The next random top eight pairing will be the lone OT3: Shallan/Adolin/Kaladin
These paring challenges do not need to be romantic in nature if you don’t ship it that way. Red, pale, black, platonic, just friends or whatever description you have for them counts. Whatever floats your boat. I encourage you all to attempt to generate content for each week whether it is a three sentence drabble, a sketch, a playlist, a full painting, 3,000 word fic or headcanons. If it’s creative it goes.
Shallan/Adolin/Kaladin Week Prompts
Monday: Dancing
Tuesday: Learning To Admit You Were Wrong
Wednesday: Stormlight
Thursday: Our Little Secret
Friday: Public Display of Affection
Saturday: Two versus One
Sunday: Salas, Nomon and Mishim (The Three Moons)
You do not need to use the prompts, they are simply here for ideas. You can try to do something for each day or pick a specific day. You don’t have to post the submission on said day either, just whenever you are finished.
Sterillium Week runs from Monday, December 14th to Sunday, December 21st. Please tag all submissions as #cosmere challenge. Have fun fanspren, this will be the last challenge until the new year. Happy Holidays!
So the past month and a half has been a very busy one for me and I missed last month's cosmere challenge. This entry takes place in the same AU as Crimes Against Fashion and features the shenangians of last minute moving in college, sass, getting caught in the rain and, of course, cuddling. Once again I am incapable of separating this setting from my own experiences and those of my friends. Write what you know, they say.
As always, thanks to dm-mo for the editing.
Title: With Friends Like These
Word Count: 2150
Paring: slight Kadolin, very pale Kashadolin OT3.
Notes: AU
“You’d switch houses too if you had those harpies for roommates. They were the actual worst,” Shallan complained, reaching up with a free hand to wipe the rainwater from her face. She lurched forward as she re-shouldered her bag and bumped Kaladin lightly. “Thanks for offering up the spare room.”
“I should be thanking you,” Kaladin said, holding out a hand as an offer to take the duffel from her. He was already carrying the second one but was having less trouble carrying it against the wind and rain. Shallan hesitated before smiling at him gratefully and handing it over. Kaladin accepted it and slung it over his second shoulder with little difficulty. “When our third roommate just suddenly up and left for New Zealand Tien and I were in a bit of a bind. Our landlord is a reasonable man when it comes to rent but having three people instead of two will even out the utilities bill payment. Besides, I could have ended up with a much worse roommate… like Adolin.”
“I heard that,” Adolin called to them, having moved a few paces ahead.
“You were meant to!” Kaladin shot back. Adolin flipped him the middle finger.
“You two as roommates would be either the best or the worst sitcom in existence,” Shallan laughed, quickening her gait until she came up beside Adolin, nudging him over to help push the cart. Despite having picked the smoothest cart available to them at the time the sheer weight of the load made it a bit difficult to steer. Her hand brushed his and she was shocked by how cold it was. “Geez, your fingers are like ice!”
“It’s fine,” Adolin said, gesturing at the boxes. The raincoat he had been wearing when he showed up was draped over them, sleeves tied down to the sides to keep the boxes from getting more wet than they already were. “It’s… sort of my fault that we never used a garbage bag to cover your stuff--I thought going down Johnson Street would be quicker because of gravity. It’s the least I can do to make up for that oversight.”
“You’re a regular prince charming,” Kaladin droned behind them, rolling his eyes.
“Shut up, Kaladin!” Adolin called back without any real anger. “Are we even at your place yet? I’m fucking soaked to the bone.”
“You were perfectly fine to be ‘fucking soaked to the bone’ for a pretty girl three seconds ago,” Kaladin pointed out. “It’s just five more down from here.”
“Oh thank god.”
Shallan laughed and leaned companionably against him as they pushed the cart faster. “Thanks for the help Adolin. You’re a good friend.”
“I’ll only hate you a little if I get a cold,” he promised, laughing with her.
“Well you spend half your day hating Kaladin and you’re still friends so I think I can handle you hating me a little bit,” Shallan said.
“We aren’t friends,” Kaladin informed her, finally catching up with them. His hair was sticking to his face, swirling like vines on his cheeks. “We’re like… frienemies.”
