shock of the sight set in and Logan digested it. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud voice from in front of them.

“Oh my god! Julia, what the heck happened to you!?”

Hazel was heading towards them, staring and gaping at the marks on her skin, with Charlotte in tow. As they both got closer, it was becoming more and more obvious what the marks were. Charlotte stopped dead in her tracks, flushing heavily, while Hazel’s mouth fell open further.

Her loud voice had caught the attention of everyone else, who were also now focusing on her. It took varying amounts of time, but eventually everyone was caught up.

Roman and Virgil began to crack up with laughter, both almost uncontrollably laughing. Patton tried to get them to stop as they were attracting even more attention from other beach-goers, though it was obvious he was also amused by the whole situation. Hazel continued to gape while Charlotte turned away, almost unable to look at her friend for much longer. Logan rolled his eyes and huffed at his brother’s antics, apologising for him to Julia. Eventually, everyone went back to their activities, the shock and novelty of the bruises wearing off. Julia assured Logan she would come and join everyone soon, as she really did have to cover herself in sun cream first.

As she went about slathering the cream over her arms, a familiar deep chuckle caught had her pouting up at the figure who joined her under the umbrellas, “This is all your fault.” Julia chastised her boyfriend, continuing to work with the sun cream.

Reggie easily took the bottle from her hands and began to help her out, despite her protests, “I know.” He began to work the sun cream into the exposed skin of her back, leaning forward to whisper into her ear at the same time, “Now everyone knows you belong to me, chaton.” Reggie smirked to himself when he heard his girlfriend’s breath catch slightly and her movement falter for a second. It was really then that he realised how much fun he was going to have.

Characters belong to @not-so-innocent-bi-sander Read TVFH Here! http://not-so-innocent-bi-sander.tumblr.com/post/169509231801/the-view-from-here-masterlist

My other stuff: http://nekoabi.tumblr.com/myworks Mobile Accessible Masterlist: http://nekoabi.tumblr.com/post/181954641376/fic-masterlist

It had been a gruelling show for a lot of them, especially the stage hands who were running around all over the place, and Roman wanted to do something fun for them all. The pair were sat down, eating lunch at a place just across the road from the theatre, talking about their ideas.

“I’ve got it!” Roman shouted, gaining the attention of some of the other patrons around him, “A party.”

Julia grimaced, chewing down on the end of the pencil that she was using to note down all of Roman’s ideas, “Like… what kind of party?”

“Whatever we want!”

“So,” Julia pointed the pencil towards her companion, “Is this a going out kind of party or a staying in kind of party?”

Roman thought deeply, “Well, a going out party could be more expensive overall… and a staying in party means we could do whatever we wanted…”

“But a staying in party means we need to find a place where people won’t mind, a going out party is just about finding a place to go to.”

They went back and forth for a while before deciding on asking around the cast and crew, finding out what they would want to do, if they wanted to join in at all.

By the end of the day, it had been decided – it was to be a house party.

The show closed, and everyone allowed a couple of days between the end of the Get Out and the party itself. It meant that the crew would be less exhausted and could have more fun. Roman had told everyone the party was going to be at his, Plus Ones were allowed and that it was going to start at 8 in the evening and go until everyone was gone.

Julia blearily woke up to her alarm buzzing on the bedside table on the day of the party. She sleepily reached for it and turned it off, flopping down back into the pillow as she regretted ever telling Roman she’d turn up early and help him. Eventually, she did drag herself out of bed and get dressed in something comfortable. Julia was thankful to her past self for using her sensible awake brain to pack everything she’d need to take with her to Roman’s place the night before, giving her more time to curse morning people, such as Roman.

An hour later, she was sitting on the floor in Roman’s living room, setting up some speakers while Roman sorted out the table for drinks and snacks that he’d gotten. Julia stood up after testing that all the cables were securely in place, grabbing her phone in order to test them. Thankfully, Roman had the brilliant thought to ensure the speakers were able to handle wireless connection, allowing Julia to easily find the connection and play some music on a low volume.

“You got them working!” Roman called from across the room, “Thank you, you’re a genius!”

