@kingdonmicrofic july 10, feast (wc: 470/301)
(dedicated to noah wyle)
Privately, Robby likes to keep a pretty close score. It’s for the best. If his sabbatical taught him anything, it’s that he can’t handle the loneliness and the disappointment anymore, so he has to do this, for his own sake, he has to keep count, a mental tally on who he can trust and who he can’t.
Frank Langdon, he’s learned, he can’t trust. Not by quite a large margin.
Which is maybe why he gets so annoyed when Langdon turns up at the Friendsgiving thing. He wasn’t even in the groupchat, the one Shen had started and called feastie boys🍗- it was just supposed to be the fuck-ups with nowhere better to be. Robby certainly qualifies, single and childless. But Langdon has a wife. Two kids, a dog, medical debt, a long recovery road ahead of him. It’s the holiday weekend and Langdon is supposed to be at home. He shouldn’t be here, and he really shouldn’t be all pressed up against Dr. King as if there’s not plenty of room around the table at this shitty all-you-can-eat homestyle buffet place.
He can’t stand it: Langdon keeps leaning in and King just smiles at him, probably doesn’t even realize he’s flirting. It’s egregious.
He should pull Langdon aside. Be careful, he should say, You've got enough on your plate. Don't blow everything up over a woman who sees you as a brother at best. But then Langdon would snap at him, make some snarky comment about his extended sabbatical. Because, as much as he wishes otherwise, people don't really change. Not at their core, even when they try.
By the time they all go around and say what they’re thankful for, Robby has to take a second to swallow down all the bitterness before he can say he’s grateful to be sleeping in his own bed again without sounding like a psycho.
Langdon says he's grateful for his support system. He says he’s lucky to have his friendships. He's looking at King when he says his life has been “greatly, greatly enriched” these past few months. That he's learning to be a better father. A better man.
No better husband. Robby notices, adds it to the tally.
It’s ridiculous, and no one else seems bothered, which makes him wonder if this is just the new normal since he’s been gone. This is why he shouldn’t have left, he should have been here to make sure Langdon was staying the course.
The fucker is just so - relaxed. It’s like he doesn’t care, or like he’s not struggling, which is absurd. When he smiles his face looks completely different, like he’s a whole new person.
Robby keeps his mouth shut and eats his food. He doesn't know what to make of any of it.
@kingdonmicrofic || rated: g || word count: 500 || day 5: speech || cross-posted on ao3
“The thing is,” Frank clears his throat, “I’m not great at speeches but…” he clears his throat, fidgeting on his feet, trying to rub the embarrassment out of his neck. “I don’t know, I feel like I have to get this out because if I don’t, I will explode and— fuck, I don’t want to keep this inside anymore because every time I see you, I’m really scared that I’m on the verge of having a heart attack.
“I know it doesn’t make any sense, because medically speaking, I— well, fuck, that’s not the point. The point is that — I love you. I like you?” he huffs out his breath, running his hand through his hair. He washed it two hours ago in preparation for this but he’s sure that he’s touched it so many times since then that it’s already greasy and gross. “I like you — and we’re friends and I don’t want to jeopardize that because that’s one of the most important things in my life, but I can’t keep pretending like this isn’t happening. Because I like you. As more than just a friend.”
He stares at the person in front of him, wide, glassy-eyed and a half-open mouth. “Fucking idiot,” he mutters under his breath at his own reflection. “You can’t even say that shit to yourself, how are you gonna tell Mel? Oh, Mel, I love you so much. Can you please take this drug addict who has gotten divorced three minutes ago with two kids under seven as your boyfriend because he’d very much like to kiss you and spend the rest of his life with you if that’s not too much trouble? No worries if not, though, because best friend forever, right?” he scoffs at his own reflection who is looking perturbed and disturbed all at the same time. He barely resists the urge to punch himself in the face. “Fuck.” He drops his head against the mirror of the bathroom, willing the glass to cool him down, tugging at the stupid tie he put on as a pathetic attempt to make this dinner look more like a date.
“Um…” He jumps up at the sound — definitely a woman. Definitely… Mel. “Frank?”
