Henry is Mystica

Heather, hi!! Thanks, bestie!! 💗 I talked about Hit Me Like Daylight here :)

Gazing at the Stars is a besties-to-lovers one shot where Henry is nursing a massive crush on Zack, but he keeps hesitating to do anything about it, partially because he's as close with him as he is with Jasper & Charlotte, so he doesn't want to make things awkward if Zack rejects him, and two, he knows Zack is not shy when it comes to admitting he's into someone, so he feels like he would know by now if Zack saw him as something other than strictly a friend. (except, it might just be that henry's an oblivious dumb of ass 👀) also, the snippet below is still the very first draft, please forgive the less-than-stellar quality

don't be fooled!! 😭 I'm simply far too lazy to come up with titles, so I typically just go with song lyrics lol And those are lyrics from daylight by sheppard (which IS a zenry song. btw) (but so is every song if I try hard enough). They're sort of related to the plot, but in a "degrees of separation" "tangential" way? Like, if you were listen to the song now, it wouldn't really give you any insights to the plot, but once you read it, you might be able to be like "okay, I can kinda see how you got there" lmao

anyway, it's the one I was working on last night that's SO close to being finished. Legit, I just need to write a few sentences to connect the middle to the little bit of dialogue I wrote for the ending, and that's it. I'm so close.....yet so far..............

Anyway, it's legit just 1k words of them in their early twenties sharing an apartment, being all domestic and fluffy and that's all because I'm a WEAK ass bitch

“Henry Hartin?”

The most terrifying thing was waking up to a world foreign to the mind, foreign to eyes.

Blinding white nipped his eyes—it was the kind of force akin to a thumbtack being pressed against skin, sinking so deep that not even blood could escape yet. His eyebags pulsed, and with each throb, it spread up towards his right temple—but it didn’t feel angry, at least not really. It didn’t ache of frustration, of sadness, of happiness; it was a simple feeling, a simple numbness tantamount to the beat of his unfeeling heart.

Briefly, he wondered if this was what death was.

And honestly, he quite hoped that this was it—the end of the line, the end of all suffering.

But he wasn’t dead, and deep down, he knew that.

Eventually, after what felt like years of laying in space, something beat what he’d thought was the most terrifying thing:

He forgot his name.

At least, until the unfamiliar figure walked in, and said a distant name that belonged to distant memories, so far that he couldn’t see them anymore.

He gripped the bedsheets—that had been flush against his palms—until his knuckles blanched.

The unfamiliar figure—a dark-skinned man with a white coat—smiled softly at Henry, and approached him as if they were old friends. “Glad to see that you’re finally awake, Mr. Hartin.”

Henry peered up at the man, confusion raking over his cranium—somehow, it pulsed even harder.

For whatever reason, he felt a strange tug at the name ‘Hartin’, like it was anything but his supposed last name.

Like it was something special.

Or;

“I’m a boy.”

At twelve years old, Henry’s life changed.

Zack Martin—at the time, by another name—moved into the Tipton, flocking into his life like Henry were seeds, and ever since then he couldn’t shake the boy off. Henry, at first, had been annoyed by Zack’s presence. He’d been loud, obnoxious, pulling stupid pranks, and all around being a nuisance.

But… at thirteen, the world around Henry shifted a little more.

Kid Danger happened.

Henry wasn’t sure why becoming this new character altered his brain, but it did, and it was severe enough for him to actually start liking Zack.

Liking Zack… too much.

But that was what happened when you had lady friends, right? Parents start whispering, friends start teasing, and one's future is decided. Always, his own parents would poke fun at Henry, saying, “Z__ is teasing you because she has a crush on you!”

Perhaps it was true.

Admittedly, it was getting into Henry’s head a little.

And, if Henry had to admit it, Zack had been looking prettier and prettier by the day…

But then Zack said that, when they were having an illegal sleepover because their parents put restrictions on it.

Henry could only stare at Zack.

At his growing crush.

And Henry said, “Okay,” with a shrug, because he was beginning to learn about things like this. Things that were perceived as issues when they shouldn’t be; like the racism that Charlotte faced a handful of times that Henry had been ignorant to for a while, like the pair of men he’d seen walking along the sidewalk holding hands with a nervous look in their eyes. And it was the same look that had been in Zack’s eyes, before his blue eyes had diverged from Henry’s face.

Zack had then looked back up, after Henry’s attempt of being nonchalant, with a crease in his brow. “Okay?” he echoed.

“Yeah.” Henry nodded, looking away briefly. “You’ve… always kinda been one of the guys, you know? Now you’re just… official.”

Zack snorted at that. “Official, huh?”

“Certified and everything, bro.”

And it was true, what Henry had been saying. Zack had been considered ‘one of the dudes’ ever since he had landed in Swellview. He’d worn boyish clothes, loose-fitted flannels around graphic tees and baggy pale jeans with vans for skateboarding. Upon first sight, many thought he was a boy, as he always had his hair short like Cody’s.

So, in Henry’s eyes, he had been fifty-fifty.

But, he supposed that Zack was a hundred percent now.

The only thing had been…

His feelings weren’t faltering.

They hadn’t even shifted a bit, since learning that Zack was a boy.

In fact, as Zack smiled at Henry with that usual blinding grin of his, Henry’s heart burned hotter and hotter, his face burning and burning—and since Zack had told a secret, it suddenly made sense in Henry’s thirteen year old brain to tell his own, blurting, “I’m Kid Danger!”

Henry had blamed it on peer pressure, suddenly. Zack’s blue eyes, gorgeous smile, and his stupid, stupid addictive personality were all gathered around Henry, cornering him, peer pressuring him to say it. To admit it. To spill a secret back, because Henry owed Zack that after he just told Henry such an important thing about himself.

And Kid Danger was an important thing about Henry.

Or;

In which Henry and Zack fall in love, distance themselves, get together, break up, get back together, split apart—

You know you can pop into my inbox/DMs at literally any time 💖 (actually I was legit thinking of DMing you just to say “hey” when you sent this 💕)

rules of the game are to post one sentence/excerpt from your wip that starts with each letter of the word you’re given. my word is LOVERS

• Light floods the darkened hall, tobacco now burning his nostrils as he’s hit with a rush of cool air, his room noticeably cooler than the rest of the empty house. - gazing at the stars (but i only see you)

• One of the airline workers stationed at the podium by the gate is eyeing him like a hawk, her hand gripping the phone like a lifeline, no doubt so she can call security at a moment’s notice if he causes any more trouble. - i'm here, i'm yours

(I didn't actually have a sentence that starts with 'V" so I'm going with this one. close enough) • A voice that makes Henry’s blood run cold. He glances up just as the voice in question flops down into the empty desk beside him.  Great. And here he was thinking this day couldn’t get any worse.  - my (fake) boyfriend

• Except, he doesn’t think it’s Maya’s. It’s stronger, sharper than her more delicate features.  And his mind doesn’t recall the faint whiff of her flowery perfume.  It’s sweeter. More sugary.  No, it’s more like…. Bubblegum. - my (fake) boyfriend

• “Remember? You needed a place to crash those nights you were drinking or high or something, and you didn’t want to risk your mom finding out?” Zack nods. “Right. Well, yeah, if she caught me sneaking in and figured out I’d been smoking or something? She would’ve killed me dead.” He moves to stare up at the ceiling. “And, sure, that was true for the occasional weekend…” He trails off. -- i'm here, i'm yours

• Still, he had been in Henry’s exact position before, so surely he could think of something--something he wished the other person would’ve said when he was facing the same heartache. -- partners in crime(fighting)

blab session under the cut