A/N: I've been wanting to write a friend-focused fic for a while. Finally found the right inspo. Submission to @choicesmonthlychallenge March challenge, prompt "Daffodils"
I'm using @creativepromptsforwriting's Prompt 1280. Tagging for reblog to @creativepromptfills
It was a beautiful early spring day in Boston. Daffodils blooming in the Common. Temperatures in the low seventies, with the sun peeking through white, fluffy clouds. A light breeze swept across the harbor as seagulls swooped down to snatch food from unsuspecting tourists.
Cassie Valentine would’ve rather been out enjoying the fresh air than stuck inside the large, artificially lit lecture hall for grand rounds.
It had been a long winter, and she was ready to shed her thick parka and snow boots for something that didn’t make her resemble the Michelin Man every time she stepped outside.
Probably an exaggeration, but not by much.
Settling into her seat, she locked her hands behind her head and propped her feet on the back of the empty seat in front of her.
Winter wasn’t the only thing that had been long. Lately, she’d been pulling double shifts, covering for another second-year resident who’d had to step back for a family emergency.
Between her own patients, the diagnostic team’s cases, and now this, she barely had time to catch her breath—let alone sleep through the night.
Only five more days to go, she consoled herself.
Suddenly, she straightened, sniffing the air as the familiar scent of buttery goodness hit her senses.
She turned her head just as Bryce Lahela—surgical resident extraordinaire and her partner in fun—slid into the seat beside her.
As was tradition at Edenbrook, one grand round per year brought together all disciplines, from internal medicine to general surgery to pediatrics.
“So we can all learn more from each other,” according to Naveen Banerji, their chief of medicine.
“I can’t believe you brought popcorn,” she laughed as Bryce offered her some.
“I figured attending grand rounds is like attending a play,” Bryce said, munching around a mouthful. “Might as well bring sustenance.”
They sat companionably, the sound of crunching popcorn attracting sideways looks and envious glances.
“Don’t mind them,” Bryce joked. “My fans are legion.”
“Big of you to assume they’re admiring you, Lahela,” Cassie shot back with a grin. “I’m prettier than you, and my hair is better.”
“Now that it’s fully grown back, you mean.” He nudged her shoulder playfully. “That bob wasn’t a good look on you,” he added with a playful tsk.
“Why are you so annoying when you’re right?”
“Oh please. I’m not nearly as annoying as I could be,” he smirked. “Notice I didn’t mention how that pixie cut made you look like a candy striper.”
Cassie retaliated by tossing the last few kernels of popcorn at him.
“Sure could use a Coke right about now,” she mused, dusting salt off her hands.
“Got you covered,” Bryce said, handing her the popcorn bag as he reached into his white coat and pulled out two tubes of soda.
Cassie popped the tab, shaking her head in amusement. “Have you been taking lessons from Sienna?”
“No, but I wouldn’t mind one of her cookies after this.”
“Well, you’re in luck….” She nodded to the end of the row, where Sienna stood chatting with their senior resident, Ines Delarosa.
Sienna was holding Tupperware in her hands. Cassie knew it held chocolate chip cookies, since she’d gotten up early to help her friend finish baking them.
She didn’t see Elijah, and then remembered he was one of the first presenters today. She craned her head and saw him near the stage chatting with Baz Mirani.
Cassie knew Elijah wanted to spend his third year doing research, and Baz had been informally mentoring him.
She started to look away when her gaze locked on Ethan Ramsey, watching her over Naveen’s shoulder. His eyesight was pretty sharp, and those blue eyes narrowed at the sight of the snacks in her hands.
She shrugged, rolling her eyes as she took an extra-large handful of popcorn and popped it into her mouth.
He grinned—most likely at her audacity—and she smirked back, raising her soda can in mock salute.
They broke eye contact as Jackie and Aurora slid past her to their seats, and Sienna soon followed, passing around cookies.
“Are the two of you seriously munching on popcorn and Coke?” Jackie said in exasperation. “This isn’t a movie theater.”
“Sure feels like one,” Bryce teased. “High drama at Edenbrook? Or will it be a comedy of errors as some hapless intern mixes up the PowerPoint slides.”
“I’m here for the previews,” Cassie said, tilting her head toward Ethan as he adjusted his white coat and stepped onto the stage with Naveen.
“And who can blame you,” Sienna said, a note of thirst in her tone that had everyone gaping at her.
“Oops. Did I say that out loud?” she giggled nervously, covering her mouth. “Ignore me. It’s been a long dry spell. Oh wow. I can’t believe I said that!”
She stuffed a cookie in her mouth, her cheeks expanding like a chipmunk’s.
Cassie laughed to show she was unoffended at her best friend thirsting after her boyfriend.