“Shit,” he very nearly jumps out of his own skin. “How long have you been here?”
“You took so long, I was worried something had happened,” she says, looking like she might throw up — flushed and wide-eyed.
“How much of that did you hear?” he reiterates the question.
“Enough?” she squeaks out. “All of it?”
“Fucking hell,” he mutters, shaking his head. “That is not how I wanted you to hear it, Mel, I—”
“I love you, too,” she rushes out the words, interrupting him before he can go on.
“What?” Blood freezes in his veins.
“I love you, too,” she repeats again, “so — don’t take it back.”
Like he ever could. Like he’d ever want to. “Say it again.”
“I love you,” she repeats, “and it was a good speech.”
also just some sketches from ballet references of romeo and juliet, in my mind palace this is a rehearsal and mel is the understudy (maybe abby is the principal lol......drama) and in rehearsal they have so much chemistry the entire room is uncomfortable like guys.... hello.... guys.....
When Frank was about ten, he watched his brothers set fire to an old shed.
It was way, way back in the woods behind their house, past the creek, on god knows whose property. Henry said it was full of wasps anyway, like that made it legal or safe. Frank stood at what Dan said was a safe distance and watched the whole rotten thing collapse.
It was a fucked up thing for them to do. He cried. He never told anyone that. It was just so fast and total, and there was no getting the shed back once it started. And yet: during that first rush of flame, the sparks lifted off the roof in glowing spirals, floating up above the trees, and it only lasted a second but it was the most intensely beautiful thing Frank had ever seen.
Everyone assumed they knew what ended his marriage. He didn’t bother correcting the record, putting a finger up and um actually-ing about how he and Abby really were working through all the stuff with the stolen pills. It wouldn’t matter. He wouldn’t come out looking any better for their knowing the truth anyway.
The truth was: Mel lit everything up. She was dorky and funny and liked him despite everything. He knew the exact moment that everything caught fire, when he found her watching the fireworks and she smiled up at him. Frank felt ten years old again, heat on his face, that gorgeous and terrible spiral lifting.
I love those micro fics and I hate those micro fics because I just always want mooooore. Anyway, the most beautiful prose, like always from @craftclass
He might be a terrible person, a complete human fuck-up and yet Mel’s kindness still extends to him, like Juliet’s love: undeserving, all-encompassing.
You’ve never let me down.
He wants to swallow her words like a pill, have them take the edge off all the shit in his life, in this world. He wants to drink the look from her eyes that she gives him before she leaps into his arms, wants to tuck the way she never flinches away from him deep into the recess of his brain.
How could he ever tell Mel any of it, though? That he can't remember the last time he told Abby something important and felt understood afterwards. That even without the pills he'd been enough of a disappointment to his wife that they could barely look at each other anymore. That there'd been a moment in therapy, six months ago, when Abby had admitted to feeling ‘ninety percent resentment, ten percent affection’ for him, and he'd known then that this was always going to end up somewhere like this.
He is a human disaster and a drug addict and a terrible husband. He is a creep for thinking what he does about his dance partner. Frank Langdon has no right to say anything to Mel King.
Or: Royal Ballet principal Yolanda Garcia gets injured and Frank Langdon's Romeo needs a new Juliet. Enter Mel King, a recent transfer from Pittsburgh Ballet.
These prompts can be interpreted in any way that you see fit, these are just some basic explanations and examples to help you along the way.
Grief/Addiction
Grief is the response to the loss of something deemed important to which a bond or affection was formed. For this prompt a writer could write a story about Frank grieving his relationship with his wife and kids. A gif maker could make a gifset of times that Mel mentions the loss of her parents.
Addiction is characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in something that produces an immediate psychological reward, despite the negative consequences. For this prompt an artist could create a piece portraying the effects of Frank’s addiction on himself. You could write a story of Mel navigating an addiction of her own. You could even create an analysis of Frank’s character arc as a recovering addict.
