Stanley Cup champion Dean Winchester is the MVP of the NHL. Castiel Novak is the highest-ranking figure skater, and therefore the favourite for the upcoming Olympics.
When they finally meet at a talk show, the network announces a new show: for the next two months, Dean and Castiel are supposed to change roles, or at least, teach each other their discipline — for the whole world to see.
Yet, they have a secret. Years ago, they were best friends until fate pulled them apart.
Neither of them has forgotten their time together. Their secret training sessions for hockey and figure skating stuck with them — so much so that they enhanced their proficiency in the other’s discipline as well.
Unbeknownst to each other, they have built up secret identities to compete at pro level, whenever their schedules allow it.
It doesn’t help that between all the secrets, the toxic masculinity of the hockey world, and excessive training hours, they’re both hopelessly in love with their lost childhood best friend.
All while a camera team is going to document their lives.
Keep reading for a sneak preview!
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and anyone in between. Tonight, you’re the witnesses of a clash of giants. Believe it not, these two sport idols have never met before, even though every kid in this country knows their names.
“They want to be like them. They want to be them. Please, welcome with me Olympic medallist Castiel Novak, and Stanley Cup champion Dean Winchester.”
The audience exploded in cheers, and Dean gulped.
This was it. The day he had dreamt of for years. He would finally meet him.
Again.
After all those years.
Cas probably didn’t even remember him. He probably…
The air around him shifted. Someone had stepped next to him.
When Dean glanced over, the noises of the crowd vanished. The whole world disappeared in a haze because there he was. Dark. Handsome. And even more perfect than he looked on screen.
For a moment, Dean forwent breathing altogether, until someone pushed him forward. Blinded by lights, he stumbled into the studio with Cas by his side.
There were so many things he needed to say, so many things he wanted to tell him. But there wasn’t enough time.
Besides, this wasn’t the right place.
Dean watched as the host shook his hand, then Cas’. He totally blanked on the gal’s name, and before being even able to think straight again, Dean was sitting right next to his best friend.
Well, former best friend, but whatever.
Slowly, the reality of it all sank in. The adrenaline in Dean’s system went down, and the dizziness subsided. People who watched him on the ice probably would have thought that he was used to situations of high stress. Yet, no game had ever come close to his moment.
Those were just games, but this?
This was his life!
When he finally glanced over, there he was: Cas.
As if all those years had never happened, amusement twinkled in Cas’ eyes, and then he said the words that soothed Dean’s battered heart.
“Hello, Dean.”
All a show has to do is show me a closeted character relaxing their defenses for a second before exploding in anger at the nearest target because they almost betrayed themselves and I am lost for them forever.
Monilka is a proud pansexual. Yuri is bisexual, though she is most likely still in the closet. Natsuki and Sayori are demiromantic bisexuals.
Bonus:
MC is straight and oblivious to any of their orientations. Sayori never came out to him due to fear of him hating her. Yuri is still somewhat in the closet. Monika only love the player, not MC. Natsuki just doesn’t think its any of his business.
Hi I'm wondering how I should write a trans boy who's not yet out to his two friends. The story is from the perspective of them all three and the two others use his deadname and old pronouns before they know that he's trans. Should I scratch that and have him being open about his gender or how should I go about it?
Also answered:
Writing a closeted character
I would say you should ask yourself if there is a good reason for this. I know representing closeted characters is an important thing to do, but I think there’s a lot of delicacy in that and if you are using alternating first person perspective, what you are describing isn’t really compatible with that. If you can switch to omniscient perspective, or maybe third person in general, and find a way to not misgender the character (unless it is in dialogue and acknowledged somehow within the writing that this is not the character’s identity) then I would say it’s okay to write your trans character as closeted.
There’s also nothing wrong with making him open if that’s easier for you to write. But I would say this mostly boils down to perspective, and whether you are trans or not as well.
I think it would be okay for a trans writer to write a character as being misgendered in the narration, *if*
it is corrected at some point when the main narration perspective character knows better (first person and maybe second person perspective this applies to, I’d say any version of third person would get really sketchy and I’d advise against it, with the caveat that MAYBE it could work in some way, but I can’t think of any)
it is ‘spoiled’ or otherwise very transparent to people who have not read the story what the appropriate way to gender the character is
it needs to be very clear even for people who just start reading it, how the reader is supposed to gender the character
Anyone else want a very vaguely Call Me by Your Name inspired Bucky/Tony summer romance story? I know you do, so here we go.