As if providence wanted to save Sienna from further embarrassment, the lights dimmed, Naveen tapped the microphone, and the voices around the lecture hall settled down.
Cassie smiled in the dark. It might be a lovely day outside, but here she was surrounded by friends. And that made the day special in its own way.
Another fic for @kisstember 's 9/8 prompt: drunken kisses. I've REALLY been missing Tobias & Casey, so this made me happy! :)
Book: Open Heart (Post Series)
Pairing: Tobias Carrick x Casey (F!MC)
Featuring: Ethan Ramsey, Bryce Lahela, Sienna Trinh, Jackie Varma, Aurora Emery
Rating: Teen
Words: ~1,030
Summary: A pub crawl in Boston leads to all sorts of bets & mayhem.
Kisstember 2025 Masterlist | Tobias x Casey Masterlist
They’d been looking forward to this night for weeks. Pub crawls were practically a rite of passage for medical residents in Boston, and both Tobias and Casey had done their fair share back in the day. But since their residencies were separated by nearly a decade, they'd never experienced one together. And after a night of playful ribbing over who had handled it best, Bryce suggested the only way to really find out - and that's how this evening was planned.
The first stop on the crawl was a cozy Irish bar tucked in a quiet little street in Back Bay, the kind of place with Guinness signs in the windows and dark wood that gleamed under dim, barely there lights. Tobias gallantly held the door open for his wife, his face lighting up as his eyes traced her curves, barely hidden under her burgundy boucle dress. That hadn't gone unnoticed.
“What are you doing, Dr. Carrick?” she asked, lashes fluttering with mock innocence.
“I’m checking out the hottest woman in the bar,” he drawled. “Kind of hoping I’ll get lucky and take her home tonight.”
“Oh, really?” She teased, running her finger over the stubble on his jaw. “I hear she’s a sure thing. Are you sure you don’t want more of a... challenge? The redhead at the jukebox looks promising, too.”
He glanced over his shoulder, giving a solemn nod. “Not bad,” he admitted, then turned back, voice dropping. “But why go for silver when I’ve already got gold?”
He leaned in, their lips a whisper apart, when a swinging door and a blast of cold air pulled their attention.
“Jesus, are you two at it already?” Ethan groaned, shaking snow from his coat and placing it on the back of a stool. "I knew I should’ve stayed home with my Macallan.”
“Here, here!” Jackie chimed in, biting into a Bavarian pretzel. “But on an up note, these two will make me queasy long before the tequila does – so it could save me some money.”
“Really?” Tobias laughed, motioning to the bartender to bring a fresh round.
“Really,” Sienna grinned. “How about a new rule tonight? You two have to keep it PG for once. PG-13 if you absolutely must, but nothing beyond that.”
“Yeah, right!” Bryce chuckled, lifting a fresh pint to his lips. “They wouldn’t make it an hour.”
“What?” Casey frowned. “You really don’t think we can do it?”
“Oh, I know you can’t,” Jackie declared.
Bryce smirked, peeling a twenty from his wallet. “Let’s put our money where our mouths are. After all, we all know where their mouths will be...”
Tobias raised a brow. “You people act like we’re animals! We’re an old married couple now, have a baby at home... we know a thing or two about restraint.”
Aurora, who had been sipping her beer quietly, laughed. “If you knew a thing or two about restraint, you wouldn’t have a baby at home.”
“Hey,” Ethan deadpanned. “Leave my goddaughter out of this – That’s the only thing Carrick’s ever done right.”
Tobias leaned down to whisper something in Casey’s ear, and she flushed pink – a grin stretching on her lips as her handsome husband kissed her temple – not even her lips - but their friends were groaning.
“Pool’s open,” Bryce reminded. “Twenty bucks says they’ll be making baby number two within the hour.”
“Hopefully not in our line of sight,” Jackie groused.
~~~~~
They headed to bar number two, several blocks away. A loud sports bar with dozens of TVs scattered across the walls, one highlighting every local team and beyond. They squeezed into a wooden booth, shouting to hear each other over the noise.
Casey sipped her drink slowly, aware of the eyes on them and the growing pot of cash – she was determined to keep temptation at bay. But Tobias was less restrained. His arm was draped over her, his thumb tracing patterns under the shoulder of her dress. It only took one more whisky, then his grin turned wolfish.
“You promised to behave,” she reminded him, though the sparkle in her eyes betrayed her amusement.
“I have behaved,” he insisted, his gaze dipping to her neckline before flicking up to meet her eyes again. “But it’s hard, baby. So… hard.”
Casey snorted mid-sip, nearly choking on her beer as Jackie smacked the table. “Christ almighty! Do you two even hear yourselves?”
