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[lilolilyr]

Caught between Mist and Flames

For today’s @flufftober prompt 'fire and ice' I had an idea for a Milippa fantasy or fairy AU where the Emperor is the leader of a flame clan and her twin sister Philippa the queen of a sort of part-frozen magical wetland area. Michael grew up in the ice kingdom and Philippa mentored her for a time and cared for her as a promising mentee and later even friend, and would always protect her, but never saw more in her. When Michael meets the vicious emperor of the neighboring lands, there’s a spark between them and not just because of the way small flames seems to dance on the emperor‘s skin… but could Michael ever ignore the ruthless way the emperor Leads her people, when it goes against everything Philippa ever taught her? And should she even try to make this work, when the emperor is likely to use her and leave her to burn when it is all over?

I don’t have time to write a proper fic for this with all the necessary worldbuilding, and if someone wants to adopt the story feel free!

But I did post a drabble on Ao3 :)

Image sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2 top flames 2 bottom flames edits by me

[everythinggayplay]

"sweet dreams, asshole."

[polar--star]

>> Did I get inside your head?

[luminescencefics]

fade in, fade out - part ten preview

November 2017

“—Rah!” Nora hears in the background of Piper’s room, and before she can ask her friend to finish her sentence, bright blue eyes and dark brown hair and a thick Irish accent flood through the receiver. “The birthday girl! How are ya?”

His head is smushed against Piper’s and Nora watches fondly as she swats her boyfriend away, groaning when Niall grabs the phone from her hand and forces his head into the foreground of the call.

“Hi Niall! I’m good, I just wanted to say hi before my party tomorrow,” Nora explains, grinning when she watches Niall’s slightly drunken grin beam through her phone.

“Yer gonna have the best time ever. Wish we were all there to celebrate together,” Niall says sadly, and Nora feels her heart pang with hurt.

“Speaking of celebrating, where are you guys off too? You’re all dressed up and Niall’s far too drunk for a night spent inside,” Nora says through a giggle, watching the way Niall proudly smiles back at her.

“Last Wednesday pub night ever!” The pair of them recite.

“What?” Nora asks, confused. Her brain immediately goes back to their favorite pub in Camden, the small room with far too much woodwork stained through the years from spilled beer and sticky whiskey. The band that always played too loudly in the corner, the bartenders who always remembered what everybody drank, the leather booths that Nora always found herself tucked away into Harry’s side.

Just as soon as her mind skips to Harry, she shakes the thought loose.

“Pub’s closin’ down, Rah. Fuckin’ tragedy. We’re all goin’ for one last hurrah,” Niall explains, and Nora’s eyes dart to the floor, suddenly feeling left out. She doesn’t want her friends to see her feeling this way, because she left London four years ago and promised to leave behind all of those memories the second the tires on the plan landed in New York. She doesn’t want them to feel sorry for her, not when she’s halfway across the world chasing her dream. Not when this dream is supposed to fill the empty gaps in her heart that only Piper’s freckled face and Niall’s warm eyes can fill whenever she thinks of her two favorite people practically a world away.

“It isn’t right without you, though!” Piper calls out, nudging Niall out of the way so that her bright eyes fall on to Nora’s.

Before Nora can reply, she hears a much deeper voice call out Niall’s name, and before she can even let the sound resonate deep inside of her brain, she sees his head pop up in the doorframe all the way through Piper’s phone.

Nora’s almost certain she could pick out Harry’s voice in a crowd thick with hundreds of people. She’s heard it enough times in her life that it’s practically ingrained in her memory—the way his tone sounds as if it’s lodged deep inside his throat, the way he takes his time working through certain words, the way his accent tilts at the end of phrases.

She’s always been able to hear him before she sees him, and when he finally comes into frame, unknowingly interrupting their conversation, Nora lets her eyes widen in shock when she observes how much he’s changed since she last saw him standing on the steps of her childhood home in Newport.

He seems taller even though Nora knows that isn’t plausible, but from her angle, his torso seems longer and his chest seems broader and his legs seem stronger. He’s wearing dark denim and an oversized sweater in which the sleeves cover half of his fingers, but for some reason, she can still decipher all the tiny changes in him.

His hair is the shortest she’s ever seen it—cut perfectly just under his ears as the strands framing his face fall expertly in front of his eyes. For some strange reason it makes him look boyishly handsome, and she wonders for a brief moment what it would feel like running her fingers through the dark pieces. Would they still feel thick? Would she still be able to pull from the root? Would she still be able to feel him shudder after she tickled the thinner pieces covering the nape of his neck?

Before Nora can let herself think of the things she hasn’t allowed to cross her mind since she last spoke to him nearly two years ago, she can feel her breath hitch inside of her chest when his sea green eyes finally catch hers through Piper’s phone.

Nora isn’t sure if Harry’s body freezing was a trick of the light, but she’s almost certain that his eyes widen and his cheeks flush and his mouth freezes.

“Curly! Sorry mate, was just sayin’ hello to Nora. Come wish her a happy birthday!” Niall squeals.

