[astreetsussserenade]

Not Yet Wise

Chapters: 12/18

Fandom: Generation Kill

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Relationships: Brad Colbert/Nate Fick

Oops, Nate and Brad haven’t quite gotten all of the Dramatics out of their system. 

[fangoria]

All Blood. No Tears.

[ourprivatehell]

[aggressive-puppy-deactivated201]

Brad can go from “your fucking mean, angry Sergeant” to “concerned, patient and soft dad” in like 0.03seconds

[orcses]

Alexander Skarsgård: We were kind of like a family, weren’t we? Me and you up front, then the kids in the backseat.

[bloonfic]

Well, that’s tragic for the meme

“Well, that’s tragic,” Brad said before he shoved a fistful of bar peanuts into his mouth.

“He’s doing his best,” Nate replied. Brad was right though, Ray was striking out with three women at the same time in a spectacular fashion. What made it particularly impressive was that most of the women in this dive were here because they wanted to pick up Marines. And yet.

“This is why you should always set the payment upfront.”

Nate had heard this particular monologue before. He was over it.

“No amount of Bacardi fucking Cola will make a woman think this inbred simpleton is worth her pussy. But you find the right kind of woman, you put a hundred in front of her, she’s yours for the night to do whatever you want, no breakfast included. In Singapore…”

“How much,” Nate interrupted, “would you pay me?”

Brad inhaled a peanut and started choking.

A few minutes later, with tears still in his eyes and his voice scratchy, he was trying to talk again. “What, with all due respect sir, the fuck?”

Nate leaned back and had a drink of beer to cool his thoughts. He had nothing to lose at this point. “How much would you pay me, for the night?”

Brad stared at him with half a smile thay said ‘if you’re joking, I’m ready to laugh.’ But his eyes were assessing.

Nate left his face open. Why start hiding anything now, he thought.

Brad’s face smoothed out as time passed and Nate didn’t look away. “To do whatever I wanted?”

“No breakfast included.”

Brad stared a while longer, but this time it was a familiar gaze. Like someone reading their favorite book and going for best parts only. Nate quite enjoyed the feeling.

“I’m not sure I can afford you, Nate.”

“Have the Corps been underpaying you?”

“No I am generously compensated for my extraordinary skills.”

“But you can’t throw a hundred bucks at me?” Nate teased.

“A hundred bucks wouldn’t get me past your finger.”

It was Nate’s turn to almost choke, on nothing. He thought ‘I could do a lot of damage with a finger if you let me,’ but he didn’t have the air to say it. Brad saw it anyway, flushed in a way Nate never thought was possible, and tilted his head in acknowledgment.

“We can start with that,” Nate finally said.

Brad swallowed what was left of his beer. “I might even throw in breakfast.”

“Wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.”

“You could… make the next one.”

[astreetsussserenade]

THIS IS PERFECT

I prompted “well, that’s tragic” and I got the straightforward aggressive Nate of my dreams plus a hinted at bradnate happily ever after. The DREAM.

[bandofotters]

The plot keywords of Generation Kill… this list also includes ‘Male Bonding’, ‘Homoeroticism’ and ‘ Road Trip’. 

I’m dead.

[thatbadlovin]

You had doubts????

[sortof-fandom-positivity]

[astreetsussserenade]

Brad/Nate: 22, 25, 38, 48 (no need to do all of them… I just got excited ha)

Thanks for the ask! Here are two of them!

22 “Did you just hiss at me?”

Nate raised his head and tried to look over his shoulder to see what Brad was drawing on his back. Brad let out a frustrated breath and pushed his head back into the pillow.

Voice muffled, Nate asked “Did you just hiss at me?”

“You’re messing me up.” Brad said absently, drawing another line with what Nate hoped wasn’t a Sharpie.

“That tends to happen when you use people as canvases without their permission.”

“Yes, well,” Brad said matching Nate’s dry tone commendably for someone as drunk as he was, “that tends to happen when you’re an asshole who falls asleep immediately after sex.”

Brad shifted lower so that he could reach more of Nate’s back. Nate sighed.

“On a scale of one to your back tattoo, how much am I going to regret this?”

“Fuck you,” Brad said genially, “Just for that, I’m drawing Ray’s face on your ass.”

38 “Why can’t you appreciate my sense of humor?”

“Why can’t you appreciate my sense of humor?” Nate asked from the countertop where he was sanding the upper cabinets.

Brad didn’t look up from the cabinet he was painting. “I’ve told you before. Because your humor requires a masters degree to decipher. And sometimes a dictionary.”

“Saying this painting job is top shelf doesn’t require a masters degree or a dictionary.”

“No,” Brad allowed, “that one was just not funny.”

[astreetsussserenade]

Anon! I’ve got a third one for you!

