Do you have any go-to Bedward fic recs? Canon compliant is my cup of tea but I’ve found myself liking AH and AU lately, too.
Ooooh good question! I have a ton of recommendations. I will honestly just link everything I’ve read, it’s a lot so prepare yourself lol! Many of these are veryyyyyy old from like the OG twilight days, so some of the writing and ideas in the fics reflect that. Some I used to like a long time ago, and if I were to reread them I’m sure I would form a different opinion LOL! Some are also super serious, and deal with heavy themes. So make sure to read the content warnings! Some are super light hearted and fun. Also make sure to read the tags because sometimes I get half way through a fic and I realize that it’s not my cup of tea tbh. But here are all of my recs:
16. Bringing In The Light - https://archiveofourown.org/works/75461041/chapters/198826361
I also recommend anything by Windchymes, I really enjoyed The Keepsake, Distractions, Eight Days, and I am planning on reading Blood Lines soon! - https://m.fanfiction.net/u/1943566/windchymes
I’m sure im forgetting something, but thank you for the ask!!! Please DM me if you read any of them I wanna dissect them with you 🫶🏻
I don’t care for Modern AUs or All Human AUs, like I’m here for the time period or supernatural/fantasy aspects…it’s especially frustrating when the summary is so enticing 😩 but I came for regency scandals, not modern shenanigans.
…the only time I tolerate it, is when I’m on a smut hunt. I tolerate a lot when I’m horny💀
Rockstar AU All Human, TFOTA AU. Cardan is in a band on the cusp of fame, and Jude has been there from the start. They fall fast and hard, but sometimes love just isn’t enough:
Prologue:Pretty - The Weeknd
Part 1: Heart Out - The 1975
Part 2: Kiss me Slowly - Parachute
Part 3: Help me Close my Eyes - Those Dancing Days
Part 4: My Beloved - Mansionz
Part 5: Acquainted - The Weeknd
Part 6: Waiting Game - Banks
Part 7: Help I’m Alive - Metric
Part 8: Adore You - Harry Styles
Part 9: Mine - Bazzi
Part 10:Wanted U - Joji
Part 11: Floating - Alina Baraz ft. Khalid
Part 12:Fallingforyou - The 1975
Part 13: Leave the Door Open - Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic
Time for an AH AU that is both angsty as hell and a romance because that's my drug of choice. // Means time-skip/new scene, whilst -- is just a chapter break.
And I know I haven't posted many requests yet - I've been so tired, and finally dragged myself to the clinic today to get diagnosed with 'sick', so I've been sleeping more than writing. They are all on my list, and I should be feeling better in a day or two <3
It takes five surgeries and six years.
It goes by so fast.
The scars are huge and obvious, heavy lines bisecting her chest, and are so hard to cover up. She’s died on the table more than once, and her doctors cannot believe she made it this far. That every single time she went back into the OR, the chance of her waking up - let alone to good news - got smaller and smaller.
But she did it.
It cost her everything though.
Her marriage.
Her friends.
Her job.
She used to hate that she was living off money from her family. That she hated them as much as they hated her, and it was cruel and unfair that this was the only option she had left.
Now she doesn’t care. It just… isn’t important. She’s alive and she’s got somewhere to live. She’s reached a place where she sends them a Christmas card and they send her one, and they still don’t talk. They just pay her bills.
Which is why she’s sitting in the park right now, sketching, instead of at work. The last surgery (her favourite words to say) was only a couple of months ago and her doctor doesn’t want her working yet - she’s too thin, too weak, and the doctor isn’t convinced she’s mentally ready to join the real world again.
The shrink’s number is still in her purse.
She pauses in her drawing to sip her drink, and look out at the people. God, she’ll never not appreciate being able to sit in a park with a ridiculous beverage and draw again. Fresh air. Noise. People.
“Alice?”
And when she looks up, she goes cold.
—
“Shit.”
That’s her response when her doctor explains, in gentle terms, what the tests have shown them.
It’s her heart. It’s broken. Very broken, in fact.
That explains a lot.
There needs to be surgery, immediately. Hopefully that will work; if it doesn’t, they’ll need to consider a transplant (her vision swims). But should it work, it will be the beginning of several surgeries, to piece her back together into something that will allow her to live out her life in peace.
It’s a lot, but the doctor is kind and the nurse helps her fill in the paperwork for her surgery and calls her a cab. She goes straight home to read all the literature they’ve emailed her about her poor heart, about what to expect and recovery and all the little things she can’t wrap her head around.