“All I did was put the cables in the right places, it’s nothing that impressive.” Julia laughed before falling back behind the speakers in order to tidy up the cabling. She knew that if she didn’t, at least one of the attendees would point it out later that evening.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Roman was running to get it. Julia peered up, a little confused as she was told it would just be her and Roman until the party started. Both of them had been able to convince their boyfriends to attend (Julia’s needing way less incentive than Roman’s) but had also given both of them a list of tasks to do before getting there.

As she thought about this, Roman had already flung open the door and was chatting happily to a familiar voice. Julia stood up and walked over to confirm her thoughts.

“Hi Julia! How are you? Excited?” Patton asked her, his usual sunny smile plastered across his face.

Julia waved a little, “Hey Patton. I’m good, yeah, should be fun.”

Patton nodded, “Yeah! I’m just here to drop of Lo before I go and meet with Virgil and Reggie, gotta help them with all their stuff.”

Roman gave Julia a look that told her he’d planned all of this well in advance. Logan, who Julia had only now realised was there, stepped inside the house after giving his boyfriend a farewell kiss. The door was shut and Roman was all too excited at the prospect of his plan coming together.

“Finally! I’ve been waiting to do this for years!” Roman shouted, clapping his hands.

Logan sighed, already willing himself out of the situation, “What are you talking about?”

“You’ll just have to see!” Roman teased in a sing-song voice, “While you’re here, can you help me with this table?”

Logan reluctantly followed his brother and helped him out with the finer details, while Julia finished up with the cables. She sat on the couch and waited for the two of them, searching for a pre-made playlist they could use for later.

Roman plucked her phone from her hands, “We’re not using someone else’s playlist. I’ve already made the perfect one. Anyway, we need to start getting ready, we only have a few hours!”

Julia reached to snatch her phone back from Roman, “Okay, fine, lets go.”

“Wait a second,” Logan called out, stopping Roman as he turned to enter his bedroom, “I thought the party was supposed to begin at 8. It’s just past 11 in the morning.”

“Yeah, we’re already low on time.” Roman scoffed, “Perfection takes hours to achieve. Plus, I’m not just doing myself today.”

Julia could see the look of terror on Logan’s face as Roman turned and pushed open the door to his bedroom. She walked over and grabbed Logan’s arm, dragging him into the room, “You’re the one who decided to turn up. Sorry, man.”

Hours passed by as Roman and Julia focused on getting ready for the party. By the end of the first hour, Logan could understand why it would take them hours to get ready. Cheesy pop music was blasting from a smaller speaker that was placed on the dresser and both of the other people in the room with him were singing and dancing to it while they attempted to get themselves ready. He watched with some mix of admiration and disdain.

The room quickly became a mess of make up products and clothing as Roman pulled outfit after outfit from his closet, asking for their opinions on what he should wear. He insisted that he was to look “drop-dead gorgeous” and “like a snack with two Cs”, and it took him exactly two hours and twenty-six minutes to change into one of the first outfits he had pulled out, which baffled Logan. He watched as Roman changed and then immediately started to go full out with a performance of the current song that was blasting at full volume.

It was only after that Roman realised that Logan had nothing with him. He gasped and ranted about the travesty it would be if his own brother turned up to his house party looking like a teacher that had just left the school grounds on a Tuesday.

“But it’s Saturday.” Logan retorted, slightly puzzled. That earned him a blank stare from Roman and a snort from Julia.

“I’ll be back in a little while. Going to find out what Logan actually owns and then probably go and get him some new stuff. Bye!” Roman steered his older brother out of the room, leaving a giggling Julia alone.

She heard the front door close while the Towers siblings were arguing about whether or not it was really necessary. In the time they were gone, Julia changed into her two outfit choices and took a fairly long amount of time deciding which one she wanted. Just as she was about to start her makeup after setting all her things out, the front door opened once again. Within a few seconds, Roman was back in the room with a changed Logan at his side.

Now, it was the fun part. Both Roman and Julia took up their own parts of the room as they applied their makeup, still singing and messing around all the time, which meant it took even longer for them to do anything. Logan observed them both, sitting quietly on the end of the bed. Roman was clearly going for something outlandish and extravagant if the colours Logan frequently saw him go for was any indication, while Julia was doing almost the complete opposite as she applied product after product that increased the amount of black around her eyes.

Julia was the first to be finished, though she would go back a few times and reapply certain parts or blend out others. Logan was not expecting her to approach him with a brush in hand, “Um, what are you doing…?”

