#ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

Muppet Christmas Carol

Summary: Louis and Clementine get ready to watch their favorite Christmas movie with their family.

Word Count: 749

Read on AO3:

It was the most wonderful time of the year and Louis knew it was about to get even better as soon as the greatest Christmas movie to ever exist started. He could barely contain his excitement for watching Muppet Christmas Carol this year especially since it would be Juliet’s first time seeing it. That fact had made both him and Clementine on pins and needles wondering if their adoptive daughter would like it. Of course they hoped she would but Maisy seemed downright determined to have her sister adore the movie as much as she and Lee Kenny did.

“Come on, Juliet, come on!” Maisy yelled and struggled to lift up her little sister before dashing towards the couch. “Get your butt over here, Lee Kenny!”

“Okay, okay!” Lee Kenny ran over quickly and carefully sat down by his sisters.

“Get the Christmas blankets, Mom!”

Clementine looked over at her eldest with her hands on her hips. “Maisy Christa Everett, what do we say when we ask someone to do something?”

“Please. Can you please get the blankets, Mom?”

“Sure,” Clementine walked over and passed by her husband who was busy getting the popcorn and hot cocoa ready. Taking a moment to steal a kiss, Clementine returned to her task at hand. Louis practically melted from the romantic gesture despite the countless times he had received kisses from his wife. Every single time it felt special to him.

“Do you need help with the snacks, Dad?” Lee Kenny poked his head out from the couch and looked over at Louis with big eyes, ready to help if need be.

“That’s okay, buddy.” Louis paused when he saw the disappointment flicker in his son’s eyes. “Actually you know what? I think I need a hot cocoa helper after all.”

Happiness reappeared in Lee Kenny’s eyes. “Okay!” He hopped off the couch, apologizing when he bumped into his mom before working to help his dad. Each step he took was super careful, making sure he didn’t spill a drop of either of his sisters’ hot cocoas.

“Here’s yours,” Lee Kenny carefully placed down the hot cocoa for Maisy then held out the other cup still cradled in his hands. “Careful, Juliet, it’s hot.”

Juliet nodded and carefully took the mug from her brother’s hands. “Thank you,”

“Okay, got as many blankets as anyone could possibly need,” Clementine announced loudly and worked to make sure her whole family was tucked snuggly under the blankets.

“And I got as many snacks and pillows as anyone can need!” Louis smiled as he sat next to Juliet. “Gonna stay with your siblings through the movie, Juliet?” Juliet nodded and Maisy pulled her closer.

“Yeah! This is our bonding time!” Maisy frowned and Lee Kenny nodded along.

Louis laughed at the sight.

“It’s actually family bonding time tonight, Wiggle Worm,” Clementine smiled over at Maisy who didn’t seem to have any arguments for that.

“Alright, who’s ready to show Juliet the best Christmas movie ever?”

Louis’ question was met with enthusiastic responses as he started up the movie. In just an hour and twenty five minutes Juilet would have her mind blown by this amazing Christmas film.

Soon the overture started filling the household with festive music. Louis wrapped his arm around Clementine and held his wife close before making sure that his kids could also snuggle up close to him. Immediately he began to hum along to the opening song alongside his wife. Maisy and Lee Kenny quickly joined in and prompted their youngest sister to join in.

Juliet still wasn’t sure about all of that; she seemed too nervous to and so she silently watched the movie, spotting all the different muppets and enjoying her family singing along to the movie. She loved how animated Maisy and her mom got when singing as Scrooge, how much Lee Kenny and her dad loved “One More Sleep ‘Till Christmas” whenever it came on the family’s Christmas playlist.

The movie continued on and Juliet felt herself getting lost in the magic of the story and film until “It Feels Like Christmas” started and for the first time since the movie started she got up the courage to sing along. Her family immediately brightened when they heard her soft voice and Maisy bounced excitedly as she hugged her sister and sang along. Louis and Clementine shared a smile and snuggled closer. It looked like they were right; this was gonna be a Christmas hit for Juliet after all.

#twdg #twdg clementine #twdg louis #twdg maisy #twdg lee kenny #twdg juliet #twdg christmas #ericson's diner au #fanfic #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge #clouis

[mydarlingvioletine]

‘Just a Puppy Crush’

Ship(s): Violet/Clementine

Media: The Walking Dead Game (Season 4)

Summary: a zombie-less modern AU in which two dorks finally get together with the help of their friends.

                        Chapter 1

It started out with an invitation Violet found on her desk. A light purple envelope, her name written on it in beautiful calligraphy.

                 Well, it started a little bit before that.

Violet missed her alarm. And six of the backup ones she had set in advance. Her mother had left early for her shift at the diner and her father didn’t come home last night, so she slept peacefully and uninterrupted.

Until she lazily stretched out with a yawn, eyes opening and landing on the alarm clock across her.

                     7:20

She hardly had time to register what it said before the alarm started angrily beeping again.

        “Holy shit… Fuck… Shit!” Violet scrambled to get up, smacking the top of the alarm clock to silence the robotic screaming. She threw her sheets to the side, grabbing her jacket off the door hook on the way out.

While vigorously brushing her teeth, she looked down at her phone.

            15 missed messages from Pain in My Ass.

[ur uber is Here… am outside]

[got your drink & bagel, where are u?]

[viiiioooooleeet]

[ v i o l e t ]

[did you put the key in a different spot?]

[coward.]

Violet scrolled through the herd impatiently, getting to the latest messages, about 15 minutes ago.

[violet please fucking get up i didnt do my english homework i need to copy off of you marlon won’t let me copy his anymore]

[fuck i have to go i cant be late to pre-session but I’ll have brody come check on you to see if you can make the late entrance with her! ill keep your breakfast with me im sure mr. everett wouldn’t give a shit if you ate in class. i do it all the time]

          As if on cue, there was a faint, nervous knock on the door. God bless Brody.

“Be right there!” Violet shouted, quickly throwing her work messily into her backpack. She grabbed a couple dollars off the kitchen table for lunch, threw on her boots, and booked it towards the door.

     "Hey,“ Brody grinned at the shaggy-haired, droopy-eyed messy Violet in front of her. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

Violet grimaced, mumbling to herself as she ducked into the passenger seat of Brody’s truck. She caught a glimpse of herself in the rearview mirror, and pulled up the hoodie of her jacket to cover her shame.

         The drive felt like forever, with Brody’s insufferable choice of music. Who still listens to Coldplay? In 2019? Violet was too grateful to complain, and clenched her jaw to hold her tongue.

Brody tried to hold a conversation, but Violet was too out of it to contribute anything other than nods and the occasional “mhm.”

      “Then Marlon was mad at me! I can’t believe that guy. I swear, if he wasn’t my best friend I’d…” Brody’s voice petered out as she pulled into the school parking lot, backing into her spot next to Louis’ car.