Jasper comes home from work late, smelling of booze and she feels very insubstantial at the moment, utterly powerless.
(She hates his job. Hates how much it eats away at him - so many hours, so many cases. He took it so they could have nice things, live a nice life in a nice apartment and she misses their shit-hole student apartment because at least he smiled and laughed and was with her. Now he’s never home, and he drinks way too much, and she knows he’s self-medicating, and she also knows he’s fucking his classmate from law school, the pretty one who joined the firm last year. He doesn’t know she knows. She pretends everything is fine, even when she finds lipstick on his collar, and receipts for dates he never takes her on.)
He nods at her, focused on his phone, and she wonders for a split second, if it would be so bad to cancel the surgery. To simply call it off and let the chips fall where they may. Let her die in her sleep, or collapse in the shower, or end up in an ambulance that turns off the siren halfway to the hospital.
That thought is ugly, and she pushes it away, closes all the reading she’s been doing on her tablet and orders dinner whilst he showers.
She goes to put the laundry away when she hears him on the phone. That low voice, that teasing, suggestive voice that she remembers. Promising to text her later, murmuring words that makes her chest hurt. She puts the laundry in the guest room instead.
She just feels sad.
They’re eating in front of the TV - Thai food she doesn’t even feel like - and he finally looks at her (he looks tired and thin) when he finally asks her about her day.
And the words are on the tip of her tongue. “I saw the doctor today. It’s bad, Jas - my heart. I’m having surgery next Friday. Then we’ll see where we stand.”
Instead, she looks up and smiles at him and the words that come out of her mouth are, “I’m moving out.”
—
She tries to soften the blow, tell him that she knows about Maria, has known for a few months and was waiting for him to tell her or end it or whatever. And that she’s not trying to make trouble, but he has to make a choice and she’s going to give him the space to make that choice. No ultimatums, just space.
(What would her ultimatums be? Dump Maria. Quit the damn firm. Do something he likes. Get some help for all the prescriptions and the drinking. Stop trying to find the next high, the next dopamine hit, and just have a life.)
It’s a really dumb thing to do, now. She’s going to need support, help. And she’s not just giving up her home, she’s giving up her friends. Jasper’s sister married Emmett, whose brother married her oldest friend, Bella. She’s the odd one out. She’s estranged from her family, has been since college - her husband and her friends were her family. She has a few work friends, a few old college friends, but no one who she can ask for help after major surgery. She’s going to have to find an apartment, too, and fast.
(She’s going to have to resign at work, which is a blow. But the magazine is small, they can’t handle having her on leave for up to four months. Better she confide in Carmen that she’s got health problems, needs to take some time off, and hope and pray that Carmen’s willing to rehire her if she lives. She’s already crunched the numbers - she’s got enough in savings to cover her living expenses for the first surgery, and she’s going to have to call her father to get access to the family trust. Her father may hate her, but he’d hate the blow to his reputation - should people find out that he wasn’t looking after her, in her hour of need - more.)
Jasper’s agitated, pacing; he’d hate being caught unaware like this. Before this, they talked things out. There would have been clues, discussions. He would have gone to the doctor with her, held her hand through the testing.
He throws questions at her, like he’s trying to catch her out, like it’s some kind of riddle or trick.
No, counselling seems pointless until he makes his choice.
No, she has no intentions of calling a lawyer any time soon.
No, she doesn’t expect him to pay for this.
No, she never snooped on his phone.
Yes, she’ll be the one to tell his sister and their friends, that this is her idea.
She’ll move out this weekend, and she’ll sleep in the guest room until then.
He shoots her looks of resentment and gets himself another beer, and she goes to bed.
(She decides to rewatch their wedding video on her phone, and cries herself to sleep.)
—
The message she sends to their friends and his family the next morning is simple - she’s moving out, it was her idea, and it’s just a trial separation. She’s never talked about their problems with the others, it seemed disloyal. They were always a team, a united front. They don’t know anything.
His sister calls a split-second later, right before her meeting with Carmen, and Rosalie is furious.
“It’s coming out of nowhere!”
“What aren’t you telling us?”
“Tell me the truth, Alice.”
(She imagines the words she wishes she could say to her sister-in-law; “I’m having heart surgery in just over a week, and I do not have the energy to face my own mortality and deal with ignoring Jasper’s affair, or his addictive behaviours at the same time. I’ve been trying to ignore it for months, and it’s just more than I can deal with right now, okay? I am tired, Rosalie.”)
