prey/predator dynamic is fun for shane and ilya but would you consider human hunter ilya hunting arctic fox shane for fur. that's because predation in the animal world is an inevitable end and also a biological need, while wearing the skin of your prey as a trophy is a hedonistic want driven by sheer pride
what are your favorite santos and whitaker bff scenes you’ve written? if you don’t mind answering :)
oh i love this question!! i feel like i end up weaving friendship moments for them into practically everything, but i thought about it while i ate breakfast and i have a top five (with an honorable mention i tacked on at the end):
mostly the entire first part of Dennis Whitaker can't catch a break, but particularly dennis waking up in the hospital to see that trinity was asleep in the chair by his bed w/ this convo:
“She’s a bit of a control freak.”
“Hey,” Trinity said, waking up just to glare at him. She sat up and the blanket draped around her shoulders like a cape. “I can hear you.”
“I didn’t realize the two of you were friends before tonight,” Ellis said, drily.
“We’re roommates,” Dennis said.
“I took him in like a Dickensian street urchin,” Trinity added with a smirk. “He’s basically my ward.”
Dennis rolled his eyes. He was pretty sure that she made comments like that to make him feel less bad about taking her money.
2. in take the glory (my gymnast/surgeon garsantos au) when trinity's the one in the hospital and dennis shows up
She wasn’t prepared for the feeling that rose inside of her when his familiar eyes met her own. For the better part of a decade, he’d been the one constant in her life. The first person she’d felt like she could actually rely on after years of having her trust broken, of even her own family brushing her aside. Suddenly she couldn’t imagine what she would’ve done if he’d actually stayed in Denver. Sure she would have been fine, she had Samira and she would never take their friendship for granted, but not even Samira knew her as well as Dennis did.
Over the years Trinity had made a lot of jokes about how codependent they were, but in that moment she couldn’t deny how much truth those jokes held.
Blinking quickly, she tried to keep herself from crying. Or at least from crying noticeably. But he caught her immediately.
Of course he did.
“Hey,” he leaned over, pulling her into a hug. “It’s okay.”
“It’s the stupid meds, messing with my head,” Trinity said as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her face into his neck.
“Sure it is,” he agreed easily as her tears dampened the collar of his t-shirt.
They stayed like that for a long moment, Dennis’s hand rubbing circles between her shoulder blades as she tried to get a grip on herself.
“You smell like an airplane,” she said with a sniffle as she pulled away, done with her moment of weakness.
“Gee, I wonder why,” he rolled his eyes and sat back in the chair. “You know, the fastest route back here had a layover in Newark. I don't think you’re allowed to be mean to me when I spent two hours in the Newark airport for you.”
3. the "i can't believe you got distracted by abs" scene in baby, it's halloween
“The brownies…” Dennis trailed off in horror as the realization hit him. “One of Donnie’s roommates offered me one and he winked at me and I thought— but I guess—”
“Oh my god,” Trinity turned toward him, “you thought he was flirting with you, didn’t you? The one in the gladiator costume? With the abs?”
Dennis didn’t respond, she’d know if he was lying and he wasn’t about to admit that she was right.
“You were supposed to be the designated driver,” Trinity whined, reaching out to shake his shoulders. “Donnie was so bad at beer pong, I can’t drive right now. I can’t believe you let his hot roommate winking at you distract you so badly.”
“I’m sorry,” Dennis said, but as he looked at her pouting he couldn’t help but start laughing.
“It’s not funny,” Trinity said with an annoyed groan. “You’re gonna be on trash duty for the next month.”
“Oh no,” he said, letting his tone turn sarcastic. “Not trash duty. I’m definitely not already the one who always takes out the trash.”
4. dennis helping trinity take off her boots & making her talk about her feelings during her crash out in the second chapter of touch and touch
Trinity leaned down to try to wrestle her Docs off of her feet, they were enough of a pain to unlace while fully sober that she shouldn’t have been surprised when she was unable to manage the amount of coordination necessary and ended up flat on her ass.
“Woah, alright,” Dennis’s hands wrapped around Trinity’s, stopping her fight with her shoelaces and gripping firmly to pull her to her feet. “Come on.” He led her to the couch, where she flopped morosely onto her back while he dealt with her boots for her.
“What’s going on with you?” Dennis asked once her boots were off. “You’ve been quiet all week and now you’re coming home wasted at two in the morning.”
“It’s nothing,” Trinity said petulantly, “I’m fine.”
He sat next to her on the couch and gave her a sad, wide-eyed look, “Don’t lie to me.”
“Ugh, stupid puppy eyes,” Trinity grabbed a throw pillow to cover her face. Both as a preventative measure against Dennis’s pleading expression and because there was no way she could let him see her cry. “I fucked up.”
Her voice was muffled by the pillow, but she knew he could still understand her because he said, “What did you fuck up?” His tone was far gentler than it should have been after being woken up in the middle of the night.
5. their pillow fight at the end of you should be mine for life (the garsantos omegaverse au)
He turned to Trinity with an absolutely shit-eating grin. “It seems like talking to each other actually worked pretty well for you guys.”
“Shut up,” Trinity said, dropping her head back against the couch. “You’ve been silently biding your time for that to be your first comment?”
“No, you’re right,” he continued, “this is actually the perfect time to cash in that I told you so I owed you.”
He was so busy looking pleased with himself that he didn’t notice Trinity grabbing the pillow sitting beside her until it was smacking him in the face.
“Hey,” he yelped as he reeled back.
“Smug’s not a good look on you, huckleberry,” Trinity swung the pillow again, getting his shoulder this time.
“What are you, twelve?” Dennis asked, trying to pull the pillow away from her but she tightened her grip.
honorable mention that i thought of right before hitting post:
the background detail of the two of them being absolute ass at pool from my mowalsh fic watched the world from the sidelines
“What the fuck are those two doing?” Emery asked as her gaze drifted toward the pool table where Dennis had somehow sent a ball flying across the room while Trinity doubled over with laughter.
“Playing pool?” Samira replied, allowing a hint of sarcasm to slip into her tone. “At least, allegedly.”
“Allegedly is about right,” Yolanda agreed with a snort as they watched Trinity reset the balls.
Dennis went first this time, lining up a shot and then somehow missing the cue ball entirely before trying again and finally aiming well enough to scatter the balls across the table.
“Are they drunk?” Emery asked, sounding like she hoped the answer would be yes.
“No,” Samira said, with a laugh, “that would be much less embarrassing.”