Violet immediately jumped out, gave a quick “thankyousomuchioweyouone,” and booked it towards the front doors of the school. The front desk ladies were distracted, so Violet was able to sneak past them and make her way down to the math wing.

            106… 108… 110!

Relieved, Violet peeked through the window, seeing Marlon’s pathetic excuse for a haircut as confirmation that she was at the right place.

     She tried her best to quietly open the door as to not interrupt the class and draw attention to herself, but wasn’t surprised when the door noisily creaked open, everyone’s heads turning towards her.

Really, Ericson? Ever heard of WD 40?

Violet shyly ducked her head, placing herself between Louis and Aasim. Before she could say anything, Louis placed her coffee and bagel on her desk, a patient smile on his face.

         Violet was able to manage a “thank you” while she was scarfing down the bagel. Cheeks full and a dab of cream cheese hanging on her top lip, it’s safe to say that she did not expect Clem to approach her desk at that moment with the worksheet she’d missed.

“Hey, Vi,” Violet’s head jerked up, meeting eyes with Clementine. Embarrassed, she took a tissue and wiped her face, swallowing before she took the worksheet from Clem’s hands. “Grabbed this for you.”

        “Thanks,” Violet managed to stammer, giving a sheepish smile while pulling her pencil case out of her pocket. Clementine hadn’t moved.

Violet tensed up, waiting for Clem to make a comment on her appearance or tease her. Instead, she placed an envelope on top of the worksheet, uncertainty embedded in her actions.

         "Uh, that’s for you. I’m having a birthday party tomorrow night at my house.“ Clem pushed the envelope towards her with emphasis, and cleared her throat nervously. "You don’t have to come if you don’t want. It’s on a Friday night and I know you probably have pla-”

“No,” Violet interrupted her, her voice louder than she anticipated. She received an exhausted look from Mr. Everett. “I’ll totally be there.”

      Clementine immediately perked up, a dorky smile on her face. “Awesome. Oh, and it’s gonna be a sleepover. You don’t have to stay for that.”

Violet frowned, cocking her head and looking at Clem under a suspicious lens. “You don’t have to invite me, y'know.” She sighed, placing the envelope back into Clementine’s hands. “I get it.”

        Clem froze up, visibly upset. “No, fuck. I really want you to come. I just didn’t know if that was your kind of thing.”

Violet, unconvinced, lowered her eyes and took a sip of her coffee. Cold. The heat of Clem’s hand covering her own was a nice contrast to that.

            Wait.

“I want you there,” Clementine insisted, squeezing her hand between her own. The heat from the touch quickly flushed to Violet’s face, her pale skin unable to mask the blush that covered it. “Please come.”

     Louis and Aasim exchanged an annoyed glance at the useless sapphics. Mr. Everett had stood up and taken an interest to their conversation at this point.

“Clem, go back to your seat please,” Mr. Everett cleared his throat, to which Clem recoiled, dropping Violet’s hand. “Violet is more than capable and doesn’t need hands-on help.”

       Clem, face red and flustered, ducked her head and moved back to her seat in the front of the classroom. “Sorry, da- I mean Mr. Everett.” She squeaked, glancing over her shoulder one more time at Violet, uncertainty and sadness on her face.

Mr. Everett continued the lecture, but Violet was too busy staring out the window. She was completely zoned out. She figured she’d just get the notes from Aasim later. She saw Louis give her the occasional worried glance out of the corner of her eye, and kept her focus on the kids playing in the courtyard.

      The class couldn’t have gone any slower, but eventually the bell rang, and all the tension that had built up in Violet’s muscles was relieved.

She didn’t know why this class stressed her out so much. She was pretty good at math, only the second highest grade in the class behind Aasim. Mr. Everett made her feel uneasy.

     He wasn’t a bad guy. Quite the opposite, really. He was a fun teacher who had gone to great lengths to help Violet out with her work. A little by-the-book, but a big sweetheart.

   Plus, he picked on Louis a lot. So he was pretty likeable in her eyes.

Clementine had gone up to Mr. Everett and they were now talking, Clem dropping the classroom decorum to tug on his arm and take a $5 dollar bill out of his wallet for lunch.

        Violet didn’t realize she was staring until both of their gazes landed on her. Startled, she pulled her hoodie back over her head and started gathering her books as quick as she could. She could hear distant murmuring, but couldn’t make anything out.

Her panic was interrupted by Louis swinging an arm around Violet’s shoulders, holding an almost identical envelope up in front of her face, but it was green.

     "If it’s about transportation, I can pick you up. C'mon, the Vi I know and love would never miss out on a chance to get her ass handed to her in Super Smash Bros.“ Louis teased, earning a playful punch on the shoulder from Violet.

"Yeah, right,” Violet rolled her eyes, looking over at Aasim to see he also had one, but orange. “You going?”

       "Nah, my moms are taking me camping this weekend.“ Aasim chirped, a glint of mischievousness in his voice. Noticing the curious glances from his two friends, he cracked an evil grin and spoke one word. "Campfire.”

“Smokey the Bear, Aasim,” Violet giggled, shaggy hair falling in front of her eyes. “What can you do to prevent forest fires?”

       Louis laughed while Aasim rolled his eyes, picking up his backpack and swinging it over his shoulder. “I’ll see you guys at lunch.”

Aasim was gone for what seemed like half a second when Clementine appeared at her desk again, followed by Mr. Everett. Violet froze, her grip on her books tight.

      “My dad wants to introduce himself. Not as Mr. Everett, but as ‘Cool Dad Lee.’” Clem raised her hands to make air quotes, while Le- Mr. Everett held out his hand to shake Violets’.

        Bewildered, she shook his hand.

“Hello, Violet,” Mr. Everett looked happy, glancing between Clem and she. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

      That line earned an elbow in the stomach from Clementine. Violet, still frozen, gave a robotic laugh.

“Oh, I wanted to tell you to ignore that part of the envelope where it says 'presents mandatory.’ My mom is a bit of a smart-ass.” Clem snorted, before cocking an eyebrow over at Louis. “Not you though, rich boy.”

       Louis gave her some finger guns, a big, goofy smile on his face. “Respect for that.”

The second bell rang, interrupting the conversation. Violet threw her backpack over her shoulder, and shot a glance towards Louis. “Fuck, Ms. Martin is gonna be so pissed.”

       "I’ll write you a pass. Don’t worry about it.“ Mr. Everett pulled a notepad out of his pocket and took the pen that was perched on Clementine’s ear. "Just.. try to make sure he actually gets there.” Mr. Everett gestured to Louis, who gave a mock gasp at the implication.

“Will do,” Violet promised, grabbing Louis by the neck of his coat. “I’ll uh.. see you two tomorrow night.”