She doesn’t blame Rose for painting her as the villain. For a very long time, the only person Rosalie had was Jasper, and they are so protective of each other that she needs him to be the victim in all of this. Besides, Rose isn’t stupid. She’s only delayed the reckoning that Jasper will face when it all inevitably comes out and Rosalie puts the pieces together.
Hopefully gets him some help.
The rest of the day isn’t so bad. Carmen is horrified for her, and immediately promises her a job when she’s well again. She doesn’t have the heart to point out if she’s very, very lucky it’ll be months. By then, Carmen will have hired someone new that she can’t bare to get rid of, I’m so sorry Alice. But it’s nice to know she’s that valued.
Her mother responds to the email she sent her father with two lines - “I’m sorry to hear that,” and the account numbers. It’s more than she expected - she only had to imply that he’d look like a terrible person if he didn’t help her, not outright threaten him.
//
It’s just a Tuesday.
He’s meeting Peter and Charlotte for lunch, then he’s got a late meeting. The job at the university library is… a brilliant new start. One of Emmett’s best ideas ever, honestly.
There’s a woman on the bench near the bridge, sitting cross-legged with a sketchbook on her legs, and sipping on a bright green drink. It’s only when she looks up that he realises.
It’s Alice.
His Alice. Alice who moved out and disappeared. He’d seen her once since she’d moved out, at the lawyer’s office to finalise the divorce. She’d been quiet, and she’d slid her rings across the table after she’d signed the paperwork. He’d stared at her, wide-eyed, and she’d offered him a tiny smile.
“They were your mother’s, Jas,” she’d said, and that had been that.
He’d put them in his pocket, and immediately gotten completely shit-faced, and told Rosalie he’d made the biggest mistake of his life signing those papers. That she was the goddamn love of his life and he didn’t know how to exist without her. Rose had given him coffee and told him to sober up; he couldn’t force Alice to stay married to him, and it wasn’t his fault she left.
Except it was, and everyone learnt that two months later when he introduced them to Maria and Maria made a few comments and Rosalie had put it all together at the table, her rage building to something enormous and obvious when she realised.
“I owe Alice the most enormous fucking apology. There isn’t a bunch of flowers big enough that I can send her,” she had spat at him afterwards. “You were having an affair?”
He’d gotten angry (too much to drink, again), and they’d stormed off and not spoken for a week. And then Rose had called, demanding Alice’s new number, because her phone had been shut off. Demanded an address to apologise to her friend.
But he didn’t have any of that information. Even on the divorce paperwork, all her details redirected to her lawyer’s office. And that had made things worse, and he’d snapped at Rosalie because of the rising feeling of dread that Alice could vanish in such a way. That she could just cease to exist in his world so easily.
And now she was here.
He’s walking towards her before he realises, and calls out her name.
She jumps when she hears her name, and looks up and she’s still beautiful, but so thin - she has to be smaller than she was back in high school. She’s positively gaunt.
“Jasper!” she looks surprised and straightens up, and it’s then that he sees the scar peeking out from the top of her dress, running from the very base of her throat downwards. It’s still pink and quite new, and that makes him want to grab her and demand to know what happened to her.
But she doesn’t owe him that. She doesn’t owe him anything. He’ll consider himself lucky if she doesn’t throw her drink in his face.
“It’s good to see you,” he says, standing over her. She’s wearing a black sundress that’s a size too big, and enormous sunglasses. “I mean, it’s been a long time.”
“It has. How are you?”
The question is innocuous. Except it’s been six years, and he’s been sober for more than two, and single for almost five, and she closed down all her social media when she left, so it’s not like she’s been following what’s been happening. He sold the apartment and the stupid car, and quit that terrible job, and …
And she’s sitting here, emaciated and with a fresh scar, and he doesn’t know where she lives or what she’s doing or anything. She was his very best and closest friend, the love of his life, and he knows nothing.
Well.
He knows she’s too damn thin, and that she flirted with an eating disorder back in high school but managed to bring herself back from the brink. She’s definitely thinner now.
He knows how she used to drink her coffee - the biggest and strongest coffee over ice with vanilla cream, a cocktail of caffeine and sugar that she claimed kept her going. Not whatever green shit she’s sipping - she used to mock those trendy drinks.
He knows she’s not as relieved to see him as he is to see her.