Non-powered AU, set sometime in the mid-80s.
The Starks have spent their summers in the house Maria inherited from her parents for as long as Tony can remember. It was great when Tony was younger; lots of other kids who close by to play with, woods and lakes and rivers and beaches to explore, just weeks of being outside and having fun.
Tony’s 18 now, though, has finished college, and spending months cooped up in the Italian countryside with his parents—especially Howard—with nothing much to do isn’t exactly his idea of a good time. But Maria eventually manages to convince him, and so they pack up their things in Manhattan, and head to Italy.
For the first few weeks, Tony is mostly bored out of his mind. Some of his childhood friends are still around, and they all do hang out—going skinny dipping in the lake, sneaking out to the only disco in the area, drinking and smoking by the river—but Tony misses his lab, his ‘bots, the freedom to do whatever he wants and go wherever he wants, whenever he wants that he usually has in New York.
But then, a month or so into the summer, Howard announces that a grad student he’s been teaching last year (as a guest lecturer or something) will come to stay with them for a while. Tony doesn’t care, initially, because whenever Howard teaches a class it’s business related, and Tony could not give less of a shit about any of that.
He quickly changes his mind when James arrives, though. He doesn’t seem like the usual business student—he has long hair, drives a badass car, is missing an arm, and is absolutely gorgeous—and Tony is immediately intrigued.
(More after the break!)
Howard and Bucky, as he’s told everyone to call him, spend huge parts of every day working on Bucky’s dissertation together. Howard tends to get annoyed when Tony hangs around his study, but Bucky doesn’t seem to mind; in fact, he’s usually hiding grins whenever Tony bugs Howard to the point that Howard starts swearing at him.
Which does serve a purpose, because at that point, Howard usually calls it a day, and Tony gets Bucky to himself for the rest of the day. Bucky doesn’t talk about himself much, but Tony doesn’t care, because Bucky’s great. He isn’t a huge talker—all Tony really knows is that he used to be a soldier, and got hurt in combat—but he always listens to Tony, no matter what Tony’s rambling on about. They go swimming together, Bucky teaches Tony all kinds of scout and survival tricks, Tony plays the piano for Bucky, Bucky lets Tony read through his dissertation, and Tony lets him look at his notebooks full of code and ideas in return.
Needless to say, Tony is crushing hard. At first, he thinks it’s completely unrequited, because why wouldn’t it be? Bucky is in his twenties, is teaching while finishing his studies, has an established life in Brooklyn. And Tony has no idea what he’s going to be doing when he gets back home after the summer—he’s not going to work for Howard, fuck that—still lives with his parents, and is just not in the same league as Bucky, at all.
But then, sometimes, when Tony’s sneaking a glance at Bucky, Bucky is already looking at him, and blushes and quickly averts his eyes when Tony catches him. He’s very tactile and easily affectionate with everyone, but Tony thinks maybe more so with him than others. He just can’t tell for sure, and he’s not about to make a move, and possibly get punched in the face for it, unless he’s absolutely, 100% certain.
That doesn’t keep him from being jealous when Bucky tags along to the disco, and spends the whole evening dancing with one of the local girls, though. At first, Tony tries to shrug it off, dances with some of his friends, but it makes his stomach twist to watch Bucky and the girl. He decides to go back early, and is surprised when Bucky suddenly comes running after him.
He’s worried, and Tony tries to reassure him that he’s fine, but Bucky doesn’t believe it. Tony gets pissed when Bucky won’t let it go, and ends up blurting out that he really fucking likes Bucky, and that he knows Bucky isn’t like that, doesn’t feel like that, but that it still sucks to see him get all flirty with some random girl.
What he doesn’t expect is for Bucky to kiss him. They kiss until they’re both breathless, pressed together against a tree under the stars, holding each other so tightly it actually hurts a little. Bucky confesses that he’s not interested in women, that he likes Tony, but wasn’t sure Tony felt the same, didn’t want to pressure him, or make him uncomfortable.
The remaining week until Bucky heads back to New York is pure bliss. Whenever Bucky isn’t busy working, he’s with Tony. Every night, Tony crawls into Bucky’s bed, kissing and touching and holding him, falling in love more and more each day.
But, of course, Bucky has to head home eventually. Tony considers telling him that he’s in love with him, asking to stay in touch—they live only a subway ride apart, after all—but he chickens out. And Bucky doesn’t say anything, either. Which tells Tony that what they had wasn’t as serious for him as it was for Tony.
