X_X >_< **

Ryland Grace:

* Confesses that he still has a red fox plushie that he got as a kid at his apartment (he doesn’t always sleep with it, but it’s always there)

* Whenever he stays the night at your place afterward—because his apartment is a good bit smaller than yours—he brings his fox plushie

* Has accidentally left the fox at your apartment before and almost freaked out a little bit—until you texted him a picture of his fox and your stuffed animal together saying that they’ll keep each other company while you’re both at work

Lars Lindstrom:

* Knowing that you have something that you hold onto while you sleep is incredibly comforting to him

* Because he sleeps holding his baby blanket, and knowing how much you cherish your plushie just like how he cherishes his blanket means the world to him

* Treats it with the most respect and only ever with the gentlest of touches

* One time you came to him upset because a stitch had broken and your plushie was “hurt”, and he very carefully “performed surgery” on it (making sure all the stuffing is back inside and then stitching the hole closed) and you had to try not to practically tackle him in a hug from how much you appreciated him helping

Henry Letham:

* Doesn’t mind, treats it with respect

* On very rare occasions he has drawn it and made it tell a stupid joke (usually only if he knows you’ve been having a really tough time because it makes you smile)

* If you leave him at your apartment to go run a quick errand, he’ll hold it while drawing

* If you ask him about it when you return, he’ll say that it was “so it wouldn’t get lonely” but you know it’s because he missed you

Ken:

* Honestly gets a little bit jealous

* He’s right there!

* But then you tell him that you love it so much because it makes you think of him, and suddenly he doesn’t mind it so much

* Is even more okay with it when you get him a horse plushie of his own

* Loves when you dress up both of your stuffed animals in “matching outfits” (giving them matching ribbons/scarves/etc.), it reminds him of how the two of you try to match outfits every once in a while

Colt Seavers:

* Pokes fun at it lightheartedly at first

* But immediately backtracks when he sees that it hurt your feelings a little bit

* He thinks it’s really sweet and tells you so

* If you work with him on movies you’ll sneak it onto his trailer

* One day you walked into his trailer with coffee for him and found him napping, your stuffed animal held securely in his arms

* You managed to get a picture of it, and when he found it as your phone wallpaper, he pouted about it until you changed it to something that “didn’t lose him any tough guy points” (as if he truly has many to begin with, but you don’t tell him that)

Driver:

* Doesn’t actively comment on it, but thinks it’s sweet

* If it ever falls off the bed, he’ll carefully put it back where it was (either sitting on the bed or into your sleeping arms)

* If you decide to bring it on a drive once (“so it can see the world, too”, as you explained it with a smile) he’ll think it’s precious

* If you don’t think to bring your plushie with you the next time, he’ll ask about whether or not it’ll get lonely while the two of you are gone

* Sometimes you’ll end up bringing it again, and other times you’ll chuckle and tell him that it wants some time alone

More cuteness while I keep writing that Driver fic because it seems headcanon posts do really well ^^

Parallel Play Kings:

Driver went out and bought you a lamp like his — maybe he even bought the two of you new lamps with a magnifying glass built in too. He would prefer to work on his car parts rather than work on your jigsaw puzzle with you, but he is so happy to sit in the dark silence with you while you both do your own thing and you’re just happy to be around him. He will occasionally get up and join you at the dining table to put in a few pieces of the puzzle or direct you to the pieces that he can see that fit together, but he’s much more focused on whatever he brought home from the garage. Driver is probably taking apart and rebuilding a 4L60E on a tray (transmission fluid is notoriously hard to clean and really he should have just done this at the garage but he wanted a challenge) or working on a Carter AFB carburetor (or the Rochester Quadrajet out of his own car) or maybe even just thoroughly cleaning an intake manifold if he had a big day. 

Luke can’t sit still long enough to focus on a jigsaw puzzle but still wants to spend time with you, so he’s playing video games while you do the jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table. You’re absolutely sitting between his legs, on the floor with your back against the couch that he’s sitting on. He’s getting up for a smoke between games, leaning over you to give you spiderman kisses, bringing you snacks and water while you alternate between doing your puzzle and cheering him on in whatever he’s playing. Luke gives the top of your head a kiss every time he wins a round/a race/scores well. 

