This is probably one of the most personal one shots I've ever written. It's a silly little modern AU thing for @nestaarcheronweek, dealing with trauma, therapy and mental health, and the soft, safe haven we all deserve. I hope you enjoy!
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Snippet below the cut
The puzzle piece won’t fit.
Nesta turns it ninety degrees and tries again. Still wrong. She sets it down with more force than necessary and sits back, flexing her fingers. The afternoon sun streaming through their living room window has shifted while she’s been working, painting new shadows across the half-completed image. It’s a reproduction of Claude Monet’s Les Deux Saules, a pond with weeping willows and waterlilies, all blues and greens and soft lavender.
She’s been at this for more than an hour now. It’s been two hours since she got home from therapy, changed into Cassian’s oversized Yale sweater and her shortest black sleep shorts, and settled at their dining table with the puzzle spread before her like an offering. Like if she can just get all these pieces to fit together, maybe she can do the same with the fragments in her head.
Dr. Chase says EMDR is supposed to help with that. Help her brain process the trauma it’s been storing in all the wrong places, filing memories under “immediate threat” when they should be archived under “things that happened but are over now.”
Except it doesn’t feel over. Not when she’s sitting in that office, following the light bar back and forth while her mind dredges up things she’s spent years burying. Not when she comes home feeling like she’s been turned inside out, every nerve exposed, skin too thin to contain everything she’s feeling.
Adam: Okay, I don't give a shit if it's click bait-y or whatever. But if this post gets 40 notes I'll show everyone early what I'm wearing for the wedding..... Don't show Lu hehe.
Oh my god my wedding dress arrived today and I tried it on and I feel like a celestial princess I love it so much I’m so excited (the wedding is still like eight months away but aaaaaah the dress makes it so real)
In case anyone's curious on a life update ~ my fiancee and I have picked our wedding venue, our date(October 12, 2025!) and our colors. 🤎 This is our color inspo!
We're doing a Nordic wedding - based on what little we actually know of their actual wedding traditions it's more so Old Icelandic. I'm so excited!!
I remember seeing a post of you mentioning going to a wedding dress appointment. Would you be inclined to tell us about it? Did you find ✨the✨ dress? I'm a sucker for weddings, so had to ask haha.
haha I went yesterday!! i'll put this under a cut so i don't clog up everyone's feed because i'm about to gush over this lol
I didn't find the one sadly but it was my first wedding dress appointment ever. It was a really nice experience! The woman at the boutique was incredibly patient and kind and offered really good advice. I wish they had more dresses in a style/size I like/need simply because of the service. I'll be booking appointments for other boutiques/stores for next week. We're planning on our wedding being 6/6/25 at a national park we love to hike at. We're doing it as a small elopement with close family and friends hehe. I'm also talking to photographers/officiants on Monday!
I will say things felt so real when I put the first dress on. We've been engaged for a while and unfortunately had a lot happen between our engagement to now (both of our fathers passed away and then the fallout from each of those situations took a while to wade through) but I'm so happy it's finally here. It took me so long to be able to say "ok this is gonna happen now," like having to look over the corner to make sure the coast is clear kind of shit? It just seemed like life had unlimited hands and threw them at us incessantly lol.
i have yet to tell my mother. perhaps i'll just send her pictures from the dress appointment with the caption of "thoughts?" lol.
but thank you for asking!! i'm incredibly excited to be going forward with all of this. c:
Very much in an ‘always a bridesmaid never a bride’ mood right now 😕
Two of my best friends are getting married within the next year or two, and I’m pretty sure my friend in South Africa is planning on asking me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding as well
And I’m so happy for them, like I love them all so so much, but it gets really hard. I get so caught up in wedding planning with them, I help them pick out ideas and flowers and dresses and it’s so much fun, but then it crashes down on me that I’m nowhere close
I even get so wrapped up I look at dresses for me and rings and pick out wedding colors, and then I just bum hard and become numb. And then it gets really hard to feel hyped while continuing to wedding plan
It’s so hard to be so upset for myself while being so happy for my friends
Just feeling bummed right now, I’ll get over it, I’ll be so happy for them the whole time, I’m just having a hard time right now
