I bounced on the balls of my feet in anticipation. I was finally going to see her! After two years of Zoom dates, two years of long FaceTime calls, two years of not being able to hold her hand, I was finally going to be able to hold her close in my arms.
I stood in the train terminal, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of rush hour, waiting for her to appear from one of the open archways that led to the train tracks. I was on the edge of a crowd of people who were staring at the news report talking about the swarm of low magnitude earthquakes off the coast. I wasn’t really paying attention.
“Hey you!”
I whipped my head towards the sound, brushing a lock of hair away from my face and searching for the owner of the voice I’ve come to cherish. Then I saw her. Red hair held back from her face, a pink mark on her cheek from when she must’ve fallen asleep during the trip, and a beautiful, beautiful smile.
I started to run towards her, dodging harried businessmen in grey suits and tourists trying to figure out where the exit was, a large grin making my face ache as I gazed upon her with no more distance than a few meters. She dropped her bag and braced to take my weight as I leapt into her outstretched arms. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her tight as she did the same to me. The warmth of her body radiated through the sweater I was wearing and I finally felt home.
At some point I must have started crying because when I went to finally say hello my voice was hoarse. She lifted her head from my shoulder and looked at me. Her eyes held a warmth that just wasn’t conveyed through pixels and her skin was warm and she smelled like stale train air and coconut.
Wiping away an escaped tear, she whispered, “You’re much cuter when you aren’t a collection of pixels on my laptop screen.”
I scoffed, “I’m always cute!”
“Especially now when I can finally do this,” and she kissed me. A warm, soft hand was placed delicately on my cheek, the other on my jaw holding me still. I sighed and fell deeper into the kiss and her embrace. I must have made a small noise when she pulled away, as she looked up and giggled at the pout on my face before wiping another stray tear away.
“You’re adorable when you’re in love with me.”
“Yeah, and you’re adorable when you feed me.”
“You see your girlfriend after two years and all you can think about is food?”
“Yes, now come on. Grab your bag so we can go eat. There’s a restaurant I want to introduce you to.”
Sasha laughed and leant down to get the stuff she had dropped, “Come on Mara, let's feed the empty pit inside your stomach.”
Beaming back at her, I laced my fingers with hers as I took one of her bags in my other hand. The warmth of her palm made me feel giddy, like the first time I held her hand on our first date. She had new callouses this time and I was excited to become familiar with them again.
After stashing Sasha’s stuff in the trunk of my car, with many kisses between getting to the car and leaving, I drove us to my favorite restaurant. It was a little hole in the wall with the best sandwiches on the West Coast (Mara tested and approved).
The short drive to the store front was filled with laughter and too big smiles and a warmth I had missed so much. Her hand hadn’t left mine since we got in the car.
“How was the train ride?”
She smiled, “It was alright, I fell asleep for most of it.”
“I figured by the red mark I saw on your cheek in the train station.”
“Why didn’t you say anything!” She squawked, ripping open the visor mirror and looking at her reflection. The mark had faded but the action caused giggles to bubble up from the warm and content feeling in my chest.
“Because it was just too cute.” I glanced over at her with a smile. Sasha blushed lightly and turned to look out the window with a pout.
The radio crackled softly with an old country song as we drove across town, closer to the coast. The warmth in my chest flared to almost be overwhelming as she squeezed my hand and brought it to her lips.
“Missed this.”
I hummed, squeezing her hand back. Sasha was whisper-singing the lyrics to the song on the radio, the natural twang to her honey sweet voice more pronounced around the vowels in the lyrics. The song changed and her face lit up as she jumped forward to turn up the volume as we approached a stoplight. She air drummed with her free hand and her feet to the upbeat song and the warmth that I didn’t think could burn any hotter seemed to overtake my senses and all I could think was, I love you so much.
“I forgot how much you loved country music.”
“I’m a product of my upbringin’ darlin’. It grows on ya if ya ain’t used to it.”
I narrowed my eyes lightly as I squeezed her hand again. She laughed and continued to sing the lyrics.
“Are we almost there?”
I flicked my turn signal on and said, in my best imitation of a GPS voice, “You have arrived at your destination.”
It earned me another breathtaking smile, “So this is the infamous restaurant that I ordered your birthday meal from.”
“Yup! They have the most amazing soups and sandwiches.”
“Do you have a recommendation or should I trust you to not kill me?”
“Are you feeling up for spontaneity?”
“Always with you.”
“Should I take that as a compliment that it means I keep you on your toes?”
She winked then leaned over to kiss me. “You pick for me.”
Grinning, I stepped up to the counter to order. It was so easy to just be in her presence. I missed her so much. I paid and got the number card and trotted over to a table where Sasha was sitting. It was by the window, with a perfect view of the sunny day.
Our food arrived and I watched as Sasha took her first bite. Her face lit up in joy as she quickly took another bite before pausing and glancing up with her eyes.
I was trapped in her gaze as I laughed, “It’s delicious, right?”
“Friggin suburb.” She said around a mouthful of food. I laughed harder and bit into my own sandwich, which was as good as ever.
When I finished, I leaned back against the chair and stared at her. How’d I end up so lucky?
Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.
