#valjam

Been addicted to making OC ship moodboards lately and wanted to share some of them <3

Top row ships are Joirse (Saoirse x J.C.) and Valjam (Jamil x Valeriy) with @sunrisenfool

Middle row ships are Baiqui (Jacqui x Bai) and Soldrigo (Rodrigo x Solo) with @asras3rdeye

38 for Valjam, 27 for Milalec, 46 for Leonana, 50 for Joirse

Annnnnnd because I love them 34 for Vlad and Louisa 💖

Now that I've written them all I can do this:

38, Valjam | Over Here, Social Butterfly

27, Milalec | When Snow Melts 🍋

46, Leonana | On Loving The Consul Of Vesuvia

50, Joirse | Hands On Evidence For The Ever-Observing Quartermaster 🍋

Prompt 38.- Whispering “I love you” before a chaste, delicate kiss, requested by @into-the-daniverse, and when do I ever pass on an opportunity to write these two. 791 words.

Characters featured: Consul Valerius/Valeriy Radošević-Cassano, who is being a brat as per usual, and Jamil Parsa D’Oria (@into-the-daniverse)

Kissing prompts

Jamil had always been better at social functions than he himself was. Valeriy was good at public social functions as long as he treated them like a game, where different interactions earned him different points depending on his moods and disposition, as well as how much he considered said social function a waste of his time. Jamil, however, was naturally more outgoing than Val was; and nicer, that helped too; or better at entertaining small talk, and didn’t like to poke the embers of drama when he was starting to get dangerously bored. 

For years Valeriy had been self conscious about not having sufficient skills for the job he had been bestowed when Nono Iovanus died. It didn’t matter how much Cassiopeia opened up about her own struggles, it was hard for him not to feel self-conscious when he felt under-prepared. It was different now, for multiple reasons — both of the personal and the work-place kind, as Valeriy had discovered it was much more entertaining to hold social obligations he hadn’t come up with when he had no Consular responsibility attached. 

That hadn’t changed people talking drab at him, though. Not for the first, nor the last time, Val fought the urge to roll his eyes and wondered what would happen if he told the official he was talking to that he, personally, had no problem with him being here. Or his wife. 

Jamil locked eyes with him from the other side of the room just as Valeriy was about to give up, and do it anyway. Jamil raised his eyebrows at him, eyes lighting up as if he, Val, was the only thing worth paying attention in the room. Yet the look wasn’t just for flirting through the distance, and Val could tell. It was also a message, a reminder that he was seen: that Jamil knew what he had in mind and, as funny as it would be, it wouldn’t be kind to their host. So he shouldn’t. 

Valeriy gave the couple he was talking to a generic answer and raised an eyebrow back at Jamil. A challenge: so what if he didn’t do as Jamil suggested. The former Consul of Vesuvia watched his partner clear his throat, excuse himself to the people he was talking to and walk towards where he was. Val took a small drink out of his wine glass to prevent himself from the fluttering in his stomach that he got whenever Jamil looked at him, showing on his face. 

As soon as Jamil had Valeriy within his arm’s reach, he slid it across the middle of his back. This time, Val couldn’t help the blush on the apple of his cheeks. Jamil, ever the charming man, asked if he could please steal the “handsome Court Advisor here” for a moment or two, making sweet, generic apologies that made it hard to deny him much. 

Soon enough they were left to their own devices, in their own corner of the room. 

“Stop it.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Yes you are. Whatever you were going to tell that man, I’m sure it was very funny, but also not worth it.”

Valeriy hummed. To anyone who didn’t know him, he would seem almost uninterested, even annoyed. To Jamil, who did know him and knew how it looked when the person he was in private slipped through the (now more amiable) public persona he had, knew he was being flirted with. 

“I wouldn’t say it was completely useless. You pulled me out of that conversation, which was both dull as that man’s wit and useless as that director we saw last week, and it brought you back to me.”

Jamil laughed. “Aren’t you sweet when you want to be, huh?”

“Take that back, right now.”

Jamil laughed again, shaking his head. His lover’s joy was contagious, so Valeriy found himself smiling too. 

“Do you think anyone’s watching?”

“Maybe. They should mind their business.”

“Oh, I agree, because I’m going to kiss you.”

Jamil gently lifted Val’s chin with his knuckles when he composed himself, dropping his tone to a complicit whisper: “I love you.”

He pressed his lips against Valeriy’s only once, but that was enough. They both knew there would be plenty more as soon as they left, which, as far as Valeriy was concerned, was a moment that couldn’t come soon enough. As Jamil dropped his hand and stepped a little further away from him, not wanting to overwhelm him with public displays of affection, Valeriy hummed again. 

“You do know this will only make me want to be worse, don’t you?”

I am doing this a day late but I am doing it and that's what counts <3

Choses the pumpkin:

Jamil lets Val pick most of their pumpkins, even if he insists he doesn't want to, he goes mostly for aesthetic, picking the most picture-perfect pumpkin to set up somewhere with the rest of their decor. Then Jamil picks a few to actually carve/decorate.

Carves the pumpkin:

Something tells me you could not pay Val to stick his hand in a pumpkin to clean it, so Jamil does that. I also think Val's more the type to paint his pumpkin, which is another reason why he chooses the smoothest pumpkin with the least amount of annoying texture. Jamil will be carving his own pumpkin next to him, and if Val happens to want his carved for any reason, Jamil will happily do it for him.

Gets scared and clings the other in a haunted house:

Jamil is on edge the entire time, but he will go first and offer his hand to Val to hold on to the entire time (even if he's the one who needs the comfort more).

Matching costume idea:

My immediate first thought was Morticia and Gomez Adams, if only so Jamil can get an excuse to be extremely mushy in public to Val.

Makes a cozy bed-fort to cuddle in:

Jamil makes the fort and pulls Val in after him despite any protests. He considers it a good way to wind down after a busy stressful day, maybe even with some wine or warm apple cider to drink.

Steals the other’s candy:

Is it stealing if Jamil purposely leaves his candy out for Val to pick from? Except anything with almonds, he will hide those and fight for them if he has to.

Accidentally gets lost in a corn maze:

If Val somehow is convinced to go into a corn maze, I don't think he would wander off, but he would insist he knows the right way out. Jamil's internal compass (and natural luck) is strong enough that even if Val sends them turning the wrong way, he can still find their way back out, so they never end up lost.

Tells spooky stories to scare the other:

Jamil tells stories and Val acts like he either isn't scared or isn't impressed, but uses them as an excuse to pull closer to Jamil when they go to bed, while denying that he is at the same time.

Collects cool-looking leaves:

Put “📓” or some other version of a book emoji into my inbox and I’ll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven’t written but daydream about.

As a Valjam fan I feel I must let you know that I do have works for them in the crevices of my brain 👀

I’ve thought a lot (and talked with @sunrisenfool) about their first meeting when they’re both around 14-ish, basically both of their families are important enough that Jamil’s mother would have sent him to study in Vesuvia at some point and met up with Valerius’s family

Or, vice versa, Val visits the D’Oria estate in Venterre and they meet there

But either way they are each other’s first major crush/love and they just act like ridiculous teenagers every time they meet up again (which Camia enjoys to no end and one day at their wedding she Will bring up every embarrassing story from their teen years that she can think of 😌)

“I can’t stand you,” Val murmured, kissing Jamil.