#gottliebfeels

[hauntedfalcon]

Jeeeeeeeeesus, I'm in the Samira Wiley tag looking for images suitable for a quick Striker Eureka photomanip, and then I see that one where she's in an olive green coat with a fur-trimmed hood and I'm all

RACEBENT AND GENDERBENT HERMANN: YES GOOD

RACEBENT AND GENDERBENT HERMANN STILL MARRIED TO A WOC: EVEN BETTER

[hauntedfalcon]

[hauntedfalcon]

Vanessa is having morning sickness and Hermann comforts her.

"Ginger-mint tea," he says, setting the mug down next to her, and she nods mutely, eyes tightly shut, breathing through her nose.

"The midwife says Tums is safe," he reports a few minutes later, unwrapping the package. Vanessa chews one and rests her forehead against the wall, and Hermann shuffles, not sure whether he should touch her or leave. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

Miserably, she says, “Just… rub my back, please?” Hermann lowers himself to the bathroom floor, puts one hand gently in her hair, and runs the other slowly down her spine. 

[hauntedfalcon]

Headcanon: Herman isn't very good at apologizing, so he sends Vanessa purple hyacinths when he thinks he screwed up (or thinks she thinks he screwed up), since purple hyacinths can mean "I'm sorry"/apology / sorrow in the language of flowers. And he maybe isn't sure if she knows or not, but she does, because she took a few courses in Victorian Lit. back in college and one of the covered that. (also they kiss and are generally adorkable)

ADDENDUM: usually when he thinks he screwed up he really didn't, and the potential misinterpretation of the bouquet is an additional source of stress until the next time they see each other, when she's like, "Darling, why did you buy me apology flowers?" His relief is doubly palpable.

Then they make out!

[hauntedfalcon]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Pacific Rim (2013) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hermann Gottlieb/Vanessa Gottlieb Characters: Hermann Gottlieb, Vanessa Gottlieb, Original Characters Additional Tags: Spitefic, Pre-Movie, How They Met Summary: "Oh, Hermann loves models," smiles Siobhan, and it's hard to say at whose expense this joke is. Perhaps both him and Vanessa in equal measure. She maintains a neutral expression; he goes red above the collar. Finally he turns to her, clears his throat.

[hauntedfalcon]

Vanessa is a nibbler and a biter and Hermann gets a kick out of it ;)

"Darling, would you come in here?"

Vanessa sets down her tea and steps into the bathroom, still misty from the shower. She isn't sure what to expect, but the purpling spot a couple inches above Hermann's left clavicle takes her by surprise. "Oh," she says, immensely pleased.

"Look what you did to me," Hermann says wryly, toweling off the remnants of shaving cream. 

"That is not workplace-appropriate at all." She wraps her arms around him from behind and nips at his shoulder. "How much shit would they give you?"

Hermann snorts softly and reaches for his shirt. "If they don't just assume I fell down the stairs, you mean?"

Vanessa straightens, and gently turns him to face her. The notion that anyone would not--well, people have strange tastes, it takes all kinds, and so on. Vanessa can cope with the existence of humans who don't consider her husband eminently bangable, the same way she can cope with the existence of humans who scratch their arses on the Underground, or call things that are red "blood orange". She'll just avoid them.

She reaches beyond him, to the shelf by the sink, finds a tube of crimson lipstick, and applies it slowly, while he watches. "I can make it unmistakeable." 

For a moment he looks very, very tempted. His hands go to her hips and she thinks maybe he's about to spin her around, press her up against the edge of the sink, and how many ways could they improve their morning from there? But then his better judgment takes over. Damn it. "That's not workplace-appropriate," he sighs, and kisses the corner of her mouth. 

Vanessa exaggerates her pout only a little. She tugs his shirt onto his shoulders and does the topmost button. "There. Now only you and I will know." 

Hermann looks grateful, and perhaps a little turned on by that idea. "I'll pick up some markers on the way home so you can write 'Vanessa was here' wherever you like."

"Anywhere?" she says, grinning. Before he can respond she puts her lips around his earlobe. "Don't bother with markers," she says as she wipes the lipstick off. "This is much more fun." 

[hauntedfalcon]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Pacific Rim (2013) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hermann Gottlieb/Vanessa Gottlieb Characters: Hermann Gottlieb, Vanessa Gottlieb (mentioned) Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Offscreen Marriage, Long-Distance Relationship, Canon Character of Color, Canon Disabled Character, Spitefic, Canon Compliant, Jaeger Name Involving Ethnic Slur Summary:

The tablet wakes when he prompts it. "Call Vanessa." She needs to hear about all this--she'll know what to say, know how to find the angle he can't to make it somehow less appalling.

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Hermann and Vanessa like to drive out to the countryside in the evening, have a nice meal together, and watch the stars under blankets as they keep each other up giggling and smiling.

"Which one is Perseus again?"

"Just there. Sword over his head."

"And... how long?"

"Pre-dawn." He hands her the thermos. She sighs drowsily, takes a swig of the coffee and whiskey, and leans her head on his chest. "It's going to look sparse and random, but you know what's really happening? We're grazing the tail of a comet. Like burning your hand on a sparkler." 

"How do you make that sound so bloody romantic?"

"Everyone has a skill." He tells her the rest, too, about how a few years ago, there was a panic about a collision within a century or so, a new mass extinction, but it turned out they'd miss the comet by at least a million miles. Now the world would have to end some other way.

Five hours later, he shakes her shoulder. "Vanessa. Vanessa, wake up. There they are."

She startles, grunts, squints at the sky, where tiny multicolored flares curve overhead, one per minute, on average. "Oh." 

He puts his arm around her. They stay there until the sun comes up.