I got this amazing commission from the wonderful and incredibly talented @losingface of my beloved zuri and her secret soulmate, @babycracker oc tanner! Perceive our chaotic babies in one of their moments of zanner bliss🥺🥺
it's been a while but here's a thing 😳 many thanks to @mistyeyedbi for a few things. firstly for allowing me to write her gorgeous oc zuri, who definitely deserves better than tanner. and secondly for being brave and being the first of us to share some zanner (which you can see here) and in turn making me brave enough to share some of the ~60k words that i have written for these 2.
zuri/tanner
~1k words
mature (pretty obvious references to sex though nothing graphic and a bit of swearing)
--
There are stains on the ceiling above Tanner's bed. He can't tell if they're blood (which would be concerning), food (which would be confusing) or cum (which would be impressive). After months in this dingy room, tonight is the first time he's noticed them; tiny dots splattered across the surface of the ceiling. He wonders why he's never noticed them before.
He doesn't have to wonder for long before he realises its because a) he's not here often, and b) when he is he's fucking or sleeping. Not laying flat on his back staring blankly up at the tiny, mysterious spots on the ceiling.
He's already forgotten the name of the guy that left his room an hour ago. Come to think of it, he's not sure he got a name in the first place. Names don't really mean much when all he wants to do is blow his load in or on someone, it's not like he ever wanted to see him again.
This is the first time it's really hitting him how sad that is, too. Maybe that's why tonight he's noticing the blood/food/cum stain. Because for some reason it just doesn't feel right anymore.
The places the guy had grabbed him particularly hard are still a little tender, he can still taste him and feel him and smell him, he's thoroughly worn out. But it just feels different.
As soon as they were done the guy was pulling his clothes back on, barely sparing Tanner a glance as he did even less for him; pulling the sheets up over himself and rolling away, waiting for the door to click shut before flopping onto his back and finding those curious ceiling dots.
It's different from Zuri. Zuri always wants to hold him afterwards, and he's almost always happy to oblige, at least for a few minutes. Zuri always runs her fingers through his hair and touches his face. She doesn't roughly pull it (at least, not often) or only grab his face to make him look the way she wants him looking. Zuri always kisses him at least once more after he finishes. Softly, intimately, not just to shove her tongue against his to let him taste himself in her mouth.
He's always tempted to spend the whole night with Zuri. A small part of him always wants to bundle her up in his arms and kiss her face and her neck and her shoulders and back. Always wants her to fall asleep on his chest and still be there in the morning. Sometimes he wants her voice to be the last thing he hears.
That's what's missing now. There's not much he can do about not getting to feel her, warm and comforting against him, but he can hear her voice and let it distract him from the puzzle that is his ceiling and lull him to somewhere close to sleep.
He deliberately ignores the "2:18AM" in the corner of the screen of his phone and scrolls through his contacts to her name.
It's quite frankly unfair that she's right at the bottom. Maybe he should put an emoji or something in front of her name to bring her to the top.
He's just about resigned himself to having to settle for her voice mail message when there's a pause, and then he hears her, her voice quiet, raspy with a sleepy drawl. "Tanner?"
"Did I wake you?"
There's shuffling and then a stifled yawn before she answers. "Yeah, kinda. Is something wrong?"
Yeah, apparently I can't feel good about sex anymore unless it's with you.
"There are weird spots on the ceiling," he says instead. Anything to get her talking.
"Okay…?" she answers with a soft chuckle.
"I never noticed them before."
"It's two in the morning," she points out, a hint of amusement still lacing her voice.
"Yeah, I know."
Silence for a moment, then a little more shuffling and when she speaks again she sounds a little more awake. "Are you sure you're okay?"
If he was an at all functional person, he'd just tell her. He'd be able to tell her that no one else feels as good as she does anymore, no one else fits against him and around him quite as well, no one else feels quite as right under his hands or beneath or on top of him.
No one else kisses him like she does, can leave him breathless like she does, can make goosebumps rise on his skin without even trying when they touch him like she does.
Maybe more than that though, he can't talk to anyone else like he talks to her. No one else makes him laugh like she does or calls him out on his bullshit like she does. He's never craved the sound of someone's voice like he does hers.
But he can't tell her any of that, so he just clears his throat and mutters, "I'm fine, just couldn't sleep."
He can practically feel her apprehension filtering through his phone.
"Do you need me?"
Desperately.
"No," he pauses and glances down at himself, still naked with fresh, not quite yet healed hickeys all over his abdomen and chest and neck. "No, it's fine. Go back to sleep, love."
The nickname slips out before he can stop it, and he subtly holds his breath in anticipation of her reaction, the small giggle that filters through the phone's speaker before she replies not exactly what he'd been expecting.
"Are you sure? I can come over, it's no trouble."
"I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" he insists, ignoring her offer out of fear that he'll accept it before he can stop himself.
He's never been self conscious about letting people know he's just gotten laid before, either.
"Yeah, of course."
He can hear the smile in her voice despite her hesitation, and it makes him smile in turn, shifting a little on the mattress and finally finding a spot comfortable enough to make his eyes fall closed.
"Night, Zuri."
"Goodnight, Tanner."
--
tags (i know this isn't fandom stuff so please let me know if you'd rather not be tagged if/when i post zanner stuff in the future - as well as letting me know if you want to be added/removed in general ofc!): @admdmrtn @losingface @homeformyheart @mmerengue @agentsunshine @bravomckenzie @freckles-spangledvampire @mistyeyedbi @kelseaaa @amlovelies @forestcreatures @maraudern05 @kat-tia801 @alyssalauren @winterkeys @takemyopenheart