“What he said,” Adolin agreed, slowing down to a stop in front of a house with a blue door. Kaladin brushed past them both, hand fishing in the pocket of his raincoat for his keys as Adolin backed the cart up at the bottom of the steps and Shallan began untying Adolin’s raincoat.
“Let’s be as quick about this without breaking stuff, boys,” Shallan said as Kaladin opened the door, stumbling into the foyer with the two duffel bags. “We’ll pile everything into the hallway so it’s out of the rain and then carry it up the steps to the top floor apartment.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Adolin said, shaking his head at her when she offered him his jacket. “I’m already soaked through Shallan, I’ll just make the inside of it wet at this point.”
“Well I’m not going to carry it in for you, your highness,” she said, shaking it at him.
“I’m so hard done by with you two,” Adolin complained, sighing overdramatically. He grabbed it from her, slinging it over his shoulder as he ripped the duct tape off the boxes and grabbed the one he knew was full of books and carrying it up the stairs, bumping into Kaladin as he moved to come back out. He wobbled slightly at the top of the steps.
“I swear, one day you’re going to run me over and kill me,” Adolin said as Kaladin stepped back. The taller man snorted as Adolin passed him to set the box down.
“Too bad you wouldn’t stay dead,” Kaladin said, darting back outside. “Shallan and I have theories that you’re actually part cat. I’d have to kill you nine times before you stay in your grave.”
“Yeah,” Shallan said, moving a little more slowly up the steps with another heavy box. “And then you’d just haunt him for eternity.”
“You say that like I’d have nothing better to do when I die,” Adolin said, passing her and grabbing another box.
“You’re petty enough,” Kaladin said, walking by with a lamp.
“I am not!”
“Oh come on, you’d enjoy making my life miserable from beyond the veil.”
“Oh my god, you know what he’d do?” Shallan said, hopping down the steps and back into the rain. “He’d slowly replace all your clothing and the articles he found most heinous he’d destroy and leave the scraps around your house like a gory hipster murder scene.”
Adolin considered it as he grabbed the curtain rods and a large plastic container of art supplies before nodding. “I’d also tailor some of his clothing, so it’d fit him better.”
“The world would thank you,” Shallan decreed, grabbing the laundry basket full of pots and pans.
“Stop mocking my clothing,” Kaladin grunted, claiming the last and heaviest box. “It’s comfortable.”
“Tailored clothing is comfortable,” Adolin informed him. “You just haven’t seen the light yet.”
“Some of us don’t have daddy paying for everything.”
“You don’t have to tailor absolutely everything! Just a few things!”
“Well you make it seem like I have to!”
“Wow. Take a chill pill, guys,” Shallan said, setting the basket down. “I’m going to go put the cart in the back lot, I’ll bring it back to Metro tomorrow. Can you two start carrying the stuff up to the apartment?”
“You just want to get out of lugging boxes up the stairs,” Kaladin said, folding his arms. The fact that he was struggling to hold back a smile told her he was joking.
“Well you know how it is,” Shallan said. “I thought I’d save you both from the opportunity to be sexist by offering to take things for me because they’re ‘too heavy for you, Shallan’.”
“Ouch,” Adolin said, picking up a box.
“You wound us, Shallan,” Kaladin said, grabbing a box himself.
“I do what I can,” she said with a wink and darted back out into the rain, leaving her friends to start carrying her things upstairs. Thankfully Shallan didn’t own much and it took less than five minutes between the two of them, and then Shallan when she returned, to get her things up the steps and into her mostly bare room.
“Kaladin, can I borrow some clothes and a towel? I’m so soaked I’m making a puddle in your kitchen,” Adolin called out, running his hands through his wet hair and pulling off his T-shirt after they were done. He had retreated there where the floor was not one-hundred year old hardwood.
“Aw, I was enjoying the wet T-shirt contest,” Shallan fake-whined as she wandered into the space wearing a pair of blue flannel pyjamas and pikachu slippers she had changed into. She let her eyes rove over Adolin’s chest briefly before giving him the thumbs up and lowering her voice. “Nice, I like this route your Kaladin flirting plan is taking.”