Ryland has too many things to grade and lessons to plan to do your jigsaw puzzle with you, but he wants to spend time with you too, so you’re doing your jigsaw puzzle on one end of the dining table while he grades quizzes at the other. He will intermittently ask you if you would accept certain things as answers or whether you can read certain chunks of handwriting, getting up to hand the test/s in question to you which is when he puts a few pieces together while he waits for your feedback. He gives your forehead a kiss when you give him your answer, then goes back to his chair until he gets through his stack of papers or calls it quits for the night and joins you. Ryland's eyes get tired quickly, so you know you’ve only got about fifteen minutes of jigsaw-puzzling before he’s going to have a headache. 

Sebastian taps away at his keyboard while you do your jigsaw puzzle with the coffee table pulled close to the couch so you don’t have to sit on the floor. Neither of you talk very much, but the silence is companionable because it’s punctuated with soft (if stuttery, slightly repetitive) jazz music and the occasional question of whether something sounded good (it almost always does). You’re the one getting up to get water and snacks for the both of you, only because Sebastian is so hyper-focused on getting a melody perfect that he usually forgets to eat/drink unprompted. Once he finishes off a piece, he’ll come sit with you for a little bit for a few kisses, some praise (going both ways), and he’ll put in one or two pieces before he goes back to the keyboard. 

Henry spends most of his time painting even when you’re together, so it comes as no surprise that you’re doing your jigsaw puzzle on the floor while he sits near the window with a paintbrush in his hand late into the night. He’s too engrossed in his own work but did help you pick out the jigsaw puzzle you’re doing — it was one of the artwork themed ones the bookstore sells, jigsaw-ified famous paintings. There’s light conversation happening but you and Henry are both happy in the silence. 

Active Participants:

Colt comes home from every long shoot with a new puzzle — somehow, he gets access to whatever the movie’s poster looks like at the time (much earlier than he should be able to) and gets it made into a jigsaw for the two of you to do together. He’s sitting on the other side of the coffee table with you and you’re both on the floor with a plate of snacks off to the side. He gives you all the on-set gossip for the movie, and you regularly have to tell him to stop spoiling the movie in question for you because you were actually interested in watching it (with him, so he can show you which stunts he did and you can oo and ahh). You’ve probably got a sitcom going on in the background that neither of you are paying attention to or one of you has your phone hooked up to play music. He’s getting up and moving around to stretch his back relatively often and you’re regularly conscripted to help massage, but Colt thinks it’s worth it and you can tell that he loves doing jigsaws with you so you don’t mind in the slightest. 

Holland gets engrossed in a jigsaw and it throws you for a loop the first time you bring one over to the March residence. You brought it over for something to do while you hung out with Holly while her dad was out with Healy since you aren’t much interested in listening to her talk to Jessica on the phone or watching the reality TV she puts on and thought she might like to do it with you, and she does for a while while you ask her about her school day, but it’s her father who gets hooked. Doesn’t matter if he’s drunk, had a bad day, had a good day, anything, he’s sitting on the floor, criss-cross-applesauce across from your own seat on the couch with the jigsaw laid out on the coffee table and getting stuck right in as he tells you about what happened to him that day. Sometimes Healy comes in for a little while too if it isn’t too late at night, but he sits next to you on the couch and only interjects to correct Holland or add a key piece of information that he’s forgotten from his tale. 

Lars will sit with you in silence almost regardless of what you’re doing, but he especially loves doing jigsaw puzzles with you. You each pick a corner to work out from once you’ve got the border done and you divide the pieces into their own tupperwares according to which quarter they look like they go in. You’re passing the tupperwares between you, handing each other any pieces you find that might work for the other’s corner — you’re a well oiled machine when the two of you work on a jigsaw together. You’re demolishing a thousand-piece jigsaw within two evenings, so you and Lars usually alternate jigsaws with Scrabble and bowling throughout the week to keep things interesting but on a schedule. 

Grace is by no means in a terrible relationship his co workers, he gets along with them well, he chats with them, occasionally greets them good morning, afternoon, evening, you get the gist.