The woman in front of him simply smiled, “Just close your eyes. I promise I won’t do all of this.” She indicated to herself, obviously talking about the application.

Hesitantly, Logan shut his eyes and allowed her to do what she wanted. He was unused to being moved around in such a way and having products on his face, but he wouldn’t say it was entirely unpleasant.

“You can open for a bit.” Julia said, moving away from him as she snapped some product shut. Logan blinked a few times and was able to catch himself in the mirror Roman was still using. Nothing was really changed, the only thing that looked different to him was that his skin tone was smoother and looked a lot more… perfect. He couldn’t exactly find the words to describe it.

Then Roman suddenly made eye contact with him in the mirror. Logan went still, a little scared by the look in his younger brother’s eyes. From back in her corner, Logan could hear Julia’s amusement.

“Roman’s going to take care of the rest of the makeup. He has a plan and the actual colours to execute it, unlike me.”

As she was talking, Roman seemed to be preparing new and different product to the ones he had already been using. He stood from the stool and gently waved Logan over, “Please. Come and sit here, Lo. I promise it won’t be all that bad…”

Logan took a moment to consider his options, but eventually resigned himself to the fact he was just going to have to go through all of this. He still attempted to maintain his dignity, refusing to sluggishly crawl over to the stool, as much as his mind was giving the encouragement to. Just as Roman was beginning to put more products onto his face, Julia’s voice called out to him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll stop Roman if he starts going too far.”

The responding offending noise and back and forth between the two managed to get Logan to smile a little, relaxing him slightly.

It was a little after 8 when Virgil pulled up to Roman’s place. He could already hear the loud, pounding music and din of voices chatting away inside. It was definitely not a place he would choose to be, but Virgil had promised his boyfriend he’d show up. The tall emo got out of the car, along with his other two passengers. Both Reggie and Patton headed up to the door before him, allowing Virgil to trail behind a little. Patton knocked on the door and was happily chatting away with Reggie as the door opened, showing Roman.

Virgil was actually a little surprised. He’d been with Roman long enough that he thought he’d seen all that the short man had to offer, but apparently not. The shorter of the Towers was currently shining brightly, both metaphorically and literally. The red satin shirt he wore was practically clinging to his body, accenting all of the muscles in his arms the right way as well as reflecting the light all over. It was complimented by simple white trousers and some glittering gold boots that put him almost a head taller than usual. Roman’s hair was styled in a way that made it seem like he put no effort into it. His face was dotted with bits of glitter, mostly around his eyes that were covered in gold along with a small hint of red in the corners. Virgil’s last point of focus were the red lips that were moving as if Roman were talking to them all, but that was totally impossible since Virgil couldn’t hear anything right now.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him out of his daze. Virgil blushed immediately as he saw that everyone around was looking him with knowing, teasing grins. He pushed past them all and made his way inside in an effort to get away.

At the front door, Roman was absolutely giddy with joy. It was the exact reaction he’d been wanting from his boyfriend. He let the other two in, shut the door and then almost ran off to find his tall emo, vaguely telling them to just grab a drink and enjoy themselves.

Both Patton and Reggie were still very amused by Virgil’s reaction to seeing his boyfriend. They’d never seen the boy so smitten and it was positively adorable to them. Patton was standing near the drinks, looking around at everyone as Reggie had offered to grab both of them something. As the tallest person in the room, he was able to see pretty much everyone, which is why he was so surprised when he was surprised by someone talking to him.

“Hey Pat! Everything good?”

Patton physically jumped away from the voice at first before he realised it was Julia. He apologised and was about to strike up a conversation when another person nearby called for her.

“Sorry, be back in a sec!”

As she wandered off, Reggie returned and handed Patton a drink. He needed no prompting from Patton to notice his girlfriend just a little bit away from them, talking to someone. Reggie was a little taken aback by her current outfit choice, similarly to Virgil.

In all the time he’d known her, she never chose to wear things that showed off a lot of skin, and that was the most surprising part to him right now. The short black skirt and low boots left much of her pale legs entirely free, with the top edge being slightly coloured by the hot pink underside of the skirt that flashed as she walked. The low-cut shirt was tied in knots above both of her shoulders, as well as was tied in the front, making it shorter and just barely allowing it to graze the top of the skirt, allowing for slivers of skin to show. The back was also open, with crossing lines of fabric providing little cover. Once she turned a little and was talking to another person who’d joined her, he was able to notice that her makeup was more colourful than he could have expected. Her eyes were coated in a dark pink, with only small hints of black at either side and her lips were her usual black.