      “You’re coming?” Clem squealed, her eyes giving away how happy she was. Violet nodded sheepishly, looking back at Mr. Everett before dragging Louis out of the classroom.

“I like that girl,” Lee stated, capitalizing on the blush that had taken over Clem’s cheeks. “Reminds me of someone.”

     Clementine rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently as he made up a pass for her. “That’s good…”

Lee tore off the front page of the notepad, and held it high before giving it to Clem. “You have my blessing.”

Clementine’s flustered state turned into a fit of anger, as she jumped up to try and grab the pass out of his hand. “Shut. Up.” Clem grabbed onto the slip, wrenching it out of his arm. “I introduce you as my Cool Dad and this is how you repay me?”

      Lee chuckled, putting the pen back behind her ear. “If you think I’m bad, just wait ‘til Carley sees her.. Oh, boy.. Her cheeks are gonna be red from all that pinching.”

Clementine huffed and stomped out of the classroom, putting all of her weight onto her prosthetic foot, so it noisily clattered. She kept up the noise until she knew she was out of ear shot, and smiled to herself, bunching the bottom of her sweatshirt up in her hands.

          Her seventeenth birthday was going to be perfect.

#twdg #the walking dead game #twdg violet #twdg clementine #twdg louis #twdg aasim #twdg ruby #twdg brody #twdg spoilers #twdg s4 #clementine x violet #violet x clementine #violetine #violentine

[ericsonclan]

The Nuttiest Nutcracker

Summary: AJ and Telulah watch a Christmas movie.

Word Count: 783

Read on AO3:

AJ wasn’t sure what he was expecting when Telulah asked him to watch a childhood Christmas movie with him. He sure didn’t anticipate seeing a large rat king wearing a full-body suit with the letter R and a yellow cape singing about how he was the big cheese. Telulah sang along happily, completely content wrapped in her boyfriend’s arms on the couch. The smile on her face hadn’t left since the memorable opening with the Sugar Plum Fairy and while AJ always loved seeing her smile he really didn’t get why she had such a soft spot for the movie.

The teen’s nose scrunched in confusion as he watched on but he was confused. As far as he could tell this was just a very cheaply made adaptation of the Nutcracker. The animations were low quality and sometimes downright goofy to look at. AJ sorta got parts of why she liked it: the humor wasn’t good at all but it was stupid fun and it did have talking fruits and veggies. AJ definitely knew the appeal of that part considering how many times he had watched and rewatched Disco Broccoli and Friends over the years. Hell, he was surprised that he hadn’t burned right through the disc of the Christmas DVD special with how many times he had seen it. It became even more shocking when the number of rewatches skyrocketed ever since Telulah entered his life. AJ kept thinking about it for a moment until he was pulled back into the movie when he heard his girlfriend’s voice again.

“Food fight!” Telulah yelled along with one of the talking foods on the screen. Immediately all the different fruits, vegetables, and nuts got up from their hiding spots on the table and attacked. The oranges all struck poses from their basket before diving headfirst down to the floor, crushing the enemy rats with their round bodies. The pears all shimmied down the tablecloth and joined in to vanquish the enemy aided by the asparagus who blocked the way with their heads. Black-eyed peas used noodles to vault down and it seemed like everything was going their way.

Telulah chuckled at all the different ways the animated food was attacking but what really got her in stitches was when the beans started to make their way forward. With each step forward they let out a loud fart that added to the large, pungent green cloud behind them. Toot after toot emitted from the beans as they charged towards the rats and for the first time since the movie started AJ let out a loud laugh. He couldn’t stop himself during the whole sequence. What could he say? Farts were funny. He always thought they were and he knew that his humor had and would stay in the toilet. Soon both AJ and Telulah were so loud and laughing with so much vigor that they had to stop the movie for a minute.

“Whew, oh boy, that was so funny,” Telulah tried to take a few more deep breaths but she devolved into another set of giggles. AJ wasn’t doing much better as his laughter only grew stronger when he heard his girlfriend’s.

“You should’ve warned me about the beans,”

“No way! The beans are the best part of that scene - I wasn’t gonna spoil it for you. They had to creep up on you like a surprise fart attack.” Telulah tilted her head back to look up at her boyfriend as he laughed. The sight made the smile on her lips grow. She always loved his laugh. It was the cutest.

“Yeah, it definitely surprised me.” AJ took a deep breath and settled back into the couch. “Okay, so this movie isn’t half bad.”

“Half bad- This is the greatest Christmas movie of all time!” Telulah declared loudly then spotted the look of disbelief on her boyfriend’s face. “Okay, so it’s a guilty pleasure and isn’t the best Christmas movie ever. That honor goes to A Charlie Brown Christmas and I’ll die on that hill.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah! Sorry, babe. Muppet Christmas Carol breaks the top five though,” Telulah smirked when she saw AJ’s eyes go large.

“Top five?!? It should be number one!”

“It is in your heart, baby, and for me it’s top three.” Telulah noticed the signature pouty frown appear. “Okay, Grumpy Bear, let’s get back to the movie before the Christmas cheer is ruined.”

“Okay,” AJ continued to sulk as he held Telulah closer. “But we’re going back two minutes to the bean scene. I’m not budging on it, T.”

Telulah laughed from within her boyfriend’s arm before tilting her head back and pressing a kiss to his chin. “Deal.”

#twdg #twdg aj #twdg telulah #twdg alulah #twdg christma #ericson's diner au #fanfic #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge

[ericsonclan]

You’ll Always Be My Sweetpea

Summary: Clementine comes out to Lee.

Word Count: 1541

Read on AO3:

Clementine kept picking at her nails. She felt sick to her stomach, the knots kept getting tighter and tighter as her mind spun. She had known that she was bi for a long time. A few years before she even met Lee. She had never really felt any shame about that fact or discomfort. Instead when she had discovered that about herself everything seemed to click. She was comfortable in her own skin and who she was. That would never change. But no matter how comfortable she felt, it was always nerve-wracking, the idea that someone Clementine trusted deeply would reject her for a part of who she was.

That thought terrified her to her core. But she had waited for this day. Waited until she was eighteen just in case everything went to shit. That way if Lee rejected her and didn’t want her as a part of his life at the very least she wouldn’t be put back into the system. Those days were gone now and that would be a guaranteed positive no matter the outcome of this situation.

She had no reason to not come out. No reason except fear. Well, fuck it. Clementine wasn’t the type to live by fear’s decree and she wasn’t going to start now.

Slowly getting up from her bed, Clementine made her way down the stairs towards the kitchen. The smell of pulled pork wafted through the air but she couldn’t focus on that. Her nerves made her feet feel like they were filled with lead and her gut pricked with the sensation of needles with each breath.

Sharp and anxiety-inducing.

Clementine wouldn’t back out though, no matter what.