So all in all in good terms with almost everybody.

Probably.

He knows it's inevitable to have at least one person hate you for no reason, but alas he tries his best to socialize.

Now he may have played the part too well because apparently they're having an after work drinking session, and he's invited.

He won't call himself a saint and say stuff like alcohol is bad for your health so don't drink it, because he does, he drinks and it's not something he's hiding– he's not an alcoholic.

In normal circumstances he might think about it and come along, but that's past Grace.

Present Grace has a lover that he's extremely in love with and would rather spend his time with them instead of going out– call him clingy or lover boy, his mind won't change. The two of you are currently in your early months of dating and everything has been magical, the two of you recently moved in together and it's been the best part of Rylands life in years, now he got something to look forward to when he comes home.

Hence why he declined, but of course they just saw that as him playing hard to get, a little push would make him agree– and Grace hates that it seems to be working.

“C’mon! We don't experience this kind of thing everyday, who knows when we'll be able to do this again?”

“oh don't be a buzz, just a few drinks and we'll let you go yeah?”

“probably in a few weeks.” Grace sighed, trying his best to steer the conversation towards something else.

Sometimes Grace questions if these people know that they're not young anymore.

There were a few sure but come on now, most of them are balding– not that Grace is trying to be rude, just thinking the obvious.

“one drink and that's it.” he says in exasperation. In the end, they still managed to convince Grace, but really it's just so they'd get off his back and he can finally go home to you.

A few whistles and woos was heard when he finally agreed, some cheered while they started to walk towards a nearby bar.

Meanwhile Grace opened his phone to message you– he didn't want you to worry as to why he'll be home later than usual.

‘I'll be home just a tad bit later tonight okay? My co workers wanted to get some drinks and they wouldn't let me go.’

‘in about 30 minutes come pick me up pls, if they saw you, they'll let me go, I love you honey.’

‘save me.’

Upon arriving, Grace found a seat somewhere, making sure it's far from the most active bunch, he's here for one drink and one drink only.

He had every intention of going home early.

But somehow one drink turned into three co workers physically sliding him more drinks while promising that they'd cover the whole thing.

“I don't even like drinking.” Grace protested

“we'll pay.”

“exactly! This is why it's called team bonding.”

“yeah no I don't think that's how that works.”

Very ironic when the school recently just had an anti bullying campaign– that included peer pressure, what's happening right now is considered peer pressure, yeah they're pressuring him.

This is bullying, what would happen if he reported them.

Yeah he should.

It'll be even worse if he told you they're bothering him.

Yeah, that's right, you'll destroy them.

The second glass (unlikely his second) at his knowledge, burned.

The next one wasn't so bad.

By now he had completely forgotten about his co workers that were cheering at his drunken state– that kept downing one glass after another.

He doesn't know just how many he'd drank but by now, Grace had declared the bartender as his ‘best friend’ meanwhile the said bartender is staring at him with worry, this guy is completely drunk– yet he kept hearing Grace deny it.

After receiving your boyfriend's message that he'd be home later than usual, followed by a string of messages telling you to pick him up– you quickly put on a coat before heading out and getting the car started.

It only took a few minutes since the school was nearby– and that the bar was a walking distance from it.

Once you found a parking spot, you quickly walk inside the bar and searched the room for your lover.

It didn't take long to spot him sitting by the bar, you were surprised to find him alone especially since his co workers quite literally coerced him to come here.

“hey.”

“hey.”

“you're red.”

“it's warm.”

You couldn't help but smile, amused, you have a hunch that Grace doesn't recognize you in his drunken state.

“your holding your cup upside down baby.”

Grace stared at the empty drink then down on his very much wet and stained shoes.

“...this establishment is defective.”

“also don't– don't.. call me baby! Because you know why..?”

You stare at him babble his brains out, interested on how this whole thing will unfold.

“because *hic* I have a beautiful! *hic* lover! And they're the absolute *hic* bestest best that could ever happen to me!”

You raised your eyebrows with a hum and took a seat besides him. "pretty sure that's not a word Ry."

“I *hic* miss them.*

You could see his face starting to twist, still you were curious on how things would go.