Miscommunication/Hanahaki
Miscommunication is an instance where either the speaker is unable to provide the proper and adequate information to the hearer or the hearer misperceived and could not recognise the communication from the speaker. For this prompt a writer could write a drabble where Frank makes a comment to Mel that she misunderstands, causing her to create distance between them. A video editor could create an edit of Mel and Frank in an alternate universe where they experience miscommunication in their relationship.
Hanahaki is a fictional disease where someone begins coughing up flower petals because they have unrequited feelings for someone. The flowers can grow in the stomach, lungs, or heart. It begins with coughing up a few petals, and grows in intensity and pain until the victim is coughing up entire flowers, at which point the disease has reached its final stages. If not treated, the disease is fatal. We know there’s some fantastic artists out there that will create some gut wrenching pieces with this prompt and we’re very excited to see what everyone comes up with!
Touch Starvation/Smangst
Touch starvation is the physiological need by humans and other species for physical contact with their own species or other living beings. Its prolonged absence can have traumatic impacts on an individual's emotional, physical, and/or mental well-being. An artist could create a piece of Frank yearning for Mel’s touch. A collage maker could create a piece of all the times Mel and Frank reached for each other.
Smangst is a combination of Smut and Angst. So anything with sexual intimacy that also has an undertone of emotional pain, relationship conflict, or just anything sad.
Angst With A Happy Ending/Free Choice
We’re finishing the month by giving Mel and Frank a happy ending! This could be a hurt/comfort fic, or a gifset showing Mel and Frank always finding each other after all of the struggles of their day.
Or, if you’re not down with that you can fulfill your own angsty prompt!
please join me in having a kingdon #melpregsummer this july!! 🤰🏼🤰🏼🤰🏼
this is extremely chill, the only rule is to get mel pregnant and post with the #melpregsummer tag here or on ao3. fluffy setting-up-the-nursery or angsty affair baby, i want to see it all. au is great. canon is great. nsfw allowed and encouraged. i don't care how long it is, i don't even care if it's his baby, just have a melpreg summer!
@kingdonweek 06/27/2026 day 6: numbers | words: 16,436 | rating: G | chapters: 1/1
Five times that Mel is mistaken for Frank’s wife, and the one time that they come to an agreement.
Our consortium (@holywaterhangover, @musing-and-music, @purplebutterflyglasses, @khrogerswrites, @penguin-purple, @something-to-confess and myself @h0mespun) cordially invites you to read hints and allegations, written in response to these tumblr polls from forever ago.
“Hmpf,” Robby says, after the first run-through on Monday morning when Frank has felt like a fucking pervert for running running his hands down Mel’s soft side, over and over again, because the choreography requires it. It didn’t really help that he couldn’t sleep last night, feeling itchy and hot under the covers.
He’d tried the dancer’s version of counting sheep, blocking the ballet in his mind, going through all his steps. (His favorite for that right now is the ballroom scene where he first meets Juliet, because the blocking of the sheer number of dancers is so involved, it helps to shut up his brain.)
He was just waiting in the wings, yam-pam-pam, Prokofiev’s score playing in his mind, watching Juliet and Paris dance at the ball. (Juliet is polite, but bored. Yolanda always plays the bored part really well.)
But then, thinking of how Juliet needs to slips out of Paris' hands on the beat and turn towards Romeo, it was suddenly Mel's face that looked at him expectantly, a soft flush on her cheeks.
Yikes.
Or: Royal Ballet principal Yolanda Garcia gets injured and Frank Langdon needs a new partner. Enter Mel King, a recent transfer from Pittsburgh Ballet.
Just watched this video of an all-female referee team bossing around men at the World Cup and ascended to another plane.
Ok, but hear me out:
A Kingdon AU where Mel's one of the first female referees at the men's World Cup and Frank is a player or a referee? And she is very meticulous about her calls and doesn't take shit from the male players? And she certainly doesn't take shit from Frank.
I don't know enough about football/ soccer/ futból to write it, but someone as talented as @stemelwithme certainly could.
Just throwing it out there in the wishing well of unborn fics!