Lee hummed a happy tune as he shook his hips. The movement caused his apron to sway as he snapped his lobster claw oven mitts together. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t excited for dinner. Pulled pork and mild barbeque sauce, tucked away safely in toasted buns and served with a heaping side of coleslaw. It was a great dinner to have and Lee for one couldn’t wait to dig in. He was about to work some more on the coleslaw when suddenly his phone rang. After an awkward moment of spinning around and trying to answer with oven mitts on, Lee conceded and lobbed off his mitts. “Hello?”

Lee was greeted by his brother’s warm laughter. “What’s got you all in a huff?”

“Trying to answer the phone while wearing lobster claws. I don’t recommend it.” Lee replied as he turned on the light to see how the buns were doing.

“Noted. Guess that's one wish I won’t be using if I ever come across a genie.”

“Lobsters seem to have a harder life than we give them credit for. So, what’s up, Baylor?”

“Mmm, nothing much. Just checking in, seeing how life with your kids is going.” Baylor’s calm voice put Lee at ease like it usually did.

“Things are going well. Both Clem and AJ are doing fine. How are Mom and Dad? How’s the pharmacy?” Lee pressed the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he worked to cut up some cabbage.

“Mom and Dad are doing well. The store too.”

“Is Dad still zipping around on his cane?”

Baylor’s laughter lit up the other line again. “Yeah, even whooped a shoplifter with it.”

“Damn, guess that cane still protects that place better than any guard dog,” Lee haphazardly plopped the cabbage into a bowl and kept working on the coleslaw.

“Yeah. So life is good in Macon. In fact, I met-”

“Shit! My buns are burning!” Lee exclaimed as he worked to turn off the oven.

“Wait, like your actual ass or-”

“Listen, I’ll call you back later. Tell Mom and Dad I say hi,” Lee hung up the phone before his brother could say anything else. Tossing his phone on the counter he got the oven mitts back on and pulled the buns out. Luckily they weren’t that burnt at all and after some last-minute touches dinner was set.

“Dinner smells good,” Clementine mumbled as she sat down at the table. AJ’s footsteps appeared a second later on the staircase before his scampering form skidded to a halt by the table. Plopping onto his seat he excitedly got ready to chow down.

“Did both of you wash your hands?’ Lee asked as he brought over the different parts of the meal.

“Yep,” AJ smiled, his legs kicking under the table. Clementine silently nodded then started to fidget with her hat.

“Something wrong, Sweetpea?” Lee watched his daughter, his eyes softening.

“Nothing, just anxious about life, I guess,” Clementine mumbled, then worked to grab some food. All of her focus was on acting like things were normal. This was just a normal dinner. She could enjoy the meal without worrying about her decision.

But she couldn’t. Food made her nauseous and after taking a few bites to make sure Lee wasn’t worrying, she didn't touch it.

AJ, on the other hand, was inhaling the food. Bits of pulled pork fell from his overstuffed sandwich before he picked them up and munched animatedly, mixing the pork bits with the coleslaw. Quickly he stuffed some potato chips in his mouth and sipped loudly from his juice box.

“Hey, slow down there, buddy. How do we show our table manners?” Lee looked at his son who immediately slowed down. After swallowing the food in his mouth, AJ settled down and acted better. That didn’t stop him from inhaling the food though. Lee didn’t mind that his son had a hearty appetite but he was more concerned about the fact that Clementine wasn’t eating much at all. “Sweetpea,”

Lee watched as Clementine tensed at the sound of his voice. Her hand curled around the fork and she began to shovel the coleslaw into her mouth. All that stayed in her eyes was nervousness but she soon hid them underneath her hat. She was reverting back to some of her old habits. Her walls were going up once more and Lee had no idea why. He waited for some time, making sure he finished up his dinner and that AJ did the same before letting his son run off to rewatch an episode or two of Disco Broccoli n Pals .

Once AJ was gone and the faint sounds of the Disco Broccoli n Pals theme song started to play Lee decided it was time to speak up.

“I can tell something’s been bothering you. It always helps to talk about it and you know I’m always willing to listen.”

Clementine felt her throat tighten as she kept messing with her hat, a keepsake from her bio dad. “I know,”

“Then what’s wrong, Sweetpea?”

“Just-” Clementine took a deep breath. “Give me a minute.”

“Okay, take your time,” Lee leaned back in his chair and tried not to pressure his daughter in any sort of way.

Clementine bit the inside of her lip. This was it. Lee had picked up that something was making her anxious. She couldn't bullshit her way out of this, nor did she really want to. “There’s something that I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time,” Clementine shielded her eyes from Lee with her baseball cap.

“You know you can tell me anything. You know that no matter what you’ll always be my Sweetpea.”

“Yeah,” Clementine took a shaky breath. Throwing away all her fear and the past memories she held of rejection from previous homes she took the dive. “I’m bi.”

Lee blinked at that. Not saying a word at first.

“That’s all I wanted to tell you.” Clementine stared at her plate filled with food. She was ready to get defensive if she needed to but she had to hear Lee’s answer first. Every second that passed though was brutal. Her heart sank to her gut and it felt like she couldn’t breathe. She had been tossed out of homes for less. There was no guarantee this would go well. In fact, as seconds passed one by one Clementine felt her nails dig deeper into her knees. She watched as Lee’s lips parted, ready for rejection. Prepared for everything to go wrong.

“That’s great. Glad you felt like you could share that with me,”

Clementine’s eyes wandered up and saw Lee’s gentle smile. “That’s it? You’re not gonna question it?” Her shoulders were still tense and she studied Lee’s face with doubt.

“Nope, why should I? Who knows you better than yourself.”

Clementine couldn’t believe it. This was the opposite of what she had prepared herself for. “So…” She ventured forward with her questioning “You’re not mad or anything?”

“It would be weird to be mad at you and feel hypocritical considering I’m bi too.”

Clementine pushed her hat up, making sure that her eyes weren’t blocked at all as she stared at Lee. “Really?”

“Yep,” Lee could see the wheels turning in his daughter’s mind. “I’ll put on a pot of decaf coffee,”

He was sure they were going to talk for hours. Not that he minded at all. He was just glad that Clementine felt comfortable enough to open up to him. He was proud of his daughter.

#twdg #twdg clementine #twdg lee #twdg baylor #twdg aj #fanfic #ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

Our Little Drummer Boy

Summary: Mariana and Tenn try to figure out what to get their kids for Christmas.

Word Count: 1966

Read on AO3:

Tenn worked to fix up some cups of tea. He waited the appropriate amount of time, letting it steep before he took the bags out. His mind was still half asleep but even so it was already spinning with what it had focused on for the last few days” Christmas. He gazed outside, noticing that the snow was starting to fall from the sky covering the already blanket ground with more snow. It was really beautiful. He almost felt tempted to grab his paint supplies and paint the scenery. Mariana was waiting for him though, he had promised to bring her back some tea.