Adolin’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Damn it Shallan, I’m not trying to flirt with him! I have a girlfriend!”
“That will dump you in a week or two if the pattern holds,” she said, moving over to the fridge and rifling through it before snagging one of beers Kaladin kept in the fridge for his guests.
“Are we talking about Adolin’s love life?” Kaladin asked as he entered the kitchen, catching Adolin off guard and hitting him in the face with a pair of pyjama pants and an extra-large AC/DC concert shirt that had seen better days, Kaladin himself having changed into his decrepit old hoodie and a pair of sweatpants. He then paused, looking Adolin up and down. “Wow, didn’t think you’d be so desperate that you’d try coming on to your best friend.”
“I’m not—I hate you two sometimes, I swear,” Adolin said. Shallan smiled and leaned up to kiss his cheek briefly, brushing some of his wet hair away from his forehead with her fingers.
“You love us, and we love you,” she promised. “You’ll find the right person eventually,” she continued, moving her eyes exaggeratedly in Kaladin’s direction.
“Maybe Danlan is the right person,” Adolin argued.
“Maybe,” Shallan sighed, shaking her head and then jabbing her thumb over her shoulder. “Get in the bathroom and change before you make even more of a puddle.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a pond at this point,” Adolin said, rounding Shallan and heading to the bathroom, leaving a small trail of water in his wake. Shallan grabbed one of the tea-towels and threw it down on the spot, soaking up the water and moving the cloth around with her foot.
“Make sure you drape your clothes over the shower rod!” Kaladin called after him. “I don’t want you leaving your shit in a wet pile on the floor!”
“I’m an asshole not a slob, Kaladin!” Adolin yelled back.
“You’re something, alright,” Kaladin muttered under his breath, turning on the electric kettle and then fishing around in the cupboards, finally pulling out some hot chocolate mix. He turned to Shallan and shook the container at her. “Want some?”
“Nah, I’ve got beer,” she said. Kaladin shrugged and fetched two mugs, spooning some mix into them. By the time the kettle was boiled Adolin emerged from the bathroom, rubbing his hair with a towel.
“Someone looks cozy,” Shallan teased.
“I am feeling marginally warmer than I was,” Adolin said, blinking in surprise when Kaladin handed him a mug of hot chocolate. “Thanks,” he said before frowning. “Wait, no marshmallows?”
“Really?” Kaladin deadpanned.
“I’m joking, I’m joking,” Adolin said, turning around and heading to the living room. Shallan followed him and rushed past.
“Youtube party!” She cheered, hopping onto the couch and grabbing her phone as Adolin flopped down beside her, turning on the television.
Kaladin groaned, ambling into the living room after them. “No youtube parties.”
“Yes, youtube parties!” Shallan corrected, queuing up the chrome cast. She elbowed Adolin in the side lightly. “Wanna watch AMV Hell 4?”
“I’m down for it,” Adolin said, scooching over slightly to make room for Kaladin on the couch. He patted the spot next to him and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Come on Kaladin, join us for an evening of sin and 2007 flashbacks.”
“Also cuddles!” Shallan added, reaching over for one of the quilts that had ended up on the floor. She shook it out slightly. “The most important part.”
Kaladin mock sighed, moving to sit next to Adolin. “I guess I can suffer an evening cuddling with you two idiots.”
“That’s the spirit,” Shallan said, grinning as she threw the quilt over their legs and then settled in for an evening of nostalgia and laughter. Adolin slipped down slightly and settled his lightly damp head on her shoulder while Kaladin pulled his legs up onto the couch.
When Tien finally got home from his evening class two hours later he found the three of them haphazardly sprawled against one another in a pile of limbs beneath the quilt. He was surprised they even managed to fit together on the couch without falling off. Chuckling a little to himself he moved quietly into the living room and picked the second blanket off the armchair and threw it over Kaladin’s exposed legs.
“Goobs,” he murmured fondly under his breath before turning off the television and the lights and tiptoeing to his room.
I keep writing, deleting and then re-writing this Kashadolin OT3 fic and the more I delete and re-write the more depressing it gets. I feel like I am incapable of writing a happy ending.