It's been a few weeks since I updated Tangerine Skies and I hate that it's been so long. I'm on a new antidepressant and finally got some ADHD meds at the ripe old age of 50, and they've done a number on me. But I am writing! Just super slowly.
here's a little snippet where Drs. Langdon and King are getting ready to take forty-eight choir students on a recruitment tour:
Mel steps out of the bus just as they walk over, carrying a clipboard. Her hair is in its usual braid, and like Frank and the yawning choir kids making their way to the bus, she's wearing black pants and a blue polo shirt with a yellow university logo. "Good morning, Dr. Langdon!" she says, far more excitedly than anyone should be at this hour of the morning. "Hello, Penny. And Tanner."
Tanner says hello, but Penny, suddenly bashful, presses her face against Frank's leg. "She's not really awake yet," Frank says. This is a lie. Penny has been wide awake since at least four am. "Abby is meeting us here to pick them up, since I didn't have time to take them to school before we have to leave."
"I want to see the bus," Tanner reminds him.
"Yeah, buddy, we will. Come on. We'll just be a minute," he adds to Mel, before letting Tanner and Penny get on the bus and look around. Penny tries to climb into the driver's seat, but Frank gathers her up just in time and deposits her into one of the empty front seats while a couple of tenors high-five Tanner (this makes him puff up a little bit, very importantly).
One of Frank's piano students, a freshman named Emma, is sitting a couple rows back from where he'd deposited Penny, and she smiles at Penny and waves. Penny waves back and tries to climb over the back of the seat to get to her. Frank catches her just before she topples over the back of the seat. "Oh, no you don't," he says, and she grunts in annoyance.
"Your kids are really cute, Dr. Langdon," Emma says. She makes a silly face at Penny, who laughs and squirms in his arms. "Are they going with us?"
"Oh, definitely not," Frank replies. "Their mom is coming in a few minutes to pick them up."
"How old are they?"
"I'm four," Penny says. She has somehow turned herself upside down in Frank's arms, and the yellow hair bow he clipped in her hair as they were headed out the door falls out onto the floor of the bus. Emma picks it up and hands it to Frank. Penny points her fingers at Emma and counts. "One… two… three…four. I'm this many."
"Tanner will be seven next month," he says, stuffing the hair bow in his pocket. Penny had her fourth birthday while Frank was in rehab the third time. It was the first time he missed a birthday—and hopefully, the last. "He's in first grade."
"Oh! I love first grade," Emma says. "For my music ed class this semester, my field experience is at an elementary school, and there's a first grade class while I'm there. They are so cute. I think I want to teach the little ones. It seems like so much fun."
"Well, luckily you have lots of time to decide," Frank says.
"Hey, Mama's here!" Tanner says, tapping on the window and pointing. Frank looks out the window to see Abby talking to Mel on the sidewalk, presumably asking where the kids are, since Mel's pointing to the bus. "Okay, monkeys, time to go," he says, turning Penny right-side-up and reaching for Tanner's hand. Tanner wants to jump off the bus steps, but Frank keeps hold of his hand. "Careful, buddy," he says. "Lots of cars pulling into the parking lot, don't want you to get hit. Hold my hand till we get to your mom, okay?"
Abby meets them at the bus. She's already dressed for work, her hair slicked back into a bun. She's wearing the gold hoops Frank gave her for her birthday after they were married. "Hey, Frank."
"Thanks for getting the kids," he says, although he said it to her like fifty times on the phone last night. "This is a huge favor, I owe you."
"Yeah, you do. I'm sure I'll find a time you can pay me back." She takes Tanner's hand. "Are their things in your car?"
"Yeah—it's right over here." He walks them over to his car, Penny babbling in his ear the whole time. "She's gonna crash hard later," he warns Abby. "She's been up since at least four."
"Great." Penny being up before the crack of dawn is not a new thing. "Okay, Tanner, can you get your backpack? Thanks, honey. I'll get Penny's."
They get the kids and their stuff into Abby's car and Frank buckles Penny into her car seat. She hates the forward-facing car seat slightly less than she hated the rear-facing one she had when she was smaller, so he only has to wrestle her into it a little bit. "Bye, peanut," he says, and gives her a kiss. Abby's buckling Tanner in, so he goes around to that side of the car to kiss his son goodbye.
