#21 and #46 for kiss prompts, maybe? I can't get enough your writing tbf
kiss on a dare- a little jonmartin season one fluff <3
All in all, this is one of Tim’s better Friday nights.
It’s been ages since Jon’s hung out with them, and never with Martin along for the ride. The Archives had been off to a messy start after the Dog Incident and Jon’s subsequent panic over the state of the place. What used to be an ‘every couple of weeks’ tradition turned into an almost-never one as the newly-assembled team got buried under more and more boxes of dusty statements. He’s pretty astounded that Jon agreed to dinner and drinks- although it’s a Friday night, Jon’s been apt to stay weekends more often than not. He figured if he arranged for it at one of theirs instead of a pub, Jon would be more likely to come. He always preferred less crowded settings.
No, the real feat was getting him to come knowing Martin was invited.
Jon’s been getting...better around him, that’s true. He was perfectly fine at his birthday party, going off about emulsifiers for a solid fifteen minutes. Tim’s always been rather fond of Jon’s infodumping, and if he’s comfortable enough to do it around Martin that must be a good sign. Despite an initial freeze-out, he now thanks Martin for his tea and saves his most pointed comments for Martin’s more egregious screw-ups (and even those have less bite than usual). Still, a colleague does not a friend make, and Jon’s never been good at opening up to people he doesn’t know all that well. However, Jon just nodded at the Martin caveat, seemingly not giving it a second thought. And Martin didn’t seem all that worried either.
Whatever, Tim’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He’s just happy they’re all here, having a good time. It’s late and Jon’s had enough wine to keep a smile on his face. He missed that. It’s nice how easily they slot together, even with all of the upheaval and a new addition. Martin himself isn’t so shy after a drink or two, more willing to engage in banter and keep the conversation going. This is what it should be like all the time, Tim thinks. Shitty archive job or not.
It’s when they retire to the living room, drinks in hand, that he finally notices the little grin on Sasha’s face. And Tim, knowing exactly what that means, is both a little afraid and excited. Four-drink-Sasha has always been a host unto herself.
“Why don’t,” she begins, a hiccup interrupting her as she slumps into an armchair. Tim snickers and ignores the glare this earns him. “Why don’t we play one of our old games-”
Tim raises a glass in agreement as Jon, predictably, groans. Martin looks quizzically between them. Ah yes, time for your initiation, Marto! Not that they’ve played this in about a year or so, of course, but it's always fun to revisit the good old days.
“Seriously? We’re not children-”
Tim gives Jon a playful slap on the back that sends him flying forward on the couch, spilling a bit of wine on Sasha’s rug. He hopes she doesn’t notice. “C’mon, it’ll be fun, boss! Nothing like it to break the ice, and there’s definitely some ice that needs breaking.”
Martin blinks, hand tightening on his glass. He looks nervous, like he always does when he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on. Which is a shame, because he’s been so nice and open all night. Even chatting with Jon. “Sorry, what are you talking about?”
Jon rolls his eyes, giving Martin a commiserating look. “Truth or dare.”
Martin lets out a disbelieving laugh, relaxing minutely. “Wait, really?”
“Yes, really.” Jon’s foot reaches out to shove at Tim’s leg. “Tim loves pulling ridiculous stunts-”
“-Hey, you loved the karaoke idea-”
“You sing?”
“No.” Tim would dispute that, but the look on Jon’s face declares it a bad idea. “And Sasha likes to ask probing questions.”
Sasha preens, though the remark was certainly not meant as a compliment. “What can I say, I’m the Queen of Truth-”
Tim snorts. “Hacking and blackmail more like-”
“Anyway-” Sasha sings out as Tim dodges a pillow to the face. “Tim….truth or-”
“Dare, always dare.”
“You’re absolutely no fun,” Sasha pouts, though it doesn’t take long for her eyes to narrow in thought. There’s very little Tim won’t do, but that’s a dangerous look. “I dare you...to text…”
“Text? You can do better than that, Sash.”
“Text...Elias.” That’s more like it.
Jon immediately scowls. “Tim, no-”
“I don’t have his number-”
“I do-”
“Sasha!”
“Jon, it’ll be fine! He’ll just say ‘oops, wrong number’ afterwards, no harm, no foul-”
Tim takes this time to snatch at Sasha’s phone, sitting precariously on the arm of her chair. She doesn’t notice, too busy gesturing at Jon empathically. He scrolls through her contact list.
“And then it’ll come down on me-”
Sasha rolled her eyes. “How is he going to connect it to you? It’s not like he knows we’re all together-”
“Done!” Tim tosses the phone back onto the couch with a little grin. Sasha blinks, looking down in confusion.