“you saw me this morning.”

“Honey.”

“I know” his voice cracked “it's *hic* been like,” he squinted his eyes towards the clock hanging on the wall, trying to make out the time “hours! Since I *hic* last saw them.”

“they probably forgot to eat,” he's practically sobbing now, his eyes growing puffy “they do that *hic* sometimes.”

“I'm grown you know.”

“I know!” he wailed, wiping his eyes “that's what makes it worse!”

You chuckled and quietly slid a tissue towards him, now you do feel bad about making him cry but hearing his sweet words makes you happy, you're sure Grace would be embarrassed tomorrow morning.

Oh well problem for future you.

“but they are funny baby.”

“they're just so.. *hic* amazing! And- and they're so beautiful and kind..” he says while blowing his nose with the tissue “they laugh at my terrible jokes even when *hic* they're not funny.”

“I just…miss them so much and– and I want to wrap my arms *hic* around them and–” he full on sobbed right there and there earning a few stares from his co workers.

You tilted your head contemplating if you should finally put an end to this and bring him home.

“they're.. So beautiful.”

“you said that already baby.”

“no listen,” he sniffled “have you ever looked at *hic* someone and thought.. Wow!”

“I'm looking at you.”

“no not me,” his eyebrows scrunched as though that were the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard “my lover.”

“that's me.”

“Their smile..*hic* I love their smile, they smile at me..”

You huff in amusement “yes?”

“me.”

“yes.”

“on purpose.” his lips trembled “I got extremely lucky.. *hic* that they chose me out of all people.” he sniffled.

“I have pictures!” he yelled.

oh no, you thought, out of all the things you could've predicted to happen today, Grace showing you pictures of yourself wasn't on it.

A phone was shoved right in front of your face, it was a picture of you during your date with Grace last week.

“they're adorable.”

“they seem nice.” you went along with it.

“seems.” Grace stated while looking at you sharply.

“seems..?” you say confused.

“They are nice.”

Right, you don't know what's worse, Grace crying his eyes out or him being…whatever this is.

He swiped another picture.

“and this one.”

Swipe.

“and this one.”

Swipe.

“this one was last Tuesday.”

Swipe.

“this was one was during our date.”

Swipe.

“this one..I don't remember.”

Swipe.

“they're looking at me here.”

“I'm looking at the camera though?”

“yeah but they're thinking of me so technically the same thing.”

You chuckled “right.”

His lips started trembling, oh no, here it comes.

“I miss them..”

“Again baby, you saw me this morning.”

“I know that.” his voice cracked.

“and you're looking at me right now.”

“I know.”

“So what's the problem?”

Instead of receiving a coherent answer, Grace decided that sobbing his eyes out was more suitable for the situation.

“alright that's it.” you looked at him tenderly, this lovesick idiot really loves you huh? “Baby we're going home, you know I've seen angry drunks, sleepy drunks, and the ones that go quiet, I've never seen one that becomes homesick for their partner in just a few hours.” you said while helping Grace get up and walk out the bar and towards the car.

“you would too if you have a partner that looks like mine.”

You smiled, this guy really knows how to get you emotional. “I do have one.”

“liar.”

“I'm not, I have you.”

____________________________

Grace woke up with an unforgiving headache, he groaned as he sat up.

“what the hell..”

“morning baby.” you muttered while your arms wrapped around his waist.

"Where's my 30 minutes of you just showering me with compliments while sobbing?”

“oh my god.”

Your body physically started shaking as you started laughing.

“Did I really do that? Oh god.” his hands covered his face.

“ What's wrong Ry? Won't you show me my pictures for an hour?"

“stop.” his face was red from embarrassment.

“you're evil.”

“no, but I was touched by what you said, my baby misses me?” you teased.

He huffed as he turned to look at you.

“as embarrassing as that was, I do mean every word you know.”

“I know.”

“I love you.” he says

“I love you too.” you mean it

“but I'm still mad at you for letting me act like that.”

You whined as you pull him back on the bed with you, smothering his face with kisses.

He's lucky? No, it's the other way around you're lucky to have Grace in your life, even if he won't admit it.