I love this AU so much! Mel and Langdon are both teaching in the music department of a university. Also features: religious trauma, themes of grace and redemption, one of the most realistic depictions of what it means to be a parent and the Mel and Langdon chemistry is off. the. charts when they make music together.
tbh kinda glad pball said the quiet part out loud that he sees the mel/langdon relationship as a mirror to his relationship with taylor because that has been so obvious in how he shuts down romantic kingdon. idgaf about your real life relationship bro *taps sign*
and actually the first time i saw langdon staring at mel like his life just changed my first thought wasn’t i bet actor boy wants to cheat on his gf with actor girl but the more he says shit like this……….
I just... I don't know what has come over me. Sorry to anyone who actually knows more than surface level about the ballet world, but this baby had to be born:
It is Robby who brings up the new girl, as they’re standing around wondering what the fuck they’re gonna do now that Yo has broken her foot.
“It’s not my foot, Romeo,” Yo hisses, after Dana calls them into the studio to go over their contingency plan. “It’s a distal shaft fracture of the fifth metatarsal.”
“It doesn’t matter what it is, Yolanda,” Frank snarks. “You’re not gonna make the premiere, are you?”
There is no denying it: Yolanda's foot is now encased in a clunky walking boot instead of her brown pointe shoes.
“You need rest,” Baran tells Yolanda, putting what might have been a soothing hand on someone else’s shoulder. If it had been anyone other than the first female Principal Dancer of color the Royal Ballet has ever had, it might have worked. But Yo has a bigger temper than Abby even.
Probably why they work so well, as a duo on stage. Fire and all that.
“And I need an understudy,” Frank says, ignoring Yolanda’s death glare. “Someone who can hold a candle to Miss Prima here.”
Despite the fact that he and Yo communicate mostly in insults, he hasn't had a partner he jibes with this well since… he’d like to say Abby, but there the old adage had been true: people who like to fuck don’t dance well together.
He doesn’t know anyone who works as hard, who he has more fun with, in rehearsal, than Yolanda Garcia.
“We need someone who doesn’t have a full load already,” Dana chimes in, always practical. She is already scrolling through all the cast lists and rehearsal schedules. “Most of our other principals and first soloists are busy with other roles. Plus,” she says, eyeing Frank’s lanky form. “We need a girl tall enough. Trinity is too small and she’s already taking on more than she should, rehearsing Kitri, Samira would work, but she’s gonna be in Warsaw until middle of next week, choreographing that modern piece with Abbott.”
“What about that girl we just hired? From Pittsburgh? Melanie or something?” Robby suggests and Dana pulls a face.
“I know, I know,” Robby says. “But desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“Melissa,” Baran says helpfully. “I taught her at White Lodge. She has a lot of promise. And Pittsburgh Ballet did the McMillan Romeo and Juliet. She’s familiar with the production.”
In the massive mirror, Frank can see his own hair sticking up in protest and Yolanda’s beautiful face, pulled into a grimace. This is her fucking dream.
He knows how bitter it can make a person to have their dream ruined. It’s why he goes to couple’s counseling once a week. Sorry, babe. So sorry, for knocking you up just as you were coming to the peak of your career, all to the tune of £150 a session.
"She's not Yolanda,” Dana says, sighing. “Nobody's Yolanda. But she can get us through opening week."
Frank grimaces.
He has a distinct memory, from company class a few weeks ago, when the new company members were introduced: Santos, a brash new dancer from San Francisco Ballet who was the first Asian-American to train at the Bolshoi. Whittaker, a kid with a thick Welsh accent who everyone’s known since he was a baby at the Royal Ballet School, performing in the Nutcracker with the company every Christmas. And then Mel King. Her straw-colored hair plaited into a neat braid, pinned up into a twist. Standing at the barre in front of him, pale skinned and freckled, the sun backlighting her, outlining the long lines of her limbs in her lavender leotard. A t-shirt tied with a knot above her waist that said “April: Autism Awareness Month”. Very pink cheeks. The kind of back he knows would show a red hand-imprint because the skin was so light.