“Wait, that’s mine-”
The screech and smack on the arm at Tim’s hastily fired off ‘u up? ;)’ to Elias Bouchard were definitely deserved. He’s sure he’ll face consequences for that in the near future, but Jon and Martin’s immediate laughter had been well worth it. Shouldn’t dish it if you can’t take it, that’s Tim’s motto.
In the next round, Tim manages to get Martin to confess to his poetry-writing habit, an admission that has him turning an attractive shade of red. Jon just giggles quietly to himself as Martin reads through one of his poorer attempts at rhyme saved to the notes of his mobile. Tim watches the two of them; Martin keeps looking up at Jon throughout it all like he’s the only one in the room and god, his crush is so evident and yet Jon is oblivious, smiling at him like he’s not on the receiving end of some of the most loaded glances of all time.
Martin gets Sasha to admit to her most recent perusal through confidential institute records, which turned out to be previous archival expenses (solely to find out what Elias would cover with their new jobs, of course). At first glance, there wasn’t much in the way of extravagant meals or supplies, but a bit more digging had her finding Gertrude’s extensive travel budget. For an old woman, she certainly was a globe-trotter.
“All I’m saying, Jon, is that we could definitely do with a trip to China-”
“Yes, I’ll be sure to ask Elias about Gertrude’s trip to China, something I certainly shouldn’t know about, and he’ll have to let us go.”
“Refill?” Martin’s on his feet, taking Jon’s wine glass in his hand and Tim watches as their fingers brush- go Martin!- and yet Jon just nods his thanks, completely oblivious to the seduction taking place before him. Tim’s given it some thought and honestly, he thinks they’d make a cute couple. An odd pair, for sure, but Jon’s so soft once you get to know him, and Martin’s one of the funniest, sweetest guys he knows. They could be good for each other.
“Well, I still think it’s worth a try.” Sasha’s eyes are starting to blink heavily - she’ll be out for the count tonight, for sure. “Anyway, it’s your turn. I dare you-”
“I didn’t even pick!” Jon says, though he doesn’t seem too put out by it. This is the Jon Martin should know, the easy-humored, smiling man sprawled out before him. He’s even taken his little sweater vest and tie off, looking more like the familiar friend from research Tim knows so well. It warms his heart.
“Fine. Truth or dare?”
“Dare, I suppose. Seeing as how you already have one queued up.”
“I dare you to...to...to give a little kiss to someone in this room.” She waves her glass around imperiously. “Anyone you like.”
Silence. Tim gives Sasha a warning look that she ignores. She’s well in her cups, and he supposes any sense of propriety has gone out the window along with her sobriety. He’s actually seen Jon give quite a few kisses on a particularly memorable New Years Eve, but that was a different time. He doesn’t want him to feel pressured, not when he’s just starting to open back up.
“Jon doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to-”
Sasha rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, you remember-”
“It doesn’t matter- Jon, you can skip this one if you like, we can think of something else-”
“Tim, it’s alright.” Jon puts a hand on his arm to stop the argument, and there’s a strange look in his eyes that can’t be attributed to liquor. It’s mock-serious, almost playful paired with his little sly smile. He thinks for a moment that Jon’s going to lean in and kiss him but instead he gets up from the sofa in a smooth motion and walks across the room to Martin, who’s just turned around with two glasses in hand. He freezes in place as Jon gets on his very tippy toes, takes his face in both hands, and kisses him.
Jonathan Sims. Kissing Martin Blackwood. Against a kitchen counter. Martin Blackwood, who, once he’s over his surprise, puts the drinks down behind him and kisses right the hell back, arms winding around Jon’s waist like they belong there.
What. The. Fuck.
_____
“The leg bit was a nice touch.”
“Hmm?” Jon’s in Martin’s lap, sprawled out on his couch back at his own flat, eyes closed in contentment as he leans back against the other man’s chest. Martin’s got one hand in his hair, and the other entwined with Jon’s, twirling the black ring on his finger. It’s heavenly.
“Thought you were trying to climb me.”
“Well, you usually pick me up at that point, make it easier.”
“Sorry, next time.” Kissing Jon’s always fun but kissing him out in the open, in front of their friends? Was that something they could do now? “Should we tell them we’ve been dating for two months?”
Two whole months since that night in Document Storage when Jon had finally let his guard down. When Martin had held him in his arms. Jon was very particular about keeping up appearances, though that all seemed to have crumbled tonight. Sasha rather fashioned herself a matchmaker, and Jon didn’t do anything to dissuade the fact. It’d been nice, having their relationship to themselves, the secret of it, the obliviousness of their friends who still thought Jon only tolerated him. It’s not that he wanted to keep it that way, of course, but it was nice while they were still figuring it out.
“If you’d like. Maybe it’s time.” Jon tilts his head back, giving Martin a fond look. “Though I know how much you enjoy playing the lovesick fool-”
“There’s something so poetic about unrequited love, yknow?”