"shout out to everyone/POC-" I was talking to Black people. You may absolutely feel inclined to make your own post! But I am talking to Black people. If you are uncomfortable speaking to and specifically showing support to Black people without feeling as if there needs to be a caveat, then this isn't your post to speak 😐 in fact, you may be a part of the problem.
forget Resting Bitch Face, I have Resting Competent Face. People see me and think ah yes she can point me to the nearest train station. Fellow grocery shoppers ask if I know what kind of butter they should buy. If a strange man speaks to me on the street it is literally always an inquiry and never a catcall. Once someone randomly asked me what an equinox was and after I told her she nodded and said "you seemed like you'd know." why am I assigned oracle at random interaction
Decided to post this is a quick go at painting lance and he's supposed to be looking into a massive aquarium an its supposed to be like a trapped mermaid keith and caring lance who wants to set him free au but I'm not 100% sure what I was gonna do with it so I'm just gonna post this as a unfinished peice I added keith into it kinda but didn't put as much effort into him (sorry keithy 🥲) so I'm not 100% sure how I feel about it but I spent time on it so I thought it would be nice to post it 😄👍 I'm not exactly a great painter but I tried my best hopefully it's ok im particularly proud of my rock tho in the left corner so there's that 😂 anyway enjoy!
Keith dabs disinfectant across the deep gash through Lance’s eyebrow, the wound having narrowly missed blinding his left eye. “It’s going to scar,” Keith mutters, mouth stretched to the side as he concentrates.
“A sexy scar though, right?” Lance asks, fighting off a grin. It’s very difficult to stop himself from moving the muscles in his face too much, less he pulls on the cut that Keith so lovingly attends to, the healing pods still out of service after the last attack.
“Seriously?” Keith snaps his head up, lips pulled back, nose scrunched as if he can’t believe what he just heard. His gaze flickers across Lance’s face, probably wondering if Lance did end up suffering a concussion—which he did not; this is an honest question. “You get beat up, kicked, thrown, left for dead, unconscious by the time we found you, and all you care about is if it’ll be ‘sexy’?”
Lance almost laughs at how incredulous Keith is right now. His eyebrows rise high enough to completely disappear under his bangs and his eyes pop wide. But Lance controls himself in time, biting the inside of his cheek as he shrugs. “Yeah?”
“Unbelievable.”
“You not answering is not making me feel any better, dude.”
“Don’t call me dude.”
“Sorry.” Lance sighs. “You’re not making me feel better, Mullet. That’s like your one job here.” He glares as he taps his fingers on his thighs, hissing as Keith passes over one more time with the disinfectant.
“Fine, fine.” Keith lightly growls and snaps out through the heat rising on his pale cheeks. “It looks good on you. Brings out a rugged handsomeness.”
Despite everything, Lance’s smile grows, spanning past the wince of his bruised skin and exhausted body until it takes up his entire face. “You think I’m handsome.”
“Shut up.”
“No, you do! I just asked if it looked sexy. You’re the one who said I look handsome.” He stops Keith before he can bandage the gash. Catching Keith’s arm mid-air, he gently circles his fingers around Keith’s wrist and makes sure Keith only focuses on him. “You’re obsessed with me, aren’t you? You can admit it. This is a safe space.”
Keith doesn’t try to move, doesn’t try to slip out of Lance’s grasp; he remains completely still, staring and saying, “You’re the worst.”
“And you can’t get enough of me.” Lance cups Keith’s jaw as he leans forward to place a kiss on his forehead. He smiles against Keith’s hair. “Thanks for patching me up, Mullet.”
Lance leaves Keith sitting on his heels, mouth agape and confused, unable to respond. Lance will deal with the beautiful aftermath tomorrow. Today, he wants to revel in his win.
voltron is a kids show for babies who are babies and like giant robots but. a year? a year to topple an empire thats dug its slicing claws into over half the known galaxy? its an impossible task made sillier by such an impossible hyperbole. a year?
keith is going to be thirty before hes walking back into that shack. lance's mom is going to get her boy back covered in scars. a map of the galaxy in pale, hairline slits over his skin. colleen holt is going to leave her latest tenure at the local grieving-widow's-support-group, sixty and tired, to find her children sitting in the kitchen. hunk's parents are going to see a man where they lost a boy. not a man of the early 20s variety, a man, with dark stubble and strength in his arms and shadows in his eyes. shiro's parents will be seeing a stranger. shake the hand of the chiseled war veteran, and feel the way the metal slides, smooth, over your skin.
i want the return to earth to be like wearing clothes that dont fit. pulled from your childhood dresser, well-worn and well-loved and impossibly small. tight around your broad adult shoulders and scarred arms. the sky is blue, and the ocean is salty, and life has gone on without you. its not a matter of "you changed, and your home didnt". quite the opposite. your parents had other children. your siblings got married. your grandparents died. your home-- and the people you left there-- changed. but you changed, too. and you and your home changed in opposite directions. your nieces and nephews dont know your face. your parents cant stop looking at the scar on your neck. your siblings ask you what happened, and there is no answer, because there is no way to say that everything happened. you lived a whole life in the stars. and they lived a whole life down here, on the ground.
[shrugs] or maybe you walked into an empty shack after twelve years
My mother, in our year of the lord 2024: I’ve just started watching Teen Wolf and…like, I think I’m going crazy because does Derek and…oh, what’s his name again?