“I’m… better,” he says honestly. “Can I sit?”
She nods and moves her bag, and he sits down next to her, careful to keep a polite distance.
//
She’s supposed to meet Jasper at the park, and they’re going to a movie.
She’s surprised to find him playing basketball with Emmett, but waves and takes a seat
Jasper is laughing as he peels off his shirt and she’s glad she’s got her sunglasses on because she’s turning red.
He’s gained muscle since she last saw him shirtless, and it’s a very good look for him.
So are the tattoos that wrap around his torso and down one arm. He’d always talked about getting one, before, but then he’d joined the corporate world and dismissed the idea. She wishes she’d bullied him into it now, because it suits him way too much, and her mind is wandering back to before the divorce, before her heart trouble, before when they were happy, and mentally envisaging him with tattoos, and ugh, she’s in so much trouble now.
(Shit. What a time for her sex drive to return. It hadn’t been an option or an interest for so long, and now she’s here, picturing her ex husband hovering over her with that grin that always meant she was going to have a really good time, her fingers tracing the lines of ink on his torso as he gives her his very best and shit, shit, shit. They’ve had this talk. She’s doesn’t want to go back to that place. She can’t. The only thing that she’s ready and willing to give is her friendship. And no matter how good he looks, and how good she knows he is, it won’t change her mind.
It’s that time again - another Secret Springfairy writing event for the @rtwritingcommunity <3
Summary: Young Prince Gavin is cursed. He's bound to a star, a literal star, and in order to free him, the Jeremy, the Court Mage Apprentice, has to find a way to keep a star from falling. When its only you between the universe and the death of the person you love the most, drastic measures start to look appealing...
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31002023
‘Mommy, can you tell me a story?’
Fiona laughs and sits down at the edge of the bed, pulling the blanket up closer around her daughter’s chest. Every night, the girl asked for a story and every night she had to oblige. Lindsay meets her eyes from the doorway, their own dancing in mirth. There was one story that their daughter would love more than anything.... the story about the mythical King and his Mage. The story of the time they wrangled the stars and won their place in story and song.
Closing her eyes for a moment to remember, she sits back, takes a breath, and...
The people of Achievement City never have seen the Star Prince. Born after a birth that had snatched away the beloved Queen, the Prince was too weak to be announced properly to his people. They had hidden him away at the top of the tallest tower to keep him from danger. At least, that’s what the King had said. The Prince was too weak to come out. He was alive. But only that.
Only that.
The townspeople knew better to question their King, but there were rumors. Of course, there were always rumors. They say that the Prince was kept in the tallest tower because he was cursed. Because he shouldn’t have been born. Because the King had given everything - even the life of his Queen - to have a son. An heir. Even a sickly heir was better than nothing. Even a sickly heir meant succession, peace. For now, at least.
There were whispers along the people that the Prince, with his curse, was given Demon powers. That he gleamed when people saw him. Servants told each other that the Prince glowed, that he shimmered with what could be sunlight but was too silver, too pale. It’s said you can’t spend more than a few minutes with him without being dazzled by his iridescence, like he had actually swallowed a star and it burned within him, dazzling all who saw him in a dangerous light that revealed your coldest secrets.
Here, Fiona can only shake her head as her daughter’s eyes grow round. Lindsay chuckles, sitting next to her and rubbing Fiona’s back as she continues her tale.
See, she explains, the Prince was cursed like people had said. On the night of his birth, the Queen was dying. Desperate, the King had turned to his Mage for help, who had summoned a demon to make a bargain. A being who dealt in tricks as much as assistance; who would not offer help freely. They saved the baby but not the mother. One life for another. She gave her life freely for her son, but there was a catch none of them expected.
Using its magicks, the demon pulled a star from the sky, feeding it to the Prince, the youngling who would soon be named Gavin. The Prince had swallowed the shining thing, a bead of glowing white light, and never again would stop shimmering. His energies would be different than the world around him. During the day, he would be listless. Lethargic. Cut off from his source. During the night, he would shine and shimmer, full of energy. Ready for dancing and singing and so much life. Or all the life he could have, hidden away from the world.
And on the night of his 30th birthday, unless a proper replacement could be manifested, the Prince would die as a meteor shower would drive his star from the sky. Terrified of the Bargain he had made, the King banishes his son to the tallest tower. Keeping him there to keep him close to the sky, the stars. His son’s ever-beating heart tied to something so unfathomable.