“All the more when it’s requited, I’d say.” Martin couldn’t argue with that. He leans down to give Jon’s forehead a peck.
“Hmm. Give it a few more weeks. Act out the honeymoon phase for a bit, it’ll be fun.”
And when Jon squeezes his hand and smiles back, Martin thinks he won’t need to do much acting at all.
Drunken/otherwise impaired confessions for the trope ask!
YES I think it can be done poorly BUT I often love it and I'm BIG into like a drunken/pain med/delirious fever confession that they do not remember the next day and the person they told just being like ???? This...doesn't count right????? I....???? 😳😳😳😳
Also I think it almost hits extra hard when it's not necessarily a drunken Love confession (though those can be very fun too) but instead is like...I used to be in a 80s cover band type deal u know?? Peak Comedic Potential
3 - are there any fics that inspired you to write what you do?
that’s an interesting question, because my first reaction is to say every one i’ve ever read? i tend to pick up little details, headcanons, writing quirks, etc. just via osmosis, and sometimes my perceptions of characters will change over time as i read certain fics about them (like i would say my characterization of sasha is an amalgamation of all the sashas i’ve read about in fics)
i don’t think i could isolate any particular fics that were more impactful than the rest--they’re all about equal in my mind!
5 - what are your fanfic pet peeves? do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?
to answer the second question first, yes, absolutely. if i start a fic and it rubs me the wrong way, or i see something in the tags i don’t like, i’ll stop reading it.
in terms of structure and format:
no spaces between paragraphs, frequent misspellings, and poor grammar. i know that’s a bit surface-level, but if a fic is made hard to read by the technical errors, i just won’t read it. also, spelling jon like john.
in terms of content:
i really don’t like fics where the other characters belittle, make fun of, or are cruel to jon. this is unfortunately something that’s not really tagged for and i just have to stumble across, and it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, particularly when it’s played off as funny or acceptable. fics that are especially bad about this tend to be either a) season one fics, which sit on the ‘funny’ side of things, or b) season three fics, which can fall into the ‘everyone yells at and low-key abuses jon’ plotline
more surface-level things are jon reading textbooks and such (though that will just make me wrinkle my nose, not actually stop reading), archivist sasha (because 9 times out of 10, it’s not a good characterization or is played off like she would be so much more successful than jon), and stammering schoolboy crush martin (there is a way to do this well, but it’s often taken way too far)
Complicated answer to this one?? i ID’d as demi way back in 2015, but I fell away from it cause I got sucked into the “demi is just shy” rhetoric and felt embarrassed 💀 then only recently (past few months) I’ve started realizing I’m actually ace bc i now understand the distinction between aesthetic and sexual attraction and I’m like what the FUCK are you telling me ppl actually mean they wanna fuck someone when they say they’re sexy. wtf
7. What’s your favorite asexual stereotype?
Tbh im still unlearning shitty exclusionist rhetoric so I’m working on finding things to like about Ace Lyfe™️ —but I think my fav is the co-option of “while you were studying each others’ bodies i studied the blade” lmao… “virgin (cool)” is also good
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |
honestly it depends 100% on the tone of the rest of the story. If it’s like a fun and funny situation that lends itself to Shenanigans, that’s great. Love that. also if the characters are in an established relationship and the bodyswap gets sexy, that’s cute too. But if it’s like. angsty or gets into privacy issues then that’s 👎👎👎
this did make me access the deep memory of the body swap episode of Kim Possible, wherein my tiny lesbian brain experienced Kim’s voice coming out of Ron’s body, interpreted it as a butch woman, and went ‼️‼️‼️
daisy/basira, jon/georgie, jon/sasha for the ship prompt!
Daisy/Basira
Jon/Georgie
Jon/Sasha
Daisy and Basira is interesting for me bc my gay ass wanted them to be together sooooo bad on my first listen (and I think they’re both VERY hot,, Frank and Fay’s voices are 😳😳😳), but after hearing Jonny talk about how their relationship explores the “us” side of an “us vs them” dynamic, I’m glad they weren’t together. Also I think Daisy’s fate was necessary for Basira’s character development 👀 I really liked both of their arcs.
I love Jon and Georgie as exes and as friends! And I’ve read some great fic about them together in Uni and they’re cute n fun as a couple, but seeing their later interactions makes it clear that they aren’t compatible in that way (also wtgfs and jmart cannot be denied..........)
Jon/Sasha is perfectly valid but i recoil from it for some reason lmao. I think I read them as having a very brother/sister relationship so them being a couple squicks me? I totally acknowledge that this is 1000% subjective and that i dont think people shouldn’t ship them or anything lmao. i just. don’t care for it personally