Tenn returned his attention to the tea, making sure he made it just the way his wife wanted. Once he was sure he had gotten it right he picked up both festive mugs and went back to the bedroom. His footsteps were soft and deliberate so as to not wake up the kids. Otto and Clarissa weren’t the loudest kids in the world or the wildest but still it was nice to have some time alone with Mariana.

“There’s my Mr. Man,” The playful lilt in Mariana’s voice made Tenn look up to see his wife still bundled up in tons of blankets.

“Here I am,” Tenn smiled softly then handed over the right mug to his wife. Mariana whispered a soft thanks and felt her heart warm when her husband pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Okay, so,” Mariana cut herself off by taking a sip of the tea. A hum vibrated through her throat and she slipped further into the covers. Tenn’s gentle laughter made Mariana send over a look. “What?”

“Nothing, I’m just glad you like the tea,” Tenn placed down his mug then got into bed. “So, Christmas is coming up which means presents.”

“You and I are on the same page there. We gotta start thinking about what to get for Otto and Clarissa,” Mariana scooted closer and dropped her voice down to a whisper. She didn’t want to risk the kids hearing even if they were still asleep.

“Right. I saw these cute cameras for kids. I figured since Clarissa is always asking for one of our phones to take pictures of her stuffed animals that she would like it.”

“That’s a great idea,” Mariana smiled then took another sip of her tea. “Mmm, let’s make sure it's purple. Light purple.”

Tenn nodded “Alright that shouldn’t be tough,”

“Okay, the first present figured out for Clarissa. So on to the first for Otto.”

Both of them thought for a minute, sipping their tea and letting their minds spin some thoughts around. Otto was the tougher one to figure out of the twins. Not because he was necessarily picky or anything like that. It was more so that he was very quiet and internal, making figuring out his interests a puzzle sometimes. Add onto that that he was selectively mute and now things were tough.

“Doesn’t he like dinosaurs? I thought I saw him looking at those a lot when we went to the national museum together.”

Mariana shook her head. “Nah, he wasn’t looking at the dinosaurs. I think he was trying to find Clarissa when she wandered off. Maybe something medieval like knights and dragons.”

Tenn pondered on it for a minute, tapping his fingers against his mug.

“Okay, so that’s out the window,”

“What? Oh because I didn’t say anything? I was just thinking that’s all.”

“Yeah, well I just don’t know,” Mariana sighed and collapsed into the propped up pillow.

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna figure it out, alright?” Tenn brushed his hand up and down Mariana’s arm but he could see she was stuck in her head. “Sweetheart?”

“Hmm? Yeah, yeah I know. I just-” Another sigh escaped her lips. “I want to make sure we get both of them great gifts.”

“We will.” Tenn gave a reassuring smile. Something about that helped Mariana’s nerves settle and she took a deep breath.

“You’re right.”

The couple took a moment to calm down before getting back to the drawing board but it seemed as though they had run out of time when they heard their oldest’s voice.

“Mom?”

“I better go check on her. You can finish up your tea but then I need your help in the kitchen for breakfast, Squishy,” Mariana pressed a kiss to Tenn’s cheek then slipped out of bed. Tenn watched his wife as he drank his tea. He made sure he didn’t spend too long though, not when he needed to help out. The Christmas gift planning would have to wait.

Days had passed and it seemed as though they had made no progress at all. Tenn couldn’t help but feel disheartened about it and those feelings had bled into family time as he dropped by Minnie’s house to visit his sisters for a bit.

“Mmmmm, these cinnamon cookies are so fucking good,” Sophie declared as she leaned back in the chair. She quickly worked to stuff more cookies in her mouth despite not finishing the cookie that was already in her mouth.

“Slow down, you’re gonna choke,” Minnie shook her head as she drank her hot cocoa.

“But they’re so good!”

“Yeah, Ren always makes tons during the holidays, so chill.” Minnie scolded her sister before noticing that Tenn was more reserved and in his thoughts than usual. "Everything okay, Tenn?”

Sophie pulled her focus away from the cookies at that. “Shit, did something happen?”

“No, it’s nothing serious,” Tenn awkwardly brushed away some of the stray cookie crumbs that had flown from his sister’s mouth. “It’s just…” He started to fidget with his fingers, focusing on his nails for a few seconds before looking up. “Do you ever struggle to figure out what to get your kids for Christmas?”

“Hmm, nah. It’s more like making sure they still believe in Santa. Now that is exhausting,” Sophie waved around a piece of a cinnamon cookie as she spoke.

“Are you still making Marlon dress up as Santa?” Minnie looked over at her twin and saw the proudest smile appear on her lips.

“Yep! And it works like a charm… Most times. It’s better than warning my kids about Santa being dangerous.”

“No?? There’s nothing wrong about warning your kid about some random creep coming down your chimney.”

“You’re still scared of Santa, Minnie?” Tenn was shocked by that.

“No! I’m not! I’m just being smart with Timothy,”

“I thought he loves Santa though,”

“Yeah, he always leaves out cookies with Ren for him.” Minnie leaned back in her chair and took another sip of her hot cocoa. “Anyways, why do you ask about presents?”

“Because me and Mari are struggling to figure out one for Otto.”

“Oh, well what does he like? Planes? Cryptids? Hobos? Captain Commando?”

“Those are things your kids like.” Minnie pointed out and Sophie frowned.

“Uh yeah, and it's awesome.”

“He doesn’t like that stuff,” Tenn spoke up before his sisters butted heads. “He hasn’t really shown interest in many things.”

“Hmm,” Minnie tilted her head back as she thought. “Maybe something with music, like an instrument?”

“Oh! Yeah! Kids love that! And there’s tons of options like toy pianos and drums,”

Tenn nodded along, taking in his sisters’ advice. “Yeah, that might work,” He tapped his phone screen and sighed softly. “I should get back. Next time I won’t take up all of our time together.”

“Tenn, you took like five minutes. It's fine,” Minnie rose up from her spot and gave her brother a goodbye hug.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Text us if you need to brainstorm some more,” Sophie hopped up to her feet and pulled Tenn into a hug.

“I will,” Tenn smiled and waved towards his siblings before leaving the house. As soon as he did he heard laughter that made him look over to the front yard where Renata was busy playing with Timothy.

“Here comes the winter tickle monster!” Renata declared loudly then proceeded to sweep her son in a hug. Both of them were busy laughing before Renata spotted Tenn. “Heya, Tenn. Aww leaving already?”

“Yeah, gotta get back to Mari and the kids.”