Her daughter gasps. Fiona soothes her. Because this was not a scary tale or a sad story! The Prince was not alone. He had a companion in the castle: the Court Mages’ Apprentice - young Jeremy Dooley.
“Have you thought of anything yet?” Gavin asks as he moves his piece across the gaming board, frowning more at the conversation than the easy way Jeremy snatches his piece. The apprentice sighs back, scratching their chin. “No. Not unless you know a way to stop an astrological event. But we’ll figure it out, Gav, you know we will.”
Gavin’s shine flashes for a moment as he grows more agitated. “You know the curse. I’m fucking 29 years old, I’ve never seen outside during the day, never really talked to my people - I’m stuck in here I die in less than six months unless... “
“Don’t say that,” Jeremy snaps back. “I know, Gav, and we’re working on it. Demon deals are complicated. This is the boundaries of life and death - its not so easily tinkered with. If you know how to create a star to keep you from becoming one, I’d really love to hear your input.”
Gavin frowns. There’s a beat. One and then two, before he sighs. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I’m just...”
“Scared? Frustrated? Angry? Join the club.” Jeremy hefts a sigh. “I know you’re the one that’s dying, but trust me, its no walk in the park not being able to help your friend, either.”
There’s a pause and then Gavin shoves the game board away, climbing over the table. Jeremy has to shield their eyes, despite being enchanted to be able to withstand the shimmer and shine of the skin of their Prince. But Gavin doesn’t let that stop him, brushing his lips across the other’s. “I love you,” he says quietly. “I know you’re going to think of something. You’re the smartest person I know.”
A single tear rolls down Jeremy’s face that Gavin brushes off with a silvery fingertip. “What if I...”
“Then I’ll die, knowing I have the love of one of the strongest magicians in Achievement City,” Gavin shrugs. “Now shut up about it and lets start a new game. There’s only an hour or two left before sunrise and I want to kick your *ass*.”
There it was, Fiona explains. For the Court Mages’ Apprentice was in love with the Prince and cursed in their own way with an impossible task. They were to figure out how to stop the star from falling from the sky and save Gavin’s life.
They lay next to each other on the tower top. Here, they were as high up as any manmade point in the whole city. If Gavin raises his hand, it was as if he could brush the very stars that gave him life. Jeremy sits next to him, studying the constellations as if they could give them information.
“Maybe we could ask the Gods,” they suggest quietly and just has to deal with Gavin’s soft chuckling. “You know that’s not going to work. If the Gods had any desire to save the life of the human Prince, wouldn’t they have done it by now?”
Jeremy just sighs, rubbing their thumb over Gavin’s knuckles. “I don’t know. I’m just thinking.”
“All you ever do is think,” Gavin sighs back, sitting up as he shimmers against the backlight of the beautiful starry sky. For a moment, Jeremy loses their words. Gavin really does look every inch of the creature of magic that he had been cursed to become. His life tied to the stars that glimmer behind him. “We need to try something. We have less than six months. You know Dad’s already given up on me..”
“That’s not true,” Jeremy shoots back, “and you know it. The King loves you. He’s the one who is funding my Master’s research to save you. He just...”
“It’s easier to lose someone you barely know,” Gavin says bitterly. “I know.” He looks down over his city, his lands, a place he owns by name only but had never even seen. “Would it be so bad if I could be among them?”
“You know the King just wants to keep you safe,” Jeremy murmurs, hand brushing down Gavin’s spine. Gavin grumbles. “It’s a demon that did this, yeah? A life for a life, it took my Mum’s. But because she was 30, I’ll die when I’m 30. Unless we keep the star up there, or someone else dies and I get their years too.”
Jeremy looks a bit stricken. “Gambling with someone elses’ life is dangerous. My Master told your dad that much. We can’t sacrifice someone to save you, we don’t know if that would even work...”
“I’m not asking someone to give their life for me!” Gavin shoots back. “But if I could talk to the demon, maybe it would have the answer, maybe...”
Jeremy wraps his arms around him. “Maybe.” They kiss his temple, thrilling at the taste of magic under their lips as Gavin sparkles with it. But they start to think...
“Aren’t demons dangerous?” her daughter interrupts. Fiona chuckles a bit. “Yes, darling. But that doesn’t stop the magic apprentice from scheming. From reading late into the day when he’s supposed to be sleeping, working, or planning. From figuring out how to summon not only a demon, but the very demon that cursed Gavin. A figure named Lucae, a mysterious demon of the stars, a being who gave and took power as They deemed fit.
