Hi!! I love your postcanon thoughts so much and I was wondering if you have any ideas on Naim in terms of what kind of social circle he exists in? You've talked about ryan being out at work and finding some understanding tradie friends naim meets but is kind of awkward around and I wanted to know if you saw naim also forming friendships at work, him coming out to them, etc. Really any post canon naim thoughts you have are lovely! Thank you!
forgive me for being so late my friend! but yes oh my god i have SO many thoughts. ryanaim's post-canon friendship groups are one of my favourite things to daydream about
okay so. at the beginning i imagine the first job naim gets is something retail, close by to where he and ryan first split rent in a sharehouse w some other guys. flexible hours, few qualifications needed. doesn't rlly matter what specifically but personally i lean towards coles bc i can picture him in the red polo so fucking clearly lmfao like naim reid is rearranging the shelves and gives u the gen z stare when you interrupt him to politely ask which aisle is the honey (he has no fucking clue)
in terms of coming out to coworkers, i think it kind of happens against his will. since it's so soon after bandee he'd be super on guard and unwilling to rlly let anyone in, so while working there he is veryyy closed off and doesn't rlly open up to anyone.. there's a couple of other young people he's on friendly terms with and they can banter and have a laugh when they're on the same shift, but he never hangs out with anyone outside of work and they know next to nothing about him. i can almost picture it becoming an inside joke of sorts among the rest of the staff bc nobody knows anything abt him beyond his name and his age. until one day one of his coworkers sees ryan picking him up and greeting each other with a kiss and their mind is fucking BLOWN. they immediately text the gc (the one with the 4 or 5 other teenage workers) like GUYS WTF NAIM HAS A BOYFRIENDDDD?? his next shift naim is bombarded with questions abt his secret tradie boyfriend and is utterly mortified. also a little terrified?? but then everyone is just like omg how could we not know this abt you does he pick you up everyday?? that's so sweet!! and he realises that oh. this is okay. i'm okay. but even after they know i still picture him being awkward as hell. he's so unused to talking abt his life and his boyfriend in a casual way so it doesn't come naturally at all. again, friendly but not friends, yk?
but then a couple years after getting to melbourne and ryan's wages start to improve once he's deeper into his apprenticeship, i picture naim cutting back on his shifts and applying to uni. as i've mentioned in previous posts i see him going for something allied health (i lean towards radiology) and think uni is where he meets his real close friends.
i've always pictured him getting sort of like .. adopted?? much like his and ryan's relationship started tbh. i think he's used to lingering on the fringes and never initiating anything, so it's not until someone he sits next to regularly in lectures is like hey you wanna get lunch after class? that he makes his first real friend. he says yes on a whim and getting lunch becomes a regular post class ritual. other friends of theirs get invited and naim is introduced, and one he's become a familiar face he gets pulled into group study sessions at the library. his friendships with everyone in that circle naturally develop from there. i hc basically everyone in this circle he's pulled into to be queer and very open abt it, so he finds it a lot easier to be himself. i've kind of already written abt this in this fic, but i picture that first person who invited him to lunch after class to be a very visibly queer person, who picked up on naim's queerness and his big frightened doe eyes and was like . yup im gonna take him under my wing. and though they basically knew naim was queer from the beginning they didnt ask outright bc they didnt wanna freak him out, but dropped a lot of hints about their own queerness to make sure naim knew he was safe. at one point early on they casually asked "hey you got a partner?" and accepted however much information naim was willing to give (which at the time was nothing more than a "yeah" and no more details). though he is comfortable with them and the rest of the friendgroup he's pulled into bc of how openly queer they are, i still picture it taking a while before naim feels 100% secure in tell them about ryan. obviously once he does the news is very welcomed, and met with a unanimously excited when do we get to meet him!!
not to just rewrite the premise of my fic here lol but i picture ryan eventually getting introduced to the naim's uni friends by accompanying him to someone's party where they're all in attendance. ofc everyone is delighted to meet him and very amused by how . Blokey ryan is. ryan walking into the party in his brokeback mountain looking fit asking for a carlton dry and making no effort to hide his regional twang when he tells every person he meets nice to finally meet ya! everyone like naim i know you said he was a tradie but fuckin' hell. though ryan sticks out like a sore thumb among all the city queers he surprises them by being very easy to talk to, bc even if their roots are different, they're all community.
ryan effortlessly endears himself to every one of naim's friends and from that point on any invitation is always extended to ryan as well. naturally naim's codependent ass is like ok cool now i can finally start ACCEPTING those previously turned down invitations bc im allowed to bring my bf. the two of them get dragged all over melbourne by naim's circle of city grown queers, and become more acquainted with the wider queer community and queer culture. though ultimately i think ryan and naim aren't super like .. transgressive or gravitate towards more "out there" aspects of queer culture, they'd find it sooo freeing to be in an environment where they're so wholly accepted. ryan especially would not fuck with clubbing or the super rowdy party stuff bc poor boy is NOT used to so many people, so after a very brief "going out" phase they mellow to just hanging out at their friend's houses. but even that is novel for them: being able to cuddle on the couch with other people around and know that even if they get an eye roll or two it's nothing dangerous, nothing meaning them harm. however they DO get bullied a lot for pda. those two cannot keep their hands off each other unfortunately.
though ultimately i picture these 2 friend groups remaining mostly seperate i think ryan and naim move between them as a unit, as well as having their own individual time with their friends. naim sometimes goes along with ryan to the pub to chill and have a drink with his work mates, and even though they're pretty different, once they've all known each other for a while naim actually gets along with them really well. he's more than happy to sit up at the bar and chat with whoever while ryan plays pool in the corner, and all of the blokes treat naim like they'd treat anybody. though naim and ryan are more careful abt physical affection in these spaces bc of the other sorts of men who hang there aside from ryan's mates, they slip up from time to time. and i giggle thinking abt ryan's workmates getting to witness how down bad ryan is for his boyfriend. naim walks that man like a doggg and all ryan's mates have a ball taking the piss out of him for it lmfao
final paragraph bc i've rambled again fml but ! once naim eventually graduates and gets out of uni he gets a job at the hospital closest to his and ryan's place. given the semi-solitary nature of radiology he doesn't get too much contact with his coworkers but he's friendly enough with them in passing and during lunch breaks, and i like to think by this point going on 5+ years getting out of bandee, he feels safe enough that when a co worker casually asks if he's got a partner, he doesn't think twice before telling them "yeah, his name's ryan." said coworkers sometimes catch a glimpse of ryan when he's dropping off naim at work, leaning out over the gearbox to give naim one last good bye kiss through the passenger window. when they seem naim the next day they grin and tell him "saw you are ur boy yesterday" and without fail it always has naim flushing red and biting back a shy smile.
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