“Okay, drop by again soon,” Renata beamed and Timothy said his goodbyes to his uncle, giving a wave while Tenn pulled out of the driveway. Tenn worked to turn on the holiday music station then focused on getting back home. It felt like he finally had a good idea for what to get his son.

“A drum? Just one, not like a set, right?” Mariana asked as she walked hand in hand to the local Target with Tenn for the first round of Christmas shopping.

“Yeah, I figured it could be fun for him and we could make it so he could walk around with it so he could still play music.”

“Hmmm, I like it! Okay, let’s find our kid the best drum ever! But first, let's grab that camera for Clarissa!”

Tenn joined his wife in the little hype cheer then walked into Target.

The days of December went by faster than either of them thought was even possible but they had done it. They had gotten presents for all their loved ones and had gotten ones they hoped their kids would like. The stockings had been done and Clarissa had already opened her first gift: a color-by-numbers book from her Aunt Sophie. The little five-year-old looked at the book in awe as she joined her twin on the couch again. It was clear that that had been a hit with her.

“Okay, Otto, your turn now,” Mariana smiled over at her son who gave a silent nod then wandered over to the tree. He stared at each of his gifts, making rounds and rounds around them. He wanted to check all of his options before deciding. After what felt like forever he had landed on a round gift off to the side. Tenn and Mariana shared a look and held hands as they waited to see if their kid would like his gift. Otto sat down, carefully unwrapping the Christmas paper. He had a meticulous way of doing so, not wanting to rip it at all. After a while the gift was free and Otto looked at the drum with big eyes.

“You got drumsticks with it too, buddy, so why don’t you try it out?”

Otto glanced over at his mom and nodded before he worked to get the strap over his neck. Slowly he stood up, gripping both drumsticks tightly. He stared down at the round red drum with golden detailing. He seemed hesitant about it for a few seconds and then he tapped the right drumsticks against it. His eyes widened and he looked over at Clarissa when she gasped and showed interest in his gift. Otto stared down at the drum then tapped the drumsticks against it again and again. After a moment a smile tugged on his lips and he started to play a made-up tune on it. The gentle excitement that the drum had given him radiated off Otto as he continued to play.

“You like the drum?”

Otto paused in his playing when he heard his dad’s voice and he gave a huge nod. Awkwardly he struggled to get the drum off of him before rushing over and wrapping his arms around both of his parents. It was a hug that lasted for more seconds than either Tenn or Mariana thought Otto would hold onto the hug. After a while though he returned to his drum and continued to play a tune. The sight caused a smile to appear on his parents’ lips; they were sure it was one that wouldn’t leave for a long, long time.

#twdg #twdg tenn #twdg mariana #twdg minnie #twdg sophie #twdg otto #twdg clarissa #twdg tenniana #ericson's diner au #twdg christmas #fanfic #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge

[ericsonclan]

Jingle All The Way

Summary: Sophie and Marlon work to find the perfect Christmas toys for their kids.

Word Count: 1472

Read on AO3:

Sophie and Marlon weren’t sure how this had happened. They had been so caught up in all the holiday activities, festivities, and chaotic stress that came with it that they had forgotten something huge. They had forgotten to get the one toy that their two kids had been practically begging them for for months leading up to Christmas: the holiday edition Captain Commando action figure with built-in water jets in the toy’s wrists.

“We’re so screwed,” Marlon rested his head on the steering wheel while his wife sat in the seat beside him frantically scrolling through different stores' online catalogs.

“Maybe ooorrrrr this will just make it a special Christmas adventure!” Sophie spotted the annoyed look on her husband’s face. “Babe, it’s gonna be okay. We’ll both go searching all of today. You already called Louis, I called Vi and they both said they’d help us. Minnie and Ren are looking after Raylan and Marley who were practically bouncing off the walls to spend time with them and Timothy. It’s gonna be okay,” Sophie gently rubbed Malon’s back. The sensation helped anchor him in that moment, pulling him away from the anxiety and potential dread he was feeling.

With a shaky breath he lifted up his head and gave a smile. “You’re right. Okay, let’s find those toys!”

“Hell yeah!” Sophie stole a quick kiss then opened the car door and jumped outside.

“First one to find the action figures gets bragging rights!” Sophie called out then was off like a shot, haphazardly trying not to slip on the icy road as she made her way over to Violet who was waiting nearby.

“Be careful!”

“Yep!” Sophie gave another wave and then was off on her quest for the fabled Christmas toy. Marlon watched her in the car window for a minute then turned the key in the ignition and pulled out onto the street. He still had to pick up Louis before he could start the hunt.

“I’m still surprised that you and Sophie didn’t get the action figures like a month ago,” Louis caught Marlon’s annoyed glance. “What? All I’m saying is that I got toys for Maisy, Lee Kenny and Juliet in November and that was just the extra gifts.”

“You know what, Lou, if you’re gonna be sassy like that then I can go on my own.”

“No! Come on, Marlon, don’t be like that. Besides I have good intel that those special action figures are still available for sale at the Target right by Crawford Ave.”

Marlon felt a smile pull on his lips at that. He switched lanes to be able to turn on the right street as they approached their destination. He was gonna make Raylan and Marley’s Christmas perfect and beat Sophie at this Christmas toy hunt! He knew he would because he’d do anything to get those toys.

There were no Captain Commando limited Christmas edition action figures there. Instead, Marlon was staring at a completely barren toy aisle.

“Oh damn, well I guess this is why you shop early.” Louis gave an awkward grin when he saw his best friend’s scowl. “Okay, okay, let’s not worry. We’ll go get some hot cocoa then continue to look. This is just the first store after all.”

Marlon took a deep breath and sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m just really fucking stressed and I don’t wanna seem like a bad dad because I couldn’t get Raylan or Marley what they wanted for Christmas.” He kept walking until he felt Louis’ hand grab his shoulder.

“Hey, they’re not gonna think that. You’re a great dad.”

Marlon still seemed down in the dumps but he cracked a smile. “Thanks, Lou.”

“No problem, buddy. Alright! To hot chocolate and then the perfect Christmas present!”

“So let me get this straight-”

“I don’t know, can you get it straight if you’re gay?” Sophie sent over a teasing smile to Violet who already looked tired of her best friend’s mediocre jokes. “Okay sorry, continue.”

“You didn’t get some action figures for Raylan and Marley so now you’re trying to find them just four days before Christmas?”

“Yep, that’s pretty much it,”

Violet sighed and shook her head. “You and Marlon are unbelievable.”

“Hey! We got all the other Christmas shopping done! What about you? I bet you haven’t gotten everything you need for Allison and your grandkids.”

“Prish and I got everything weeks ago. A new knife for Allison’s collection, some stones we found during our trip, superhero toys and marshmallow guns for Mitchie and Griffin and cute baby clothes for Wren. Plus a bunch of stuff we found for super cheap and bought on a whim for them too,”

Sophie was speechless. Her attempt to throw it back at Violet had failed. “Okay well, yeah. Whatever, I love my kids!”

