#mrestel_willow

millie’s long list of malex fics | words echo out yesterday by estel_willow / @hannah-writes

He keeps telling himself ten more minutes. He’ll wait another ten minutes and then he’ll leave, go back to the cabin and think very carefully about his life choices. He never quite knows what to do with himself when he’s waiting, sitting and hoping for the sounds of Michael’s truck to rumble into view. He’s not good at waiting when there’s no military payoff but here he is, regardless, sitting and waiting for someone who may never come. He checks the time again.

Ten more minutes, he thinks. Ten more minutes.

In the aftermath of the season finale, Alex waits, and he takes care of Michael.

comment: this is another wonderful post-season one fic that goes through the process of michael spiralling and alex dealing with the interim. everything that hannah writes is beautiful and poetic, and this fic is no different. the ending is sweet and happy, and by the time you get to it, you really feel like it’s an ending well-earned. i love the progression that’s represented in this story, i love the sweet domesticity at the end. love every bit of it!!

millie’s long list of malex fics | not in this world (or the next) by estel_willow

The first thing Michael notices is that his hand doesn’t hurt. As he stretches his arms above his head and his fingers knock into the headboard of a proper bed, he realises that he’s not in his Airstream. When he blinks awake, rubbing sleep out of his eyes with increasing urgency as he realises that there’s no trace of a hangover to reassure him that’s the reason he’s waking up in a bed he doesn’t know with no knowledge of how he got there, he sees simple decor around him in with splashes that look like Isobel’s handiwork.

The fic spawned from a tumblr prompt about Michael waking up in a parallel reality.

comment: do y’all remember where you were when you read the final chapter of this gd masterpiece? cause i was on the bus and i was cryiiiiing. for those who haven’t read it yet: michael messes with the console and swaps places with mikey evans, his self from a parallel universe. which might have been a fun romp if not for one or two absolutely devastating facts in either reality. this fic is fantastic and you should go read/reread it immediately. it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing that i love about it but the thing that really impressed me was the balance, between the two realities and also between michael and mikey. despite “michael” being the guy we’re familiar with, i never felt like i was rooting for one or the other. very, very well balanced.

millie’s long list of malex fics | Shrodinger’s something by estel_willow / @hannah-writes

Michael's sitting by the fireplace in the cabin with his legs stretched out in front of him and wondering just how this has ended up being his life. Things are good, things are great even. Alex is in the kitchen trying to make waffles using the waffle iron that Isobel bought them for Christmas and Buffy has finally accepted that Michael has a place here, so she's draped herself over his legs in a lazy, casual display of possessive affection.

Angsty flashback to when Alex was injured in Baghdad and Michael gets a phone call from the German hospital where Alex is recovering because Alex put Michael down as a secondary contact for when his dad was unavailable.

comment: i love some canon divergent happiness, especially the kind where michael and alex reconnected in the aftermath of alex’s injury. cue some holiday musing, a lot of cheer, and a delightful malex dynamic. how can you resist?

millie’s long list of malex fics | Painted Fire by estel_willow / @hannah-writes

"I'm not here to cause trouble," Alex says with a lift of his shoulders that's all too casual and all too gentle for Michael's liking.

A love story, or love stories, in 100 words. Michael and Alex reconnect over Christmas.

comment: hey i might be biased about this because it’s my secret santa gift and i love it wholeheartedly, but it’s also a beautiful fic. hannah has done something a little different with a series of 100 word snippets, which piece together to tell the whole story of the boys reconnecting. it’s so lovely and i feel very lucky to have received it as a gift <3

millie’s long list of malex fics | First Dates & Milkshakes by estel_willow

The Crashdown isn’t exactly the best place for a first date, but then, really, they’ve done everything backwards ever since they first met, so it seemed oddly fitting that, really, their first date is overseen by an excited Liz and a watchful Arturo.

Little Green Man shakes had been put on the table, along with two baskets of fries and the promise that they’d be left alone to enjoy their date and so far, thirty minutes in, that’s exactly what’s happening.

aka, the cute fluffy first date fic that no one asked for.

comment: i feel like, after we’d all had time to come to terms with the finale, the malex tag exploded with angst and fluff (and au -- but that’s another discussion entirely) in equal measure. this fic falls squarely into the latter category; michael and alex going on cute dates and taking the time to do the things they didn’t get to do initially. and of course, as we all know, must include an adorable date at the crashdown with milkshakes and fries. we all know how well hannah writes angst, so it’s no surprise that her prowess extends to making me positively gleeful at her fluff. this is short, sweet, shameless fluff and i love every second of it.

millie’s long list of malex fics | you're my beginning (and my end) by estel_willow

The first time Alex kisses Michael, after months of trying to tell himself that it’s better if they stay friends, if they never cross that line again, he feels infinity. Michael doesn’t taste like hello this time, he tastes like home. He tastes like forever . Alex’s fingers push into his curls and Michael opens for him like a sunflower, the shard forgotten on the floor as Michael’s fingers catch on his jeans, tugging him in and their bodies meet in a dance they’ve always known the steps to but spent the last few years out of sync.

Based off the prompt "Whelve; to bury something deep, to hide”.

comment: this short and sweet beauty follows alex as he figures his shit out, revolving around his ability to repress things (or at least, he thinks he’s really good at this. as the author says: alex is an unreliable narrator). the first five scenes are all internal narration from alex, with the +1 scene having dialogue between the two boys. it’s so so clever and fitting for the content of the writing that i audibly gasped when i realised. there are some gorgeous lines in this (my favourite is up there!!) but i’ll leave you to find the rest.

millie’s long list of malex fics | shattered apart (damn hopeful heart) by estel_willow

“You have to let me get over you.”

The words come out of nowhere, a strike from left-field that has Michael’s brain blinking rapidly to try and catch up with what had happened to result in Alex fucking Manes standing in front of him and telling him that he has to let Alex get over him? The irony was pretty strong. Michael wasn’t the one with the gravitational pull of a black hole. Michael wasn’t the one that made the planet fucking spin just by smiling. Michael wasn’t the one who’s trapped him in a decaying, geosynchronous orbit thirteen years ago and never let him go.

A post episode 13 fic where dumb boys discuss their feelings. Angst but with a hopeful ending.

comment: ohh my heart!! this author out here just killing me with their emotionally charged fics again. the absolute inevitability of alex always coming back to michael, despite the fact that he’s been trying to get over him, is so perfect and heartbreaking. this fic perfectly encapsulates the way that they keep crashing together, with the added bonus of some actual communication towards the end! i feel like the more i try and say about it, the more incoherent i get. just get over there and enjoy it!

millie’s long list of malex fics | i wanna do bad things to you by estel_willow, mandsangelfox

Fucking Alex Manes and his fucking eyeliner goth emo aesthetic. It should not be as attractive as it is but it is. It really is. It also rockets Michael back to a time when things weren’t so complicated and neither of them carried their baggage like they were going on a long haul flight across the world.

aka Alex dressed like he’s seventeen again does all sorts of things to Michael and they Work It Out (naked).

comment: two things i love? fics set a little ways in the future where michael + alex have slowly come back together, and fics where alex embraces his old aesthetic. this fic has both and it’s suuuper good. basically just porn but, as always with malex, some good good feelings in there as well.