The candles shimmer in the air as Jeremy stares at the summoning circle. They had said the magic words, done the incantation. If they are right, the demon would be trapped within the circle and forced to answer a few questions.
If they were wrong... Jeremy doesn’t let themselves dwell on what would happen if they were wrong.
There’s a few tense heartbeats before a flash of light and energy that almost blinds Jeremy, throwing them backwards as they raise their arm to cower from the brilliance of the light. When it fades and they are able to blink the spots from their vision, a tall humanoid figure stands there. It has a tail and black eyes and jet black hair. Not to mention a brilliant smile full of cunning and arrogance. “Hello, Mr Dooley. This was brave. Or foolhardy.”
“I’m not planning on trapping you here,” Jeremy says quietly, hands clenching by their sides. “I’m just here to ask you one question. A question you’ve been likely asked before. I don’t want any bullshit, just give it to me straight, ok?”
“I’m a demon, Dooley,” Lucae grins wickedly. “I know what you’re going to ask and I know you won’t like the answer. Are you sure you want to ask it?”
Jeremy just spits at him. “Shut up. How do I reverse your fucking spell on my Prince?”
Lucae is quiet for a long moment and sighs, sitting crosslegged and hovering above the summoning circle in a wickedly innocent display of incredible power. He makes a show of thinking for a long moment despite the fact that both know he is fucking with Jeremy. “You know the answer to this,” he says finally. “I’m giving you one more chance, child. You are a human. You have much to live for.” He sounds almost... regretful.
Maybe it’s stupid. Maybe it would get him killed. But they both know they don’t have much time left anyways. Jeremy throws a candlestick at the demon’s head and they both wince as it passes through the demon like smoke.
Lucae sighs. “Such a temper. You want to save the Prince I cursed? Climb to the top of Mount Amber on the night of the Prince’s thirtieth birthday. Then wish on a star at the stroke of midnight. You can die for him. That’s the only way to save him. My magic is foolproof, you know. I gave him the life of his mother, who only had 30 years to give.”
Jeremy knew what the answer was going to be. As soon as the demon says it, with a coy little grin, and Jeremy’s veins grow cold as ice, they knew that they always knew the answer. The only way to continue Gavin’s half-life is to give another and give him a few more years. Jeremy didn’t have many - a measly twenty-eight to Gavin’s thirty. But it was... something. It would get him to 58. That’s twenty-eight more years to solve the curse.
It would buy him time. Time to run the Kingdom. Time to be the King Jeremy always knew Gavin could be.
With their heart in their throat and ice in their veins, Jeremy waves his hand aggressively and the candles go out at once. Without their light, the spell is broken and the demon dissipates with a soft laugh.
I told you you wouldn’t like the answer...
Fiona pauses in her story to see her daughter with tears running down her face. “J-rimmy can’t die!” she whines. “That’s not a nice story, Mama.” Fiona is about to respond, but before she can, Lindsay pulls their daughter onto their lap and kisses her head. “Let Mommy finish the tale,” they say soothingly.
Jeremy and Gavin don’t see each other much in the next few months. Jeremy pours themselves into their work and Gavin just grows increasingly more anxious. He’s visited by his Father, the King, and some other advisors. Talking into the night about plans. Action. Trying to stop a curse everyone knows is inevitable.
But the hollowness remains in the back of everyone’s minds. The answer is obvious. They all know what has to happen, no one just wants to say it out loud. Someone has to give their life for Gavin. But no one except the little Court Mage Apprentice knows how.
It’s late in the day, a week before Jeremy knows they have to take their fateful climb up Mount Amber, that they know they have to tell Gavin. But they can’t tell Gavin the truth. No chance in hell - Gavin would balk and panic before they could even get through the sentence. And no amount of pity or shame or grief would stop Jeremy from doing what needs to be done.
He had made up his mind the night after talking to Lucae that he would do it. What was his life compared to that of a Prince? It was his duty, really, to give his life over for his Prince. And besides...
It’s what you did for the one you love the most.
Jeremy meets Gavin in his tower after a week of avoiding each other and before they could open their mouth to say something, Gavin is slamming the door shut and dragging Jeremy into a breathless kiss. Jeremy melts against his lips and for a moment they just cling to each other, Gavin’s silvery radiance cascading around them, cool like a summer’s breeze on their arms.