“I never said you didn’t,” Violet grumbled, her back hunched and hands stuffed in her pockets. Sophie didn’t seem to pick up on that though and instead was laser focused on finding the action figures.

But it amounted to nothing. No matter what stores they went to, all the action figures of that kind were sold out. Even after a call to check in on the kids where Raylan and Marley went on and on and on about how much fun they were having building snow castles, Sophie’s mood didn’t brighten.

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. Just take a few deep breaths,” Violet instructed; Sophie listened to the best of her ability. “Feel any better?”

“Nope, I still feel like a bad mom. Okay! Back to hunting! I know that luck is gonna be on my side!” Sophie dashed off before Violet could say anything. With a long sigh she chased after Sophie. She could almost never catch up to her best friend when she was going full speed. Finally Sophie sat down near an escalator, her chest heaving. Violet stood beside her, doubled over in exhaustion.

“Let’s call it a day. You tried your best.”

“No! I’m not giving up yet! There has to be some kind of way to-” Sophie was interrupted when an announcement was made over the loudspeaker.

“It’s time to spread that holiday cheer and what better way than with a chance to win two Captain Commando action figures! Come to the center of the mall if you want a chance to bring home something special for your kids!”

“That’s it! Let’s go!” Sophie grabbed Violet’s hand and dragged her along until they reached the center of the mall where the rules were already being shared.

“...And so if you have the right number on your raffle ball, then you win!”

Sophie grinned. It seemed easy enough. She just needed luck. She bounced nervously on the balls of her feet as she reached into the Santa bag. Violet soon followed suit and the two waited until the numbers were called.

“Number twenty seven.”

Sophie’s eyes widened. Holy shit! She had it! Her excitement made her feel all jittery and she threw her arm up in the air to show off her winning number when suddenly she bumped into someone, causing the raffle ball to bounce on the ground.

“Shit!” Sophie dashed after the ping pong ball, running back and forth down the escalator to try and grab it as it fell but it was too quick. The ball kept bouncing and bouncing until it landed in a kids’ play pit.

“What the hell are you doing!’ Violet called out as she watched Sophie dive head first into the ball pit.

“Winning!” Sophie declared. She kept searching until finally she found it. Using all the strength of her lungs, she shouted, “I have the winning number!!!” She rushed back up and pushed her through the crowd, apologizing until she got to the front.

When she arrived she accepted the toy with an exhilarated grin and stared at it as though she was holding priceless treasure. She was so caught up in the moment. “This is great! Now all we need is for your number to win! Show me your ball, Vi!” Violet rolled her eyes at the wording then grumbled as she held up the lottery ball. Both of them waited with tense breaths.

“Number forty eight.”

Immediately Sophie’s optimism deflated. It wasn’t the right number.

“That’s my number!”

Moments later Marlon moved forward before he spotted Sophie and paused in shock. “Sophie?”

“Marlon?”

“What are you doing here?” The married couple asked at the same time.

“I’m winning an action figure,” Marlon explained as he accepted the prize. A happy laugh left Sophie’s lips at that and he looked over with slight confusion. “What?”

“Guess we didn’t screw up Christmas after all,” She held up her action figure and both of them shared a happy smile. Maybe they were pretty awesome parents after all.

#twdg #twdg marlon #twdg sophie #twdg raylan #twdg marley #twdg violet #twdg louis #twdg marlie #louis marlon brotp #sophie violet brotp #ericson's diner au #twdg christmas #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge #fanfic

[ericsonclan]

Believe

Summary: James watches his favorite Christmas movie, The Polar Express, with his husband Jesse

Word Count: 1105

Read on AO3:

“Jesse! Baby, you almost ready?”

James’ voice rang out from the living room. He sat on the couch happily humming a tune from his favorite Christmas movie.

“Yeah, just need to grab a saddle to work on while we watch the movie,” Jesse called back.

“Okay,” James continued to hum as he worked to get one of Theodore’s many, many Christmas outfits on. The sphynx cat gave a proud meow giving no grievance as the Santa hat was placed on his head.

“Awww, aren’t you Santa’s cutest little helper,” James talked in a cutesier voice than normal as Theodore strutted around a bit to show off his new drip. James cheered on his cat, lost in the little fashion show. He didn’t mind if it took Jesse a long time to join him. In fact, James wasn’t sure how much time had passed when his husband strolled back into the living room with a horse saddle in his hands.

“Okay, I’m here. Polar Express again?” Jesse asked as he sat down and worked to get his long hair away from his eyes.

“Yep! It’s the best Christmas movie,” James scooted a bit closer to Jesse and quickly picked up Theodore before he could step all over the saddle and scratch it.

“Thanks, baby,” Jesse had picked up on Theodore’s mischievous intentions but currently hadn’t had the free hands to deal with him. “Theo is looking cute today even if he’s being his usual little shit self,”

Theodore meowed at that, sounding rather smug at the words directed his way. He trotted around James’ lap, headbutting him here and there and causing the little bell on his outfit to ring.

“Yeah, he’s super festive today,” James spoke in a soft voice then carefully worked to get the remotes. It only took him a few seconds to get everything set up and soon a track from the movie’s soundtrack started to play on the title screen. Not wasting a second James pressed play and cuddled up on the couch while Jesse got to work. He knew that Jesse wasn’t the biggest fan of this movie but he did really appreciate him being willing to watch this movie again and again with him.

Jesse opened up the can of saddle soap and used a damp sponge to gently apply a thin layer of the soap on the saddle. He used small, circular motions to cover every single inch of the leather area of the saddle while also being cautious to avoid the suede areas. He was completely wrapped up in his work until he decided to glance up, watching the scene of the young protagonist waking up when his bed began to shake. It wasn’t an earthquake though; the sound of a train made that clear. As the young boy walked outside to check out the train Jesse was once again reminded of one of the many things he wasn’t a fan of when it came to this movie. The animation. It was shit if Jesse was honest and he felt like the uncanny valley nature of it really made it uncomfortable to watch.

James didn’t feel that way though. The animation didn’t seem to bother him. Instead, he was solely swept up in the magical Christmas joy that this movie gave him. To see this young boy who didn’t believe in Santa or the magic of Christmas slowly over the course of the movie start to believe always hit James right in the feels. This movie always instantly got him in the holiday spirit. He knew it was a movie that wasn’t for everyone but he couldn’t help but rewatch it every year.

As the scenes in the train started Theodore completely settled down in James’ lap, sleeping soundly while his Santa hat drooped slightly off the side of his head. He was getting to the super sleepy stage where his head had become super limp making it easy to bop around his head. James didn’t want to bother him though and instead worked to carefully grab some of the Christmas-themed sweet red bean paste cakes that he had set out as festive snacks.