“You brought this on yourselves,” Casey shot back, laughing. “Trying to stop us from being us—it was always going to lead to pent-up depravity.”
“It’s been an hour!” Jackie wailed. “Not even an hour!”
“Exactly,” Tobias agreed, his eyes glazed over, whisky still lingering on his tongue. “And I won’t stand for this cruel and unusual punishment anymore.”
Casey slammed her empty shot glass on the table, wiping her lip with the back of her hand. “Hear, hear!” she cheered, her grin wide, tipsy delight radiating from her as she wrapped her arms around her husband’s neck.
Before anyone could stop them, Tobias pulled her in, their mouths crashing in a kiss that was far too hungry, far too naughty for public consumption. It wasn’t neat - it was searing, lips crashing, teeth grazing, tongues tangled with an urgency that was only fueled by too many drinks and too many moments pretending they could keep their hands off each other. Casey laughed into his mouth, and he swallowed the sound, one hand sliding into her hair, the other braced against the small of her back. They showed no sign of stopping, deepening until it was less of a kiss and more breathless, shamelessly indulgent claim. Mine – all mine.
When they finally broke apart, both breathless and laughing, the table erupted in groans and scattered applause.
“All right! Pay up,” Bryce beamed, extending a hand. Tobias shoved a bill at him without looking.
Casey pulled back, with a mock scowl. “We lost,” she pouted.
Tobias shrugged, eyes sparkling. “Well worth it,” he grinned, sliding an arm around her waist and bending her back right there in the booth, kissing her again with drunken abandon.
Their friends groaned in unison.
“God help us,” Jackie muttered. “How many more pubs do we have to hit?”
“Three,” Ethan sighed, lifting his glass. “It’s going to be a very long night.”
I was hoping to try and use a head piece for Raf which was in the new Sienna Brown colour but there are only two male ones at the moment and neither felt right.
Like with the High School Story Love Interests, the hands on Ethan and Raf would need to be changed to match and the same can be done for Bryce and Jackie as well.
These are all existing Lego pieces and can actually be made!
Since pixelberry "forgot" to give my fictional wife a background, I'll give you some ;)
• Dr. Janaki "jackie" Varma. There's no way indian parents would name their daughter jackie. She started using jackie when she came to the US because people were butchering her name.
• She would threaten to beat up non-Indians who tried to mispronounce her actual name — especially Bryce, who would purposely try to annoy her with it.
• Languages known : malayalam English and Sarcasm. She picked up a lil Tamil through movies. Doesnt know hindi at all. Except for ek do theen char
• loves to swear in malayalam when she gets mad at her co workers.
• Born and brought up in Thrissur and moved to boston for medicine.
• our girl would be fighting her parents and relatives off from arranged marriage proposals after she started working in edenbrook. (Probably throughout the trilogy)
• she's the youngest daughter. She has an older brother who's waiting for her to get married so that he can marry in peace. (If there are 2 children, one girl and a boy in a keralite fam, the girl is the first one to get married regardless her birth order)
• she's super close to bryce, she probably calls him pottan (idiot)
• loves porotta and beef (just like a true malayalee 😌)
• she's not religious, but she might tolerate temple visits if it involves someone special ;)
• Jackie used to have long hair, but she cut it when she started med school as an act of independence.
• She probably knew she liked girls when she had a homoerotic relationship with her girl in high school.
• She’s very closed off about her family and culture, and doesn’t say much even when the friend group nags her to.
Aurora and Sunny 🎨🏳️🌈 | Aurora Emery x F!OC - @spadesofgrass
BRYCE LAHELA
Bryce Sketch 🎨 | Bryce Lahela - @storyofmychoices
ETHAN RAMSEY
A Night to Remember ✒️ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC - @jerzwriter
Christmas Party Shenanigans ✒️ | Ethan Ramsey x F!MC - @tveitertotwrites
JACKIE VARMA
A Little Mix-up ✒️ | Jackie Varma & F!MC - @jerzwriter
RAFAEL AVEIRO
Love In Every Heartbeat (Series) ✒️ | Rafael Aveiro x F!MC - @rafasgirl23415
Chapter 25: Blessed With Our Rainbow But Will Never Forget Our Storm
Chapter 26: Cherishing Every Kick And Movement
Chapter 27: Snuggles And Giggles And Endless Love
TOBIAS CARRICK
History Repeats Itself ✒️ | Tobias Carrick x F!MC - @alj4890
Poe & The Purring Tyrant ✒️ | Tobias Carrick x F!MC - @jerzwriter
Strictly Professional (or not…) ✒️🎨 | Tobias Carrick x F!MC - ArtbyAinna (IG) C: @jerzwriter