When they break apart, Jeremy notices Gavin is crying. He’s coming up at the end of his borrowed time, the world taking back what was Theirs. Jeremy feels whatever conviction was inside of them harden. They wouldn’t watch Gavin die. And besides - Gavin would be heartbroken, but he’d get over their death. Eventually. Better living to grieve than dying, anyways.
“What’s the book?” Gavin says hesitantly, gesturing to the tome Jeremy had in their arms. “A solution?”
Jeremy sighs and forces themselves to affix a small smile to their face. “I - I think so. You are made of starlight, right? I was thinking if - on the night it is s-supposed to happen - if we are at the top of Mount Amber. M...maybe we can Wish on a star. They say Wishing Magic is the most powerful during a meteor event. Maybe...”
Gavin scoffs. He doesn’t want to be rude, but... “You’re hinging my life on wishing upon a fucking star?”
No, Jeremy thinks. I just need you at the top of that mountain. “It’s foolish, I know, but...” A broken sob rips from their mouth without meaning to, sinking down to sit on Gavin’s plush bed. “I’m s-sorry, I ...” They hiccup. “I’m sorry.”
“J...,” Gavin says immediately, moving over to draw them against his chest. “You have better plans than the entire rest of this castle. I love you. If you think it’ll work, I’m willing to try.”
“And if it doesn’t...?” Jeremy whispers.
Gavin shrugs and when Jeremy looks up to meet his eyes, they can see the human green shot through with liquid silver tears. “Then I’ll die under the stars with the person I love most in the world.”
Jeremy can’t stop themselves from sobbing then.
Their daughter is breathless now. Just watching Fiona with wide eyes, unable to say another word. Riveted in the story, her own tiny tears on her face, holding the blanket tight. She knows stories, know they always get worse before they get better, but this... this better have a happy ending! It was a bedtime story, for goodness sakes!
The day they leave, the atmosphere is ... somber. It had taken the King some convincing, but at this point, they were entirely at a loss. Gavin had spent the last two days being poked, prodded, fed potions, underwent rituals, nothing. Lucae had not come when he was summoned. Apparently such a demon did not have to answer if he didn’t want to. Frankly, the King didn’t want to see the demon that had so cursed his family.
A few hours before the supposed end, the castle was in preemptive mourning. Jeremy had given the King a brief fake idea of what they were about to do. No talk of their own death. They had spent the night before saying a brief goodbye to the few people they had a connection with. The only person that mattered in the end was Gavin, and they didn’t have to say goodbye to him. Not just yet, anyways.
They had started climbing during the day, but Gavin lagged. His energy being connected to the stars and the night, he found it hard to exert himself during the day. They don’t say anything. Jeremy doesn’t dare ask Gavin what he’s thinking about. Likely not much different than what Jeremy is thinking about. Both expect to meet the gallows at the top of this mountain.
After a few breaks, night slowly descends around them and Gavin can walk a bit faster. They break the summit at 11pm. One hour before the meteor shower that will drive their star from the sky and kill the Prince in front of him. Gavin looks ...tired. Resigned. But he never lets go of their hand.
Never let it be said he would go into the dark without an anchor to the light.
They sit for a while. Silent, feet dangling off the edge of the highest cliff, and watch the world slowly settle into the warmth of night. Neither speak. What is there to say? When Gavin starts crying incandescent tears, Jeremy is there to kiss them away. They hold each other as the sky illuminates with the brilliance of a thousand - million - glistening points of light. They are at the highest point possible and Gavin glows brighter than all of them, a beacon of magic power that can be seen miles away.
When the first shooting star erupts across the sky, Gavin winces. As more start to fall, he shudders, but Jeremy is faster. They yank Gavin up to his feet.
“I lied,” they say sharply, staring right at Gavin. The man doesn’t have a moment to respond before Jeremy breathes “Forgive me,” and kisses him viciously.
Gavin is still reeling when Jeremy backs away and stares up to the falling brilliance of the stars above their head. “LUCAE!” he hollers. “I did everything you asked, you fucking bastard! And now I WISH TO willingly give my life for ...”
“NO!” Gavin shouts, leaping forward, tackling Jeremy bodily down to the stone, knocking the wind out of both of them. Jeremy wheezes, gasping, but it’s too late. “I wish to willingly give my life for Gavin.”
“Jeremy!” Gavin shrieks as the wind unnaturally picks up around them. The stars flash brighter, almost blinding as it feels like they’re falling and hitting the ground, shattering into bright incandescence that shimmers around them. Gavin himself is still glowing, which means he’s still *here*, still alive, and Jeremy...
