#pynchweek16

Pynch, ditching Prom for Day 2 of Pynch Week.  Yeah I can’t see Ronan attending Prom, but I can see him hanging out on the school roof.  Adam was encouraged (commanded, ha) to dress and show up to Prom by Gansey, but decided it wasn’t his scene either.

I had an idea for day six’s prompt, memes, but it’s difficult to pull that off in a fic without being ridiculous, so I’m going to put it together in a list of headcanons:

Henry Cheng is lowkey a shitposter. this is a real and true fact. He catches on to new memes within five seconds and references them in conversation all the time. (he’s more into aesthetic nonsense than that, but he finds meme culture hilarious and has written short essays about it. Occasionally he references memes in school papers. His teachers are not amused)

The Vancouver crowd loves this stuff, but the gangsey doesn’t really get it. (gangsey? is that the term I’m gonna use? sure)

Gansey is utterly lost and after Henry tries to explain meme culture for like the sixth time, he pretends to laugh and it’s blatantly obvious he still doesn’t get it

Blue judges him for it and is totally that “this is why I hate our generation!!!!1!!!” person about it. Henry and Gansey find this heartwarming

Adam doesn’t have time for such nonsense, there is no time to laugh at the Internet when there is schoolwork to be done

but Ronan. Ronan at first obviously doesn’t get any of this meme shit and thinks it’s another one of Henry’s “stupid hobbies.” however, he’s curious, so he goes online and looks up Pepe the Frog or whatever Henry was referencing that day, and within a few hours he admits to himself that he finds it absolutely hilarious

so very quickly, Ronan and Henry join forces to become the Most Annoying People On The Entire Earth, literally turning everything into a goddamn meme

(it’s my strict unwavering headcanon that Henry heard of the murder squash song before even becoming friends with Gansey, and he did a cover of it, and the moment Ronan finds out about this is when he entirely drops being an asshole to Henry) (to be clear, he also gets chewed out by both Blue and Henry about the racist remarks he made which I won’t get into because aaaaahhhh oh boy I hated those)

anyway, what does this have to do with pynch, because I’m supposed to be staying on topic?

so you know that there’s sometimes shitposts on here that are like “sexy things to say to the bae in bed”? Ronan thinks they’re hilarious. and because he thinks they’re hilarious, he thinks that Adam will find them hilarious too

one day he and Adam are making out and he lifts his head and whispers “dan nicky... your bobbies”

Adam is like “what the fuck”

Ronan’s cracking up at his own awful joke, which Adam doesn’t understand at all, and through his own laughter, he’s like “ok you know Nicki Minaj?”

it takes like ten minutes to explain what “dan nicky your bobbies” even refers to, and finally Adam says, “OK... but why did you say it while we were making out?”

Ronan just stares at him and says, “cause... cause like... it’s funny”

“why? what’s funny about it. I’m not Nicki Minaj. why did you say the misspellings out loud”

“no, Parrish, it’s like... funny because that guy was trying to be sexy, but he wasn’t sexy, and like... it’s funny”

“it wasn’t funny”

Ronan mutters something under his breath about how Cheng would have found it funny, and Adam’s like, fine, when you make out with Cheng, you can say weird shit to him

anyway, Adam later goes to Henry and is like “can you stop corrupting my boyfriend?”

When he explains exactly what happened, Henry loses his shit and says, “ok, you should do it back to him”

“you mean I should say some weird shit to him like that?”

“no, ok, look at this blog”

and then he pulls up “farmsuggestion” because i swear to god, every post on that blog is ronan lynch

Adam thinks they’re stupid, but Henry says, “actually, I’ve been keeping a collection of memes to make fun of Ronan with”

at the suggestion of making fun of Ronan, Adam lets go of all previous judgments he had about Internet memes and decides to throw himself fully into this activity that he now loves

I have a shit ton of posts that are very Ronan, such as this and this and this and this and this and this and waaaaay more but I’m not gonna spam you with four thousand shitposts about Ronan Lynch

Anyway... Henry’s saved a bunch along those lines

and so he and Adam keep changing the background on Ronan’s laptop and phone (which he rarely uses, but he still sees occasionally) to memes that say stuff like “gay farmer dating” and the like

it takes a while for Ronan to realize that it’s Adam’s fault, but he gets so proud when he realizes it, and then he pretends to be furious and is like “Parrish! why are you fucking around with my fucking computer”