48  Bradnate “I didn’t think you could get any less romantic…”

“Dude, dude, dude, dude, I can’t believe I have to tell you this, but you can’t get Nate this shit for his birthday. You’re just giving him chores! Like, what is he supposed to look at his To Do list and see ‘fill the bird feeder’ and be filled with warm feelings about you? No! He’s going to roll his eyes and think ‘Fucking Brad didn’t know what to get me and now I’ve got fucking birds in my yard.’”

Brad ignored Ray’s commentary. He’d had the bad luck to run into Ray mid-shopping trip, and the cart of plants, birdseed, and birthday wrapping paper had spoken for themselves, but he certainly wasn’t going to encourage Ray by responding to his unsolicited relationship advice.

Ray was undeterred. “Seriously, homes, I didn’t think you could get any less romantic, but fucking birdseed? What the fuck, Brad? I get that, culturally, all of the relationships you’ve seen are straight, so maybe you don’t have a great example, but like if you’ve ever seen a sitcom, you know what happens when you buy the wife an iron. Don’t make Nate into a sitcom-wife, dude. He won’t appreciate it. Plus, he’s a mean fucker when he’s annoyed and…”

Brad took a sharp left into a random aisle. He didn’t really think he was going to lose Ray with such a basic maneuver, but he liked the skip in Ray’s monologue as he had to adjust his stride to catch up.

Brad turned into the aisle he had actually been heading for and studied the birdfeeders. Ray was saying something about how all the birds Nate would attract would, statistically speaking, get eaten by cats anyway.

Ray meant well, for all that he was a mouth-breathing, whiskey tango moron, so Brad decided to take pity on him and spell things out.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m buying Nate some things to take care of because he doesn’t have a platoon full of idiots like you under his care anymore, and he’s still adjusting.”

Brad looked at the aloe plant in his cart. “I have to assume that this thing can’t be any stupider than you are, so it should fit the bill.”

Ray stood staring, and his face softened into something Brad would have called understanding if he were dealing with an intelligent life form. Rather than hear what Ray had to say, he placed a birdfeeder in his cart and walked to the check out.

[tonysiron]

Good Trope:

Big person: takes up big amount of space

Tiny person: takes up tiny amount of space

Better Trope:

Big person: naturally squeezes up as tiny as possible in order to conserve enough room for everyone

Tiny person: sprawls every single limb across all available space, even when another person is occupying said space

[bear-moved-deactivated20240904]

[ofthunder-archive-blog-deactiva]

[astreetsussserenade]

Okay, no but, we’ve all been looking at Brad in this gif, because he’s really fucking obvious, but look at Nate. He’s looking into space over Brad’s shoulder, because he can’t look Brad in the eye, because he knows Brad’s right, because he knows he can’t tell Brad what Brad wants to hear and the weight of that disappointment is too much for him. But then he steels himself and he does it anyway, because he’s ultimately responsible for these decisions, and he’s so, so good.

[nalle]

[astreetsussserenade]

Not Yet Wise

Chapters: 6/18 Fandom: Generation Kill Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Brad Colbert/Nate Fick

In this chapter, we learn the very literal reference that inspired one of the photos in the header!

[pappysmoustache]

Favourite fic to stalk for updates at the moment.

[hawkmans]

[aarontveited]

screencap meme | generation kill | figures + space

[nalle]

[astreetsussserenade]

@mellowmoonballoon asked me for #43 “I feel like I can’t breathe.” for BradNate

“I feel like I can’t breathe.”

“You can’t. That’s the point.” Nate said.

“Last time I checked, respiration was an essential function of mammalian survival, sir.”

“Not a mammal anymore” Nate said with a flick of his tail. Brad was just learning to read his body language in this new form, but he thought it looked awfully smug. To drive home his point, Nate did a few quick flips, twisting and turning so that the light filtering through the water glinted off his golden scales.

“The sooner you stop worrying about your biological classification and how exactly you can speak if you aren’t bringing in air, the sooner we can go exploring.”

Brad stayed entirely still, not certain that a rogue flap of his new fins wouldn’t send him flipping ass over teakettle.

“I’m not sure what in our previous acquaintance would indicate to you that ‘it’s magic’ was going to be a satisfactory explanation for me as to why I’ve acquired a tail and no longer need to breathe.”

Nate grinned at him, and then did another happy flip. Brad recognized Nate’s rolling gait in the movement of his tail, but he had to admit he’d never seen Nate move this freely in his other shape.

“Nothing did. I was hoping it would work for you long enough to get you to the temple at the center of the city so you can read all the merfolk lore for yourself.”

Brad brightened at that. As he did, he noticed that, as he suspected Nate had intended, bickering had distracted him long enough that he was no longer acutely aware of each breath he didn’t take.

Gently testing the strength of his own new tail, Brad smiled and moved to fall in behind Nate.

“Lead the way”