After waiting for a moment, Reggie left Patton – who had been watching him the whole time – and headed over to Julia. Patton wasn’t able to hear what happened as he wasn’t willing to follow his friend over there, but he did see that Reggie wrapped his arms around her waist and seemed to distract her from the conversation. It may have seemed innocent to most, but Patton was perceptive and had known Reggie for long enough to notice that he was lightly brushing his fingers against her skin.

“Awful, isn’t it?” Came an extremely familiar voice that had Patton smiling.

“Oh, it’s not that bad. It’s just how their relationship is.” Patton spoke happily, looking down to see his own boyfriend standing alongside him.

Now, it was Patton’s turn to be shocked by the view of his significant other. Logan was most comfortable in professional clothing and was not one to put himself in any uncomfortable situation, even with the most persistent begging. So, it came as a shock that Logan was firstly not wearing his usual tie with his outfit but was also following Julia’s lead of showing off some skin – though not nearly to her extreme. Logan’s dark, button up shirt was fitted perfectly, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons left undone, allowing him to look a lot more casual than he ever had before. The rest of his outfit was pretty understated and somewhat normal with black dress shoes and trousers, but it was what was on his face that had Patton almost gaping. He was clearly wearing makeup, fairly simple compared to the other two he’d been spending the day with but was absolutely stunning in its own right. Behind his glasses lay a soft coating of silvery eyeshadow, with very subtle accents of navy blue along with some extremely sharp eyeliner, while his cheeks were just tinged pink and his lips were looking just a tad darker than they usually did.

While Patton was staring, Logan had progressively gotten more and more embarrassed. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of the constant attention of his boyfriend, but he had to guess it was good when Patton leant down and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“Lo, you look… really good…” Patton almost breathed, as if he was still searching for the words to say.

Logan cleared his throat awkwardly, still not used to this amount of attention, “I um, thank you, Patton. I have to admit, Roman did a… a good job.”

The rest of the party was a success, even if it did lead to many of the attendees getting a little too drunk. It was around 3 in the morning when the last straggler left Roman’s and the host practically fell onto his bed, now completely exhausted from a full night of drinking and dancing. After taking twenty minutes to convince him to get up, Roman removed his makeup and stripped down before going to settle under the covers. He cuddled up to his extremely sleepy boyfriend, who he’d had to physically contort and squish onto his short bed and realised that he was still dressed. Roman fought himself for a moment, considering if he should get Virgil out of his clothes. He knew that the emo would complain later about it and decided to at least get his jeans off of him, despite his tiredness. Eventually, Roman wrapped his arms around Virgil and fell into a dreamless sleep.

At Patton’s, both Patton and Logan had already been asleep for a couple of hours. They were the most responsible and had left a little after midnight. They’d taken their time getting ready for bed, mostly due to the fact Logan was having problems getting off the makeup that Roman had, in Logan’s own words, “plastered onto his face”. Patton had gently taken the make up off after bringing Logan into a joint bath with him, leaving them both utterly relaxed in the end. Once they’d gotten out and dried off, the two had fallen asleep peacefully in each other’s arms.

Meanwhile, Reggie was carrying a pretty drunk Julia into his place. Ever since hitting her limit, Julia had seemingly had her memory wiped and she’d forgotten that her and Reggie were actually dating. This led her to flirting intensely with him the entire night, which had her accidentally letting him know that she’d had a crush on him ever since college and she’d had this “college fantasy”. It was a little difficult to keep her from trying anything, especially now that he had her laying in his bed. He ignored her slurred propositions and offers in favour of getting her out of some clothing and cleaning off her makeup. Finally, he was able to lay down under the bedcovers beside her, pulling her against him. Reggie waited until she was sound asleep before following after her.

My other stuff: http://nekoabi.tumblr.com/myworks

Mobile-Accessible Masterlist: http://nekoabi.tumblr.com/post/181954641376/fic-masterlist

TVFH Masterlist: http://not-so-innocent-bi-sander.tumblr.com/post/169509231801/the-view-from-here-masterlist