Adam is cackling because he loves everything about this now

When Adam gets a phone and he and Ronan text while he’s at college, Ronan is constantly texting him at like 3 am with memes and captions that say “this is you” and they’re usually really dumb stuff like one of those comics about going overboard studying too much or whatever

but one morning Adam wakes up to one of those devoted boyfriend memes, you know the ones with like a picture of Obama smiling and it says “when you’re beginning to realize they’re the one” or whatever, that Ronan sent him at 4 am, and he’s rolling his eyes and smiling uncontrollably at the same time

obviously this isn’t really a big part of their lives but listen, Ronan Lynch loves being annoying, and he’s friends with Henry Cheng who loves pop culture, so this was a little inevitable

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish Characters: Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish, Orphan Girl | Opal, Maura Sargent, Orla (Raven Cycle), Calla Additional Tags: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, (I think anyway), Nudity Series: Part 5 of Pynch week prompts 2016 Summary:

Day 7 - 19th August

Dawn // Awake // Lost and Found

Ah, can you guys believe the week is almost over? Even when it is, feel free to still use these prompts if you wanna do late entries, we’ll probably keep checking for the days following anyway! :)

It has come to our attention that some posts don’t show up in the tag, so if within twenty four hours of you posting it we haven’t reblogged, please do send it as a message to either myself ( @ravenboyparrish ) or Estrella ( @lostgansey ) via messenger and we’ll make sure to reblog it.

Day seven, here we go!

~ Drea

My contribution to @pynchweek, day 6, prompt “Meme”. When the whole clique is back at the Barns, summer shenanigans happen.(ʘ‿ʘ)ノ✿

tw for abuse/homophobia

Adam looks down at the card in his hand, drawn on pink poster paper and covered in glitter and Opal’s drawings (a bee, and a deer with seven eyes and only three legs.)

DaDDy anD Kerah,

I hatE you lEss than thE rEst

I am giving you my favouritE stick to ProvE it

from oPal.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shit. Opal is waiting, looking at him and Ronan expectantly, and Adam can’t think. He is abruptly on the verge of tears, fists clenched, thoughts boiling. Ronan looks at him, concerned. Adam forces a smile.

“That’s great, Opal. Nice capital letters.”

“Thanks,” she says, proud. “Also, can I have my stick back? I gave it on a borrow. A short borrow.”

Ronan snorts and untapes the stick, handing it back and ruffling her hair. “Go and visit chainsaw and her babies. They need feeding.”

Opal puts her stick in her mouth and marches off outside. Adam exhales shakily.

“Adam?”

“I – give me a minute,” he says, sinking down onto the couch. Daddy. She called him Daddy. He… was a father. Adam couldn’t be a father. He didn’t know how. He only knew the opposite of how. The pink glitter card sent him back into his past, returning from kindergarten with his own card, pink paper and all, proudly presenting it to his father, heart beating with excitement.

His teacher said Dads liked father’s days cards. She said his dad would love it. She said he would be happy with Adam. And he believed her – he’d never made a card for his dad before, and maybe that was what he had been doing wrong – maybe he just didn’t know how to be a good son yet, but his teacher did, and now it was going to be OK and his dad would love the card and then they’d go outside and play football like his friends did with their dads on Sundays.

It’s like he is five years old again, holding out his hope in a cheap paper card, a drawing of himself and his father done in red crayon, I love you daddy written on the inside.

“Pink is gay,” his father says, looking at the card like he looks at Adam when he wets himself. “I’ve told you pink is gay, haven’t I? This is a stupid card. I can’t believe I pay tax to fund education like this.”

The card is ripped in half and thrown in the bin, flakes of silver glitter sticking to the lino of the floor. Adam doesn’t cry – his dad doesn’t like it when he cries (crying is for girls. Are you a girl?) (no daddy.) (what are you?) (stupid.)

He hasn’t made a card since. And he doesn’t trust teachers. But he remembers, and he wonders if Opal felt that hope handing him that card, and he wonders if she ever doubts his devotion to her, and he wonders if he says I love you enough for her to believe it.

A tear rolls down his cheek, dripping from his chin. Ronan catches it on his finger, kneeling on the floor in front of him. “Hey,” he whispers. “It’s OK. It’s OK – you’re here. Everything is fine.”

Adam looks at Ronan and sees what he didn’t have. Ronan knows how to be a father – Ronan knows how to joke without being cruel, knows how to encourage Opal without deluding her, knows when to make her eat vegetables and when to let her eat ice cream for breakfast. Ronan’s affection comes easily, naturally, warmly.

“I’m awful at this,” Adam says. It comes out as a sob. Ronan just waits. He knows when to listen. “I… I’m not qualified to be a father. I’ll mess her up. Break her. Ruin her.”