“Her birthday isn’t until tomorrow,” Harry says quietly, but before she can hear Niall’s retort, his smaller friend’s hands are reaching out towards Harry’s much taller body.

Nora’s almost positive that if Niall wasn’t as drunk as he was, he would never have dragged Harry into the frame of Piper’s phone. But alas, before Nora can really let her brain register what is happening, Niall has one fist wrapped around the thick material of Harry’s maroon sweater, thrusting him in between him and Piper.

“Uh—hi,” Harry says awkwardly, and Nora suddenly wonders if he’s as drunk as Niall.

But when she squints and looks into his eyes and only sees the flecks of gold and the one freckle that dots his left iris, she finds that he’s not very drunk at all. Instead, he’s almost nervous, scared.

“Hi, Harry,” Nora says, feeling her heart rate pulse underneath her skin.

“Happy early birthday,” he offers, giving her a shy sort of smile that starts with the right side of his lips quirking up, until his teeth rip through the skin and he’s full-blown grinning through the screen of Piper’s phone.

“Thank you,” Nora says graciously.

She’s not even sure if Niall and Piper are still in the room anymore, because suddenly all she can see is Harry and his green eyes and his now short hair and the beauty mark freckling his skin. He’s familiar and new and Nora isn’t sure how to feel about all of this, because the last time they spoke he told her that he loved her and she sent him away.

But still, she can’t deny that he’s still beautiful in that annoying, endearing sort of way.

“How have you been?” he asks, and Nora watches him bring his left hand up to rub against the back of his neck, her eyes briefly catching the black ink of his cross tattoo.

“I’ve been good, quite busy actually. But yeah, uh, good.” Nora says, her front teeth digging into the skin of her lower lip. “And you?”

Harry nods. “Yeah, good. Busy and good.”

Nora wonders if the awkwardness is just as palpable in London as it is in Los Angeles.

“I never properly told you yet, but congratulations on your film, Nora,” Harry suddenly says, bringing his left hand down to his side and focusing his attention on her. “I’m so proud of you.”

Nora feels her chest tighten. “Thanks, Harry.”

“No, really—” Harry pauses, coughing unnecessarily into a white-knuckled fist. “I’m really happy for you. It’s what you’ve always wanted.”

Nora grins, the tightness in her chest bordering on suffocation. “I know. Thank you, it means a lot.”

With a nod, Harry begins to shuffle his feet, and Nora can tell that he’s looking for an escape. She wonders if his chest hurts, too, or if breathing has suddenly become strenuous in the span of two minutes.

Before he can disappear from the frame completely, Nora clears her throat, her mouth moving far too quickly for her brain to even consider the words falling from her lips. “The movie’s meant to premiere in London. I’m, uh, I’m not sure of the dates yet. But I want you to come,” and before Nora can acknowledge the twinkle in Harry’s eyes and the smile beginning to work its way on his lips, she adds, “All of you. I want all of you to come.”

“Of course we’re there, Rah!” Niall says, but it falls on deaf ears. Because while Niall and Piper excitedly chatter about the upcoming event, Nora can’t help but keep her eyes locked on Harry’s, watching the way his eyes fall to the ground and his shoulders seem to deflate almost instantly.

She barely hears Niall mutter his goodbye, because before her mouth can move again, she watches as he throws her a wave and wraps his arm around Harry, dragging him towards the door without a second look over their shoulders.

“He misses you, Rah,” Piper says after a quiet moment passes between the two of them.

Nora stays silent and wonders how that could possibly be true.

***

Part Ten: The Lowpoint will be posted on Friday, June 18

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[luminescencefics]

fade in, fade out - coming (sometime) soon

From the first moment Nora Priestley met Harry Styles, she knew that they were never destined to be friends. Coming from two separate worlds is putting it far too lightly—considering Harry’s family owned a massive real estate empire and Nora and her mother were otherwise known as the help. Working hard to get what she wanted was practically instilled in her person, therefore crossing paths with Harry at boarding school was never supposed to go further than four years of unbearable acquaintanceship. 

But life has a funny way of never going according to plan, and somehow in the span of growing up and falling into place, Nora and Harry seem more interwoven than ever before. Fourteen years is a long time to know another person, and even though they’ve spent most of that time convincing everybody else that they hate each other, there’s still that little spark buried deep inside of them that threatens to ignite with each year that passes between them.

A story about a girl who likes movies more than she likes people, a boy who holds the world in the palm of his hands, three cities that hold a piece of them captive in the cracks of the pavement, and fourteen years of always being just close enough, but never nearly there.

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[luminescencefics]

fade in, fade out - part eleven preview

February 2019

Nora stares at the familiar envelope placed on Scott’s granite countertop, the white paper practically blinding against the green, black, and tan smooth rock.

Her arms are folded over her front stubbornly, ignoring her own handwriting in black ink and focusing instead on the capitalized RETURN TO SENDER stamped underneath in thick, red font.