The epitome of an English rose.
Her feet, he decided, were lovely.
Her voice, though, had been a surprise: a deep timbre and a Midwestern accent.
“Hi, I’m Melissa King,” she’d said, when Robby had asked her to introduce herself, hands folded tightly in front of her. “I’m a transfer from Pittsburgh Ballet, but I went to White Lodge til I was sixteen. I’m so excited to be here!”
Kingdon ballet AU: Frank has recently been promoted to principal dancer at a major ballet company. His marriage to Abby is in shambles since she had to retire at the height of her career as a principal when she got pregnant with Tanner. Mel is the young member of the corps fresh out of ballet school who gets overlooked for all the roles. Frank gets partnered with her because they need a male dancer to teach her a role (she's the understudy, the lead gets sick). Turns out their chemistry is off the charts when they pas de deux -- he sees something in her no one else does. They could become an iconic partnership.
There's only one problem: Frank's minor back injury that keeps flaring up and that he might be abusing pain killers for.
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Melissa "Mel" King/Frank Langdon
Characters: Melissa "Mel" King, Frank Langdon, Becca King, Original Male Character(s), Abby Langdon, Tanner Langdon, Penny Langdon, Trinity Santos, Don't get too excited about the other characters, This is really all about Mel and Langdon, Yolanda Garcia, The rest of the people are the sidekicks, Jack Abbot (The Pitt)
Additional Tags: Pining, Angst, Jealous Frank Langdon, Mutual Pining, Porn with Feelings, Frank Langdon Has ADHD, Frank Langdon Needs a Hug, Divorced Frank Langdon, Frank Langdon is Down Bad, Protective Frank Langdon, POV Frank Langdon, POV Melissa "Mel" King, Exes, Medical Procedures, Medical Inaccuracies, Mentor/Protégé, Neurodiversity, Barebacking, Unprotected Sex, Frank Langdon is Down Bad for Melissa "Mel" King, Protective Melissa "Mel" King, IUD, blended families - Freeform, Breeding Kink
Summary:
All of Mel's boyfriends.
Mel would never presume that Frank Langdon is boyfriend material.
Those were the words Princess had used once—though in a very different tone, after she’d stared a little too long at the new radiologist who’d come down for a consult.
“What about me?” Frank had said, winking at her like a dog begging for a treat.
from june 22nd to june 28th of 2026, we are celebrating kingdon (mel king/frank langdon) and everything we love about them, individually and together ♡
you can participate by writing fics, making gifsets, editing videos, drawing fanart, creating playlists, posting meta,... basically anything and everything you can think of as long as it centers around mel and frank, and their relationship to each other.
every day has two prompts to inspire and motivate creators. technically, the first prompt is meant to be the visual arts prompt (for gifs, videos, fanart, etc) while the second one is meant to be the fic writing prompt. however, these are just guidelines, so if you as a fic writer want to use the first set of prompts or you as a visual artist want to use the second that's totally okay!
have fun with these prompts and be creative!
🩺 june 22nd: tropes | different first meeting
🩺 june 23rd: movies | time and space
🩺 june 24th: music | it's wedding season
🩺 june 25th: shapes | hurt and comfort
🩺 june 26th: nature | oops, accidental pregnancy
🩺 june 27th: numbers | fame and glory
🩺 june 28th: in the books (or free choice)
you can use our hashtag #kingdonweek2026 to tag your creations and we'll be reblogging them all throughout the week.
if you want to, you can also add the fics you post on ao3 for this event to the collection we have created HERE. there is no requirement to do so but it would help readers find all the amazing stories shared more easily.
if you have any questions, please look at our rules and faq page. if you still have comments or suggestions send us an ask. we'll get to it as quickly as we can.
we're so excited to share this week with you one more time and to see what everyone creates.
I can't put into words why this is so hot to me... Mel's cute little hype moment, Santos going in against her better judgment, Langdon just being a smokeshow with Jesse in the background.