“Adam?” Ronan says, lifting his chin. It takes a lot of effort to meet Ronan’s eyes. “You are not ruining her. You are helping her to grow, every day. You are caring for her. You taught her to read.”

Adam sniffs, mind still jumping between past and present, to late nights and tear stained pillows, lost and longing for affection.

“Are you listening? You are doing well. You are not your father.”

“I just couldn’t bear it if… if I ever made her feel anything like he made me feel,” Adam says, and this is new ground, because Ronan knew all about the bruises but not about the tears. Ronan climbs onto the sofa beside him, letting Adam lean into his side.

“Tell me,” he says. “Let it out. If it’s still there, so much, even now – you have to let it out.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Adam whispers. “He’s stuck in me.”

“No. He doesn’t get to have that power.”

“He always had it. It’s like… his voice – that’s the voice I hear when I fuck up. And I can’t change it. It’s always there. The feelings he implanted in me are ALWAYS FUCKING THERE,” he bursts out, frustrated. There’s a rotten feeling in him, like a puss filled spot that needs to be squeezed, but it’s in an awkward place and he can’t reach and even if he cut it out he doesn’t think it would remove anything. “I hated him,” Adam whispers. “And I hated myself even more for wanting him to love me.”

Ronan runs gentle fingers across his back. “Don’t feel bad for that,” he says, “Never feel bad for wanting family.”

“Not that kind of family.”

“And did you know another family? Did you have another family to want?”

Adam shrugs. He used to think he didn’t deserve family, because if he deserved family, his parents would love him. “I don’t think… I don’t think I can love properly,” he says. “I love Opal. And I love you. But… I lie awake at night after we fight, and I run my words through my mind, and I match them to him.”

“You aren’t him. Did he ever say sorry?”

Adam shakes his head.

“You always say sorry.”

“Shouldn’t do anything I need to apologise for. I should be better. You deserve better. She deserves better.”

Ronan grips his hand. “Adam. I am not a liar. And I am telling you now that you are everything I want, and everything Opal wants. Do you know how she talks about you? On the way to school? Non stop. “Kerah, I think Cacti are my favorite kind of plant.” “Why’s that, Opal?” “Because Daddy says Cacti are cool, and they can live with hardly any water, and Daddy is always right, and when I grow up I’m going to be just like Daddy.”

Adam laughs, despite the sadness in his chest. “What high aspirations she has,” he says.

“Yes,” Ronan replies, serious. “She does.”

“Don’t.”

“Adam? You are an intelligent man. View this situation objectively. You are not your abuse.”

“But I still feel it,” he breathes, “I feel it every single day.”

Ronan is quiet, hand still clasped in Adam’s. “I can’t pretend to understand,” he says. “I only know the anger I felt for you, not what you felt. And – I know that me saying you shouldn’t feel the way you do, or that you don’t need to – well, it’s bullshit to you. You feel how you feel. But… we can talk about it. I can help you fight this… phantom of him.”

Adam closes his eyes, wonders what he did to deserve Ronan. “I’m OK. Mostly. Just… some things take me back, you know? When you shout, if you are angry. When you slam the dishes in the sink – that was my mother, after he hit me. I don’t know if she was mad at him or me or herself, but I hated that noise. Those things take me back. And specific things – someone yelling faggot in the street, a raised fist, a pink card – they take me back. And I get this… anxious feeling in my chest, how I used to feel, and … it itches, like my new life is a dream and I’m going to wake up in that trailer, shivering on the lino in the kitchen whilst my dad pants and my mother bites her nails in the corner,” he pauses, letting his thoughts gather. He’s never said this before; always held it bundled up in a tight little part of his chest, simmering. “I hate this power he still has – will always have. I broke free of so much and still… still you can’t wipe it all away.”

Ronan kisses him, ever so softly. Adam tastes the salt of Ronan’s tears on his tongue. “Don’t cry,” he whispers, “Don’t cry because I suffered. Laugh because I am free.”

“I won’t shout,” Ronan says.

“You can shout. If you are happy shouting.”

“I’ll happy shout then.”

“I’ll do your dishes.”

“Nah. Opal can do them.”

“She’ll cover the dishes with snail slime or something.”

Ronan snorts. “Seriously though… I’m proud of you. For everything you’ve achieved. And I’m proud of us, and our little family, even if it is really fucking weird.”

