You know what I love? I love that moment in fic where a character fucks up. And I mean fucks. UP! Where the thing that's been building in the shadows, the thing about themselves that they've been warned about but kept ignoring and refuse to work on suddenly rears its head and bites the character in the ass.
That moment where a character says exactly the wrong thing to be hurtful and it's like all the air in the room is suddenly sucked away. That moment where the other character, the one that's been patient finally runs out of that patience and snaps or leaves or just realises that they're done with this person's bullshit.
That moment of Oh. A different Oh than fandom usually talks about. The Oh, shit. I finally went too far and I just realised that it wasn't worth it at all to see how far I could push this person and now I might've lost them for good kind of Oh. It's so painfully cathartic and I love the tightness I get in my chest from it.
And I love it because fic is predictable. Because unless tagged otherwise (insert bugs bunny meme: I wish anyone that doesn't tag unhappy endings a very step on Lego bricks forever) there is a general expectation that things are going to work out. That this character is going to sort out their shit and make everything right again. I live for that stuff. I don't even care if it's cliché. The amount of emotional release I get from a character realising they royally fucked up, doing something about it, then apologising and being forgiven? Mwa! Chefs kiss, 10/10.
