Evie: I need everybody, all day long, to like me so much.
Sam: STREET SMARTS!
Mabel: Some people give off a vibe right away of like, donât fuck with me. My vibe is more like âHey you could pour soup in my lap and Iâll probably apologize to you!â
Theta: Iâll keep all my emotions right here, and then Iâll die.
Jericho: And Iâm like âNo, thatâs the thing Iâm sensitive about!â
Memphis: I look back on being seventeen and think âOh god, how did I not die?â
Henry: Hi, Iâm very gay, and Iâd like a few dollars.
Ling: In terms of like, instant relief, canceling plans is like heroin.
Isaiah: Nobody cared what I thought when I was a kid. Theyâd say âWhat do you think youâre doing?â but that just meant âstop.â
Will: You know those days where youâre like, this might as well happen?
Jake: Sometimes babies will point at me and I donât care for that shit at all.
Sister Walker: You have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair.
The King of Crows: Everyone get out of my way! I just want to sit here and feed my birds.
Ling: (to Sam) Do you always run headlong into certain death?
Evie: Sometimes he walks. Occasionally shuffles. Once, Iâm pretty sure I saw him amble into certain death.
[Cellphone rings]
Mabel, answering: Iâm busy.
Sam: Do you think drinking thirty-six cans of red bull consecutively would make my senses more heightened or would I just die?
Mabel: âŠ
Sam: âŠ
Mabel: Iâm on my way.
Sam: I turned out perfectly fine!
Jericho: Just this morning you thought a ghost made your toast.
Sam: I DIDNâT PUT THE BREAD IN! YOU DIDNâT PUT THE BREAD IN!
Henry: Ah Ling, I hope you donât mind. I played for you while you were gone. Donât worry, I only lost twice!
Ling: I was downstairs for two minutes. Weâre playing Monopoly.
Henry: I may have made a few risky investments.
Mabel: He tried to build, and I quote, âA tower worthy of my sorcery,â out of 20 stacked hotels. On Jail.
Hi! I didnât forget about my fic requests! Just was moving and life got really hectic and stressful for a while. Anyway, Iâm back now baby! Here it is, as promised, a (spoiler-free) modern AU below the cut! Enjoy! :)
Find this fic on AO3 here!
âI think the Lincoln Tunnel is my own personal circle of hell,â Evie mused.
Samâs eyes darted over to look at her where she stood swaying next to him on the bus. âYouâre always so dramatic. Love that about you,â he grinned at her.
She rolled her eyes, âIâm serious! This tunnel is out to get me personally! It only has two temperature conditions: clammy or humid. Neither of which agree with my skin, by the way. Like, why is it like this?â
âMaybe because itâs a tunnel? A tunnel that runs under a river?â Sam smirked and looked back out the window of the bus. Which gave him a lovely non-changing view of the tiled walls of the tunnel Evie so despised.
âOh doll, I know Iâm funny. Donât even have to take the time to think about it.â
âYeah, itâs obvious you donât spend a lot of time thinking.â
âYou wound me Evie, you wound your devoted boyfriend. And for what?â
âFor the fun of it I suppose,â Evie drawled. The other passengers of the bus around them were steadfastly ignoring the coupleâs antics. Good old New Yorkerâs. Could always be counted on to ignore everything happening around them so long as it didnât pose any direct inconvenience to them.
Evie and Sam stared each other down for a moment before bursting into quiet giggles. They enjoyed teasing each other, but they loved each other more than anything. âAnyway,â Evie continued after they both stopped laughing, âwe need to stop making these treks out to Jersey. I mean, why do we do this anyway?â
âUh, because Henry and David live in Jersey? And we like spending time with them?â Sam raised his eyebrows at his girlfriend.
âHenry and David oughta come to see us in the city instead.â
âThey already do. Quite a bit.â
âThey only visit the city to see Memphis, Theta, and Ling,â Evie pouted, âWeâre the afterthoughts.â
âWe are not the afterthoughts I promise,â Sam reassured her. He knew she didnât mean that, she just always hated being stuck in what felt like never ending rush hour traffic in the tunnel. âRemember how David brought those cupcakes he makes that you love so much the last time Theta and Memphis threw a dinner party? He made them specifically for you doll.â
âHmph,â Evie was still frowning, clearly not wanting to be dissuaded out of her Lincoln Tunnel inspired grumpiness so easily. Sam took the opportunity to move closer to her and drape an arm across her shoulders. The bus chose that moment to lurch though, leaving Sam scrambling to grab onto the handle over his head and knocking into Evie as he did so.
Sam expected Evie to snap at him for jostling her. So he was surprised when the opposite happened instead. Â She bit her lip and looked up at him through her eyelashes. Samâs breath caught. He knew that look. He liked that look.
âYou just canât keep away from me can you?â She murmured, blushing in a way Sam knew from experience was calculated to get a reaction. Didnât mean he was immune to the charms of it though.
âAbsolutely not,â he breathed, shifting even closer to her. All arguments and hatred of the Lincoln Tunnel forgotten for a moment.
They were snapped out of that moment by someone loudly clearing their throat. The man sitting right in front of where they were standing glared at them over his newspaper.
âUh,â Sam fumbled and moved back from where he and Evie had been pressed up against each other. Evie giggled and Sam attempted a look of nonchalance. The man angrily adjusted his paper and started reading it again.
Sam glanced at Evie, who now seemed perfectly content to stare out the window at the tunnel wall and line of cars stretching alongside the bus herself. Sam could see her fighting a grin in the reflection though. She then suddenly turned and met his gaze directly. Sam could see her love for him, a mirror of his for her, shining through. Now he wanted nothing more than to get to Port Authority so they could catch the short subway trip home to their apartment. Their apartment, where he wouldnât have to worry about disapproving men with newspapers glaring at them.
How much longer was it to Port Authority anyway? Couldnât be long now, theyâd been in the tunnel for what felt like ages. Just then Sam noticed the wall sign announcing the divide between where New Jersey ended and New York started. Sam groaned, they werenât close enough to being out of this tunnel at all. Maybe Evie had been onto something after all. In this moment, the Lincoln Tunnel sure felt like Samâs own personal version of hell.
Will: Thank you, Memphis, thank you, Mabel, for all your help.
Jericho: What about me? You didnât thank me.
Will: You didnât do anything.
Jericho: I like being thanked.