Jeremy coughs a few times. Blood dribbles out of their nose, likely from the impact of Gavin tackling them down to the stone of the mountaintop. Gavin can’t bring himself to care as he watches instead a beautiful silver shimmer erupt from Jeremy’s chest that seems to elevate, lifting into the sky. As if it was about to become a star. Like he had been told his mother’s did, the star that gives him life on earth.
Wishing Magic. The very magic that is older than demons, older than the very earth under their feet. The magic that stitched the universe together, the magic of will and want, the magic of the very fabric of space and time.
So... Gavin wishes.
Through the shrieking of the wind around him, the exhaustion that pulled on every edge of his bones, Gavin breathes in the Wishing Magic around him and makes his own wish.
“I WISH FOR US!”
With fingers that glow like quicksilver against the tan skin of his people, Gavin grabs the white orb that glows above Jeremy’s chest and forces it back down against Jeremy’s chest. He holds it against the skin as the brilliance escapes from his fingers, begging and pleading for it to go back inside Jeremy’s rapidly cooling skin. His tears, shimmering and bright, fall on the back of his hands.
For a few breathless moments, it seems hopeless, Jeremy’s body rejecting the orb that strains against Gavin’s fingers to go into the sky. But Gavin is not a man.
In this moment, Gavin is a star himself.
“I wish for us,” he repeats firmly, leaning down to kiss Jeremy with all his might, and pushes with every ounce of magic and starlight that drip through his veins.
And it all goes brilliant white before flickering into the blackest black.
Fiona is cut off by their daughter shrieking. She climbs out from under the blankets and off of Lindsay’s lap, moving over to tug on Fiona’s shirt. “No! No~! They can’t be dead, you can’t... bad story, bad!” She tries to punch with little fists, but laughing, Fiona grabs them and kisses the pudgy little hands.
“Hush,” she scolds. “Do you really think my story will have such an unhappy ending? This is a bedtime story, after all.”
When Jeremy opens their eyes, they first see a bright blue that focuses into a sky, filled with puffy white clouds. They let out a breathless little cough, their ribcage feeling like something had been pounding on it. Like that one time they had choked on a cherry pit and needed someone to give them the Hemlich and CPR.
But this time, its ... Gavin.
Except, it doesn’t look like Gavin. His brown hair is streaked through with silver. The tips of his fingers on both hands sparkle bright silver as if he had dipped them in a vat of molten metal. But he doesn’t shimmer. He doesn’t glow. He looks... normal.
Then Jeremy realizes what day it is. And what was supposed to happen. They stagger backwards. They’re alive, which means... “Gavin!” They shake the other man frantically, desperately, tears growing in their eyes, but...
“....ughsjfh.”
“Gavin?”
On the day after his thirtieth birthday, their cursed prince opens his eyes. Not green, not silver, but a combination of both, their star-cursed prince breathes his first free breath.
His second is captured by Jeremy’s lips, holding him close as they cling to each other. Free to live and love together to the end of their days.
Fiona grins at her daughter, who releases her shirt and slumps back, pouting a bit. “I like the one about the horse princess better,” she says with a shrug and climbs under the blankets. “But this one is good too.”
Lindsay bursts into laughter as Fiona throws up her hands. “Not everyone loves a happy ending,” she smirks, kissing her head. They say goodnight to their daughter and leave the small bedroom, looking out the window to the castle on the hill - where the Star King and his Consort still reign to this day.
the ah phasmaphobia/ghost hunting au really does live in my head rent free
there’s the bruh/boo crew: seasoned professionals, good at their job, they’ve got the best equipment and mange to make it through their haunts with minor incident. They present themselves as professionally as they can even though they’re still goofing off while on their hunts
then there’s jeremy and matt who are essentially operating out of jeremy’s van. jeremy knows what he’s doing but he’s just one guy and needs help. so he puts a “help wanted” ad out on craigslist or something looking for a tech assistant. matt answers it and accidentally becomes a ghost hunter. the two of them pop sanity pills like fuckin’ candy
and then there’s gavin. michael used to be his partner, but on a hunt gone wrong, he was killed by a demon or something. but michael sticks around, haunting his partner and helping out on hunts whenever he can in his ghostly form.
all three groups are directly competing against each other and are constantly throwing (friendly teasing) shade at each other on social media
