a list of bhadriley headcanons that i can finally write down... this is based off the au i made-- post-canon ish where bhadra is 21 and riley is 27. i aged riley down a little cuz he actually wouldve been 33 or something to that extent but i didnt want the age gap to be too large. anyways heres my hcs!
bhadra is a college graduate who works part time in sta monica. she's separated from ajay who's in his city in chicago, originally having lived with him a bit before starting college in cali. she decided to stay in cali bc she liked that it was warm
riley and jason are living together with their mom because she's mentally and physically unwell, so they take care of her. riley decided not to follow through with being a pilot anymore but he really does have plans to get back to it once he's 30. but he works remotely so he doesn't have to leave their mom.
they meet outside of the club (i wrote a fic for this already) and riley made the first move because he likes dark-skinned pretty girls and bhadra is exactly his type lol
bhadra usually isn't into white men, but she can make riley an exception because he's cute and sheepish. and pathetic. it's an attractive personality, because he's sweet and also really thoughtful of her and he isn't treating her like an exotic piece of meat like all the other white men she's dealt with
riley's a gift giver kind of guy. he doesn't start out giving gifts all willy nilly but he does start gifting bhadra food he's cooked/baked for her in mind, trinkets and hair pieces and sometimes even just things that made him think of her.
bhadra loves quality time and touch. she's actually pretty lonely, so being with anybody in particular makes her happy. she likes going out with riley even though they might have nothing to do, and eventually the more dates they go the more comfortable she is just holding his hand, hugging him and clinging on.
riley "simpatron 4000" brody is really going through it the more they progress into dating, it's so serious for him. he doesn't know if bhadra wants to make it official but he swears he'll make it worth her time, because the more they get to know each other the more he definitely wants her. he's not like, thinking of wanting to be with her forever but he does hope they last decently enough.
bhadra tends to flit through short term relationships. it's normal, she's young! commitment isn't real to her yet. although dating an older guy was definitely not something she expected, especially at his age where he'd likely start marrying. but she's glad, he's not dating to marry, and if the village elders followed her to california they'd be lecturing her about how she should take this opportunity to marry. no thanks.
they spend hours talking in text and on-call. discord calls would last 4-8 hours because sometimes they just call first thing in the morning and end it once they both need to go for dinner. they don't even say much during those times when riley's busy with work and while bhadra's at her job-- but they both like it anyway, it's having their voices talking to each other that makes it feel nice.
even before dating, they were flirting through text. riley's not a bad flirter, per se, but he also just gives away that he's interested too easily. but he knows bhadra was being equally flirtatious ever since writing that little heart next to her number, so he decided to push through with it.
they're also good friends! riley got bhadra into video games and bhadra got riley into fashion, so they've been exchanging a lot of their aesthetics and interests over the time and like to go out to check out movies for the franchises they like.
riley's also an mcu nerd thanks to jason, but bhadra's more of a YA dystopia girlie and also ironically enjoys twilight. she loves watching terrible movies with people because they're hilarious to dunk on, so she and riley tend to spend dates also doing that while drinking. drunk movie reviews have become very fun.
both of them actually don't drink that much, they're social drinkers who don't commit to getting drunk. although it IS fun to do it alone together in bhadra's apartment <3