“Tell me,” Adam says, “Tell me if I’m ever cruel. If I ever, ever hurt you – make you feel guilty or worthless or ashamed – or if I hurt her. You have to swear to tell me and I’ll fix it. I… can’t lose you.”

“I’ll tell you,” Ronan says. “And now, shall we take Opal for ice cream?”

Ronan works for the florist keeping up with the gay farmer thing down the street from where Adam is a tattoo artist

his customers are always somewhat taken aback to see this tall, dark boy behind the counter at the flower shop

half the time he’s got headphones in while he’s restocking shelves and organizing things in the back but he notices and he’s used to it

or, at least, he thinks he is until the day Adam Parrish walks in

Adam, who has delicate inked vines curled around his wrists, who drags a hand through his already ruffled hair, who steps up to Ronan’s counter and opens his mouth to speak-

and then he stops

Ronan sees his eyes drifting to the tattoo creeping up his neck, and he notices this cute, scruffy boy blushing slightly before he talks

“What is it?”

Ronan is confused for a moment, but then the boy taps the back of his own neck. “I’ve just got an interest. Comes with the job.”

Ronan nods in realization, and his mind is focusing on the fact that the cute boy is a tattoo artist, and that it makes him even cuter, as he tells him, Adam, as the name tag still pinned to his jacket says, about his Celtic knot

Adam just stands there grinning when Ronan finishes, and Ronan raises an eyebrow as if to say and you came here for…?

not that he minds that he’s here of course, but still

Adam jumps slightly. “Oh! Oh, yeah, flowers,” and then he brushes his hair back again, and Ronan dies a little inside

“My friend,” says Adam, leaning on the counter, “needs flowers. Flowers for someone he likes. And he wants them to have a meaning.”

and of course Ronan the nerd  knows all about the meanings of flowers

so he stands there with Adam for almost a half hour explaining all the ways to show love from a bunch of flowers

“so if he wants to say love at first sight?”

“Rosa. Rose, a thornless one if we’re being specific.”

“Latin,” says Adam, smiling again, and Ronan thinks he’s melting as he nods.

“What about how he’s liked them for a while, from afar, but they haven’t noticed?”

“there’s fascination, but that could be a stretch-”

“No, no, that’s good.” Adam rests his elbow on the counter and Ronan has to fight a blush. “That’s exactly it.”

“Well, Filix is fern, or there’s Dianthus caryophyllus, a carnation, but I’d go with the fern, I’ve never liked how-”

Adam cuts him off. “Fern. We’ll go with the fern.”

When Ronan gives him a look Adam just shrugs and says “you’re the expert here,” and Ronan has to laugh.

“And then he’s giving it to this person to tell them, so…?”

“Rosæ calyx. Rosebud, you’d use a moss rosebud.”  

“Perfect. I think that’ll be good enough then.”

Adam straightens up again as Ronan collects his flowers and Ronan accidentally i swear brushes their hands together as he hands him the bouquet

Adam thanks him and stands there for a second just staring at Ronan before he leaves, tossing out a “see you around, Ronan” that Ronan would really like to be true

and, miraculously, it is

because the next day when Ronan arrives in from his lunch break Adam is back at his counter, staring at his phone and frantically texting as he holds the same flowers from yesterday

Ronan taps him on the shoulder as he gets behind the counter and Adam jumps, startled

“Oh, hey, you’re back, I, um-”

Ronan smiles and says “spit it out, Adam” but he really doesn’t mind because he’s just discovered that Adam is really cute™ when he’s flustered

“I-” Adam sighs and shuts his eyes, and the next thing Ronan knows the flowers are being held out to him in Adam’s slightly shaking hand

“Was… was there something wrong?”

Adam opens his eyes and relaxes a little. “No, I… they’re for you.”

and Ronan is positive he’s blushing now, just like Adam is

“You’re giving me flowers that mean love at first sight, fascination, and confession.”

“Yes.”

“And your friend?”

Adam shakes his head. “Never needed them.”

Ronan looks at the boy in front of him, flushed and smiling shyly, and then he looks down at his outstretched hand holding the flowers

and then he smiles

and takes the flowers

Adam’s grin is about to split his face when Ronan asks what this is all about

“I came in here one day, was on a break, and you were over there-” he gestures to the back shelf “-with headphones in, and you were smiling, and I…”

Ronan feels like he’s going to burst and he’s kind of annoyed at his past self for not noticing this boy earlier 

“Love at first sight, huh?”

“Shut up” but Adam keeps smiling

and Ronan, ever the fighter, has to reply with “make me,” even if it sounds less threatening when he’s also bright red and laughing a little