#summerexchange

[whitewingedcrow]

Summer Exchange piece for Belphekit! This character was a sniper bullet aimed at my drawing tastes, had a good time with it.

[mimsiepott]

@lillyevans summer exchange: for @daphnaea

You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart

[dancyon]

Remember the sea (remember how to be happy)

Hello hellooo this is my summer exchange gift for @1980sghostboy bc i love them and they wanted something with beaches and sunburns and jerejean? And I love the sun and the sea and Jerejean so here you go babes. 

In the three months since he had transferred to California, Jean Moreau had never once been to the beach even though the summer heat had been knocking down their doors and burning their skin for at least a month now.

Jeremy and Alvarez both agreed that this was unacceptable, and they needed to keep their promise to get some sun on Jean’s face to make sure he could pull off the red and gold colors of their team

 This, of course, was mostly an excuse. What they really wanted was to see the real Jean under the sun, not hiding behind the walls he’s put up in Evermore.

Jean has not been to the beach since much longer than that. He hasn’t been able to walk on the sand since he was a child, running around his mother’s flowery dress in Marseilles, clueless to how cruel the world would soon become.

 He can’t bring himself to watch the sea from up close, memories of sand burning his feet and his mother’s worried gaze following his moves as he run towards the waves.

 He tried once, one month after he was dragged to this sunny place with these sunny people. Hard as he tried, he couldn’t find the courage to cross the road and touch the sand with his bare feet.

 What if it wasn’t as good as he remembered it being?

 What if it *was*?

But Jeremy’s barely concealed excitement at the prospect of dragging Jean to his favorite place on Earth, Sara’s enthusiasm and incessant chatter and Laila’s knowing smile and endless support made him want to try.

 It made him want to give this new, strange team that had cut a place for him among their ranks a chance to get close enough to hurt him.

 Close enough to choose not to.

Jean wonders how much the Trojans really know about what his life was like before, because on their way over to the beach, his shoulders tenser and tenser the closer they get to their destination, the other three share a look full of something dark and soft at the same time, and fill the silence with sounds and words that don’t hurt and respectful shoulder pats.

 They fill the silence with something good for Jean to hold on to, he realizes.

It works, a little. Jean can feel his muscles relax, and his teeth are not as clenched as they were in the beginning, and he can sort of begin to see why the Trojans are as good as they are

 Maybe their kindness and understanding on court is not what made them, year after year, lesser than the Ravens, but it’s what made them one of the best teams in the US.

By the time the car stops, Jean is calmer, though still apprehensive. He’s in charge of setting up their beach umbrella.

 “Because you’re taller” was all Sara said with a smirk, Jeremy nodding along the whole time.

 He thinks they want to give him something to do, in part, so he doesn’t get lost in his own mind.

 In part, thought, Jeremy is not quite as short as Neil Josten, but his lack of impressive height had always been a sore point.

The beach is… hot.

The sun burns the sand until Jean has to push aside a little bit of it until he finds the cooler sand underneath.

It’s loud too, college students enjoying their summer days before they have to go back to their classes and majors.

In Jean’s case, before practice starts again, two weeks later.

In the small space between their corner of the world to the crashing waves, Jean manages to find some peace as he stares at the blue blue water, Jeremy and Sara pushing each other under and Laila willing her skin to turn first pink and then gold under the powerful sun.

Jean doesn’t move from his spot on his beach towel in the beginning, out of his comfort zone and trying very hard to let the past go.

 This lasts until Jeremy comes back, dripping water on top of Jean’s head and his shoulders pink with the beginning of a small burn.

Jean thinks his heart may be trying to leave his chest as he takes the first few stumbling steps towards the water, Sara tagging his arm but not pulling him along, giving him all the time he needs.

He stops right where a new wave is crashing, the cool water touching his toes and making him shiver.

 It’s colder than what he remembers it being, and the shells look smaller, somehow, as he steps on them to fully immerge his feet in the ocean.

After the first step, the next one is easier, and he suddenly finds himself away from the shore, the water reaching under his chin.

Jeremy is as bright as the burning.  Jean is pretty sure he’s not touching or the water would be coveting his nose.

He loses time like that, surrounded by the cooling water, the sun turning the skin on his face red and warm.

 Jeremy splashes him with water and lets Alvarez climb on him so that she can jump in.

Sara asks Jean once if he can push Jeremy in the water for her because he wouldn’t see it coming. She takes his refusal with a kind smile and pushes Jeremy down herself.

 Laila floats away, still taking in as much sun as she can. Sometimes she comes back for Sara and hangs on her, distracting her long enough that Jeremy can push Alvarez in the water until she comes back up spluttering and laughing in indignation, yelling that she has been betrayed and cheated.

No one tries to drown Jean. Jean doesn’t realize until they are back on solid earth, sand sticking to their wet feet that he had been waiting for it the whole time.

 He breaths a little easier after that.

That night his shoulders sting and his face is on fire. He wakes up in the morning with a pinker face that in a week will be darker

 He’s happier than he has ever been.

[hekaates]

@lillyevans summer exchange: for @araniaexumae 

[daphnaea]

@lillyevans summer exchange: for @mimsiepott

A young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow

[anthonybrxdgerton]

@lillyevans summer exchange for @connorssanderson

You will... never be... a god!

[whitewingedcrow]

Summer Exchange piece for MadMaz@discord of their half-orc bard, Shaz! Really enjoyed drawing this fellow, he had a lot of really cool details that were a lot of fun.

[taminki]