#tpcignits

they have a sizable inheritance. some of their ancestors (such as their Great Aunt Kate, who is mentioned briefly in chapter 1) were influential, either in politics or in business, and have squirreled away enough to insure that their future generations could live comfortably.

they aren’t billionaires, nothing that dramatic, but they’re probably just shy of being millionaires. enough money that neither of the twins have to work, if they don’t want to.

I never mind you popping in!  I’m sorry this took me so long, but between three weeks of overwhelming work and then getting sucked into DA:O as soon as it was over, I was a bit occupied.  Anyway, I hope you like this.  It was very fun to write.

1.      a kiss on the top of the head + Ellie and Sebastian

 “Bas,” said someone, and Sebastian looked up sharply from where he was sitting at the kitchen table, recognizing the slight impatience in the tone.  It only occurred to him when he saw Ellie’s face, her crossed arms, the slight pinch of her brow, that he realized it was more like exasperated concern.  He heard the Speaker give this, frequently, to Li and to her own sister, and hearing it turned on him gave him enough pause that he didn’t immediately answer.

Ellie stepped into the kitchen, socked feet padding across the floor until she was standing right next to him.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” he asked.

“Shouldn’t you, hm?” she fired back immediately, almost before Sebastian finished speaking.  “I know you said you would look at this again so the everyone else would get some rest, but that doesn’t mean you actually should be staying up all night.”

“I’ll be fine,” Sebastian answered, voice level, edges softening to try and reassure her.

But she narrowed her eyes, instead.  “So you’re not.”

“Ellie,” he said warningly.

“Bas,” she said back, mimicking his tone.  For a second, the ridiculousness of it seemed to make her smile before she continued, “Seriously.  It’s just like you said; we’re not going to get anywhere with this until we have more information from the people we’re waiting for.  So why are you even still out here?”

Sebastian sighed and squeezed his eyes shut.  It burned, actually—a slow, subtle, but still present-enough-to-be-irritating unfurling of pain behind his eyelids, and Sebastian really wished that this wasn’t happening now because it would be harder to ignore going forward.

“I owe it to you guys,” he said, letting his eyes open but still having to blink rapidly as he tried to get enough tears to form to ease the burn.  “Especially your sister, after what happened.  If there’s anything we’ve missed…”  He shook his head.  “I just want to make sure we don’t.”

“We didn’t,” Ellie said.  It sounded a little like she was pleading with him, which only served to drive the spike of guilt in his chest deeper.  Before he could look up to give her an unimpressed stare, however, Ellie’s hands landed on his shoulders, tugging him forward slightly so that she could lean over and kiss the top of his head.  Hard, like she thought she could breathe her reasoning directly into his brain.

He couldn’t help laughing.  It was so very Ellie of her.  And yet he was also relaxing against his will, every bit of him that had been muffled before suddenly taking this as permission to yell at Sebastian in discomfort.  With a sigh, he reached up and put one hand around Ellie’s wrist.

first off, thank you for your support! it means a lot to me! 💙💙💙

I have considered adding higher tiers to my patreon, but right now I am not really sure what I can offer besides what I already do 😅 I’m certainly open to suggestions for things to add for, say, a 10/15/20$ tier, but as it is I don’t have the first idea of what might be fun/interesting/compelling for folks to want to pledge at higher tiers

This was lots of fun to write, honestly!  Thank you for the request, and I hope I got Ellie’s characterization pretty close.

In case the kiss location doesn’t give it away, this gets a little steamy, but nothing warranting an E rating on AO3 actually happens.  I’m just being suggestive, though honestly, I could probably be persuaded to continue this at some point if that’s something people are into.

49. a kiss on the inner thigh + Ellie/Aurora

“Are you…” Rory said, voice still a little fuzzy with sleep as she shifted to look at Ellie over her shoulder, “…Are you just drawing constellations on my freckles?  Seriously?”  A grin broke over her face despite the blush that followed it only a second later (and that was how Ellie knew she was really awake).  “Pretty cliché, ain’t it?  Not that I’m complain’, ‘f course…”

“I don’t know…  That sounded like complaining,” Ellie answered, voice rising a little as she teased.  She pushed herself up on one arm, which was also the exact moment she remembered why they were in bed together and that it had something to do with her sister and Li teaming up…

Ellie’s heart kickstarted like someone had jumped it, and all of a sudden, she could feel herself blushing just as hot as Rory seemed to whenever they were close, except this was probably way more noticeable than usual because it wasn’t like she slept in her makeup.  Internally, she swore at herself, because really? She and Rory were together now, technically, and they’d kissed and everything, and yet, somehow, just waking up together in a bed (where nothing else had happened!) was making her light up like a paper lantern?

“See something you like?” Rory asked, and Ellie groaned.

You’re making it worse, she didn’t say.  “Yeah, these sheets.  Bland, low-threadcount off-white is my favorite.”  She couldn’t get through the sentence without laughing, though, and when she dipped her head, it nearly brushed Rory’s collarbones. So she’d just be blushing forever or until she combusted, whichever came first.  Fine, I guess.

Luckily, Rory was laughing, too, arms coming up to bracket Ellie into a hug.  The mortification of being such a (self-proclaimed) disaster didn’t leave, but it was easier when they were both pink and breathless with laughter, feet tangled in the stupid sheets.  Rory had shifted so that Ellie was lying between her legs and half on her torso, and Ellie could feel the shifter’s heart under her own.  It was beating just as fast.  So, when they finally settled down and Rory said brightly, “Seriously, though, you didn’ hafta stop,” Ellie couldn’t help the little rush of courage it gave her.

“Well,” she said, shifting lower on the bed as she went, “if you’re sure…?”

“I’m game if you are, Ellie,” Rory said, equal parts teasing and serious as she pushed herself up on her elbows to follow Ellie as she ducked out of sight.

Li had mentioned at one point that Rory’s freckles were, in fact, everywhere that Li had reached in a medical examination, but it was one thing to know that and another thing to be literally faced with the map of them across Rory’s skin, like flower petals in a wind storm or (it was cliché, but) stars in the sky.  Ellie traced her fingers in a whimsical swirl up the front of one thigh.  From the knee to the hem of her sleep shorts and then back down on the other leg, pillowing her cheek on the one she had just touched.  Her fingers passed over Rory’s scars, too, and maybe there would be another time to explore those, but for now…

Before she could think better of it, Ellie turned her head and softly kissed a cluster of dark freckles.

It was only when the muscle under her lips twitched and she heard Rory’s breath catch in her throat that Ellie remembered to be embarrassed about being that forward.  Then again, it wasn’t like Rory had been resistant at all to having Ellie between her legs, so despite her blush returning with a vengeance, she just looked up through her lashes and sparked a smirk.  “This okay?”

“Yes,” Rory said quickly.  Quick enough that the smirk on Ellie’s face only burned brighter because making Rory sound like that was well worth pretending like she wasn’t dying inside from how attractive this woman was.

Hey, Kaja~ I hope you don't mind that this is super late, so because of that and because I know today is a stressful day, this is a little longer than usual. Enjoy ^_^

Entirely under a cut because this story is explicit.

Sage Green My Beloved: Ily mwah

Brown: We live in different continents and that is so rude.

Yellow But Actually Pretty: Your music taste is either elite or not good at all and I'm not saying which (jk it's good).

Maroon: We are equally dumbasses and ily for that (among other things).