Her phone is placed parallel to the envelope on the countertop, her screen staring at her as her eyes flit between both objects. She reads the words Styles and Forty-Eight and Hampstead Heath, scowling incessantly when the bold lettering from the Royal Mail overtakes her neat, loopy scrawl.

With an exasperated sigh, she unfurls her arms from her chest and places them on the edge of the counter, her knuckles gripping the granite so tightly that they turn white underneath the tight skin. She stares at her phone, muttering a quiet, “Fucking hell,” before snatching it with her right hand and dialing the third number on her favortites list.

“Afternoon, Rah!” Niall bellows through the receiver after four subsequent rings.

“Evening, Niall,” Nora responds, acknowledging their time zone difference like they normally do whenever they phone each other. It’s just another reminder that her best friend’s are not only eight hours ahead, but also over five thousand miles away, too.

“Why are you answering Piper’s phone?” Nora asks, turning on her heel so that her backside is resting against the counter, the unsightly envelope completely out of her line of vision.

“She’s in the loo. What can I help you with?” Niall asks cheekily.

Nora sighs so loudly that Niall chuckles through the receiver.

“Christ, that doesn’t sound good. You sure yer okay over there, Rah?” Niall asks.

“Yeah, I’m alright. It’s just—” Nora pauses, unsure of how to vocalize her frustrations properly without sounding like a brat.

“Rah?” Niall prompts.

With one last sigh, Nora gets over her inner turmoil and just blurts out her reason for calling.

“Does Harry not want to come to the premiere? I know things are awkward between us, but he didn’t even accept the tickets I mailed over. He sent them back without saying anything. Am I—Christ, have I ruined things between us that badly?”

Niall’s silent on the other line, and Nora’s almost positive her lungs stop producing air while she waits for his response impatiently.

“He hasn’t said anything to Pipes or I,” Niall says easily after a minute, causing Nora’s nose to scrunch in confusion. “Did you send it to his old address by accident?”

“Old address?” Nora echoes.

Niall chuckles. “Yeah. Curly moved to Primrose Hill last April. Not long after our wedding, actually.”

Nora freezes, feeling an uncomfortable weight press down on her chest.

It’s not like she would have heard of the news anyway, considering she blocked his number the moment she fled London over five years ago and never felt the need to call him in all the time that transpired. 

She doesn’t remember the last time she went on Facebook—her account has long since been deactivated ever since Variety published her name in an article about her film. Her Instagram has transformed from a post-grad sharing pictures of her friends and her childhood beachfront town, to a perfectly curated grid of photographs guaranteed to receive thousands of likes ever since the blue checkmark appeared near her username. She doubts Harry would even have an account, let alone follow her, so she truly has no way of hearing about any updates surrounding his life if not from secondhand information distributed from Piper and Niall.

There’s also the added fact that she showed up at his Hampstead Heath townhouse at three in the morning unannounced, asking him if he still loved her when she had no claim on him in the first place.

Nora doesn’t blame him for moving after that, either.

“Oh,” Nora says through an exhale. She’s not really sure what else there is to say.

“He wanted a place closer to his father’s office. His whole plan of being on the board of directors before he’s thirty and all that.” Niall throws in a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood. “His old place was too small for him anyways. His own fault for being a fuckin’ giant.”

Nora forces out a laugh, appreciating Niall’s attempt to try to make her feel better.

“Could you, uh, tell me his new address? So I can resend the invitations?” Nora asks, her figurative tail tucked neatly in between her legs.

Niall’s silent for so long that Nora has to pull her phone away from her ear just to check that their call was still connected.

All of a sudden, Niall’s cheerful tone floats through the receiver, and Nora wonders what on earth he’s scheming in that big head of his.

“Hmm, I can’t actually remember, Rah. Pipes and I have been so busy, barely have had the time to head over to his place for dinner parties.” Nora rolls her eyes so ferociously that she can feel the migraine forming in her temporal lobe. “If Pipes wasn’t still in the loo, I’d ask her.”

“Niall—”

“—Why don’t you give him a call! I’ve actually gotta run, the dog’s been barkin’ and it’s my turn to let him out,” Niall says quickly, and Nora tries to interrupt again, informing him that she hasn’t heard a dog barking in the background of their call at all.

“His number’s the same. Have a great day, Rah!” Niall says, hanging up before Nora can wish him a proper goodnight.

Nora stares at her phone for so long that the screen has already faded to black and she can see her wide-eyed expression looking right back at her through the reflective glass. She’s not sure what she’s waiting for—a sign? For Harry to sense that she needs to call him from across the Atlantic? For Niall to call her back and take her out of her misery?

She’s been hunched over her phone for so long that her lower back starts to ache, and with what feels like the hundredth heavy sigh leaving her lips, she scrolls though her blocked numbers list and clicks on Harry’s, bringing her phone to her ear without hesitating a moment longer.

Thankfully, he doesn’t make her wait long. Two rings later, Nora practically feels her spine tingle when his gruff voice falls through her receiver.

“Nora?”

***

Part Eleven: The Redemption will be posted on Friday, July 16th

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