For the rest of the summer after Bucky’s left, Tony mopes. Everyone notices, even if they don’t know the reason; Jarvis does his best to keep Tony as busy as possible with chores in an attempt to distract him, while Ana practically stuffs him with cookies and other treats. Maria pulls him down to sit with her whenever Tony walks by, tucking him close, and reading out loud to him from whatever book she has with her that day.
Even Howard seems to be aware that something’s wrong, and he and Tony fight less than usual. One day, while Tony’s lying listlessly on the couch in Howard’s study, Howard goes as far as sitting down with him, and running his fingers through Tony’s hair. He doesn’t look at Tony when he tells him that losing first loves is always difficult, but that it will get better. Tony’s shocked that Howard even noticed, and that he doesn’t seem to be entirely disapproving. He ends up crying in Howard’s lap, but does feel a little bit better afterwards.
Back in New York in the fall, Tony decides to go back to school. Howard would have rather had him join the family business, but is supportive of higher education in general, so that goes about as well as could be expected. Tony’s still sad about Bucky—something he thinks won’t go away for a long, long while—but he’s coping, and moving on with his life.
Which is, of course, when sees Bucky again. Before he can decide if he should run away or not, Bucky spots him. They’ve lost all the easy camradie they’ve had in the summer, and their conversation is extremely stilted and awkward. They make small talk for a bit, but then Bucky asks how Tony’s been since he left, and Tony snaps. Because how does Bucky think he’s been? Fucking miserable, that’s how, because his first big love broke his heart and left, most likely never to be seen again.
Bucky looks confused. He asks if Tony didn’t find the shirt he’d left for him, which, in turn, confuses Tony. Bucky’s staring at the floor, not meeting Tony’s eyes, while he explains that he didn’t know how much he could expect from Tony, how serious their relationship had been for Tony. So he’d left his shirt, as a hint for Tony that he’d like to stay in contact, and had figured Tony was rejecting him when Tony had never written or called.
They both realise that they’re being dumb, and that everything has been a huge misunderstanding. Bucky takes Tony back to his apartment, and they stay in bed for hours.
When Tony calls his parents to say that he’s met a friend and won’t be home tonight, Howard just tells him to bring Bucky for dinner soon before hanging up.
Hello darling, sorry to bother, do you have any realistic fic where like it's Harry and Louis having to hide their relationship during concerts and promo and etc? Maybe with a bit of melancholy and sadness... Thank you very much, and thank you for this page that is absolutely fantastic and very useful! 😘😘
Hello lovely! Sorry I couldn’t find too many:
When we were younger by luinlote:
Summary: In where you can see into Harry and Louis’ life together through the years through the eyes of others and eventually their own, as their life keeps spinning madly around them.
Word count: 53,243
And Don’t You Wanna Free Us by idontknowaonedirection:
Summary: or the one where Louis gives Harry an ultimatum
Word count: 7,614
It Goes, It’s Golden by lucythegoosey:
Summary: Canon Compliant AU in which Harry and Louis broke under the strain of it all and now, years on, there’s a chance to put all the pieces back together. Set in early April 2015 all the way through to October. Written in Harry and Louis’ perspectives, alternating every chapter.
Word count: 150,991
Moving On… by daniellavictoria:
Summary: *Harry’s coming out and Louis has to decide if he’s willing to watch the one person he can’t live without move on with someone else.
Word count: 91,182
Stop the Presses by Fuzzypurplestuff:
Summary: Harry gets injured on stage. This is the aftermath.
Word count: 11,741
it was there, i saw it in your eyes by orphan_account:
Summary: (Or, the life of a famous boy bander hiding a secret. Including a dash of sexuality crisis, a pinch of contractual obligations, and a heavy dose of Rainbow Bondage Bears.)
Love, Sidney was a show starring Tony Randall and Swoozie Kurtz, with Randall playing a gay man, Sidney, who was taking care of Kurtz' kids. It was the first American series with a gay lead character...technically.
It premiered with a two-hour TV movie where Sidney was openly gay. After it went to series - by the way, Love, Sidney was a half-hour sitcom, so opening with a two hour movie is kind of weird - Sidney was suddenly closeted and there were only occasional hints at his sexuality, most notably a episode where he discussed his former partner in ambiguous terms and a photo of a man was shown.
Love, Sidney was cancelled in 1983 after two seasons (the second season was also filled with "very special episodes"). I've never seen it, and have only heard about it through Wikipedia and some article on The AV Club.