“Want one?”

Jesse looked up from his work. “In a minute, I just need to finish one more spot.”

“Okay,” James happily nibbled on the cake while listening to the instrumental version of “Believe” playing onscreen. Jesse walked off for a minute, making sure to put the saddle somewhere safe before returning to the couch. He sat right beside his husband and leaned his head on James’ shoulder while James started to play with his hair. There still was a lot of the movie left but Jesse didn’t mind as long as he was with James.

It was the usual emotional rollercoaster of an experience for James as it always was with the Polar Express. As soon as it got towards the end Jesse leaned over to grab some of the sweet bean paste cakes and the tea he had made then grabbed a box of Kleenex. He had seen how this part of the movie affected James before and this time he was ready. It was always the same final few scenes when the young protagonist held onto the bell that Santa had given him. A bell whose sweet whimsical notes could only be heard by those who believed. At first, the protagonist and his sister Sarah could hear the bell, excitedly ringing it constantly even though their parents couldn’t hear the bell at all. But as more time passed all of the boy’s friends and his sister could no longer hear the bell even though the boy could as an adult.

James started to fan his face, trying to stop himself from crying. “It’s so emotional. I know it’s stupid but he never stopped believing even though everyone else had.”

Jesse took some tissues and handed them over to his husband then started to rub his back. “It’s not stupid.”

James nodded and wiped away at his eyes before taking a few deep breaths. “Wow, what a movie. Now it really feels like Christmas,”

Jesse had a somewhat teasing smile at that. He couldn’t help it. Still, he knew that his husband loved that movie to pieces even if he never understood why. “Wanna go for a walk to get some fresh air? I think it started snowing again.”

“Sure, I just need to figure out how to move Theo somewhere safe where he can nap.”

Jesse shook his head and gave a lighthearted laugh as he worked to grab a pillow.

“What?”

“Nothing, you’re just really cute sometimes. That’s all.”

#twdg #twdg james #twdg jesse #twdg theodore #twdg messe #ericson's diner au #twdg christmas #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge #fanfic

[ericsonclan]

It’s a Wonderful Life

Summary: Aasim struggles with work stress around the holidays.

Word Count: 1574

Read on AO3:

Everything felt like it was falling apart. Aasim had hoped that by some sort of miracle the holiday season wouldn’t be a hectic, frantic time but it was. He could handle that when it came to life outside his job but now things were starting to get crazy there too. His firm had just lost a big client and the worry and after-effects were almost immediate with his staff. Aasim couldn’t blame them for feeling that way; it was one of the worst times of year for it to happen.

He knew he would have to buckle down and find ways to make sure that this didn’t mess with his employees’ salaries or put a stain on his accounting firm. Still, that was easier said than done and all Aasim could feel was stressed and shitty for how things had gotten to this point. Hours slipped through his fingers as he tried his best to find new clients and talk with some of the employees on what the right next steps would be. There never seemed to be enough time though and for a split second he considered starting to burn the midnight oil and stay later at work.

That wouldn’t be fair to Ruby though. He’d promised her that he wouldn’t get caught up in his work this holiday season and that he’d be sure to spend quality time with family.

With a long sigh, Aasim got up and worked to get his slim-fit winter coat on. He grabbed the homemade mittens Ruby had made for him and slipped them on. He said some quick goodbyes to the employees he’d just had a meeting with, wishing them a merry Christmas before heading outside.

The sharp cold made Aasim shiver even with all the warm clothes he was wearing. Snow started to fall down from the sky blanketing everything it could where it landed. Aasim couldn't take in the simple beauty of the winter weather. Instead his mind was still heavy with all the worries that he had at the firm. How would he be able to solve this? Would it affect some of the employees’ salaries? He couldn’t do that during the holiday season. Aasim’s head felt foggy with everything as he exhaled sharply, causing a thin fog to appear in the air. He decided to take the longer way to his car. He needed some time to think.

It did him no good, however, as the more he thought about things the more he got down in the dumps about everything. This day had gone to hell and it seemed like that would hold true at the firm until they found another big-time client. Christmas music began to play over the radio as he started the car. He immediately turned it off then turned up the heat before carefully driving onto the road and towards home.

The usual pleasantness that came with driving home during this hour remained. The sky was a beautiful deep blue flickering with stars while snowflakes slowly drifted down and added to the snow that was bathed in the warm rays of street lamps. All of that was lost on Aasim though as he impatiently tapped his fingers on the top of the car wheel while he waited for a green light. Every small inconvenience was really getting under his skin.

Finally, he arrived home. Pulling into the driveway Aasim turned the key in the ignition harshly then yanked it out. He gloomy walked across the freshly shoveled walkway to the front door. Once he opened it he was hit with the warmth of the house and the smell of freshly baked cookies and popcorn. The sound of Christmas music floated through the air all the way from the back living room and he heard his kids in the kitchen.

“You’re finally home!” Ruby bustled forward and got on her tiptoes to give her husband a welcome home kiss. “How was work?”

Aasim stayed silent for a second as he worked to get his coat and boots off.

“Pookie?”

“It was alright. Just stressful and-” He caught himself before he started to vent about the situation. “I’m just really tired.” His face remained turned downward until he felt his wife’s arms around him. Ruby held onto him for a few seconds, gently rubbing his back.

“Why don’t you sit down at the dining room table and I’ll grab you a cup of cocoa?”

“Okay,” Aasim held onto his wife’s warmth for a few seconds more then watched as she bustled back towards the kitchen. Aasim closed his eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths to shed off the worries of work and unwind. After that he made his way towards the dining room table, hearing his children’s voices more clearly as he got closer.

“I think it's a great idea. Uncle Omar gave us that food airbrush to use it. Savannah, you think it’s a good idea, right?” Zachariah looked over to his younger sister who was busy helping her mom get the cups of cocoa ready.

“Yeah, it would be super cute if we had red and green popcorn for the movie tonight. Just wait until I’m done helping Momma,” she added at the last second. But it seemed like Aniyah wasn't listening as she was already working to get the dye into the airbrush.

“Wait! Savannah should help us!” Zacharaiah huffed as his youngest sister didn’t seem to listen.

“Why?”

“Because we don’t know how to use it.”

“It's just point and spray, right? Like this.” Aniyah held out the airbrush and causally sprayed her brother with it. Zachariah exclaimed loudly and backstepped quickly.

“Aniyah! Mom!”

“Aniyah Sadie Laghari, don’t go spraying your brother with paint,” Ruby stomped on over with a frown that made Aniyah’s usual smirk disappear.

While Ruby was scolding her youngest and making sure she helped Zachariah clean up the mess on shirt, Savannah came over to the dining room table with hot cocoa.

“Here you go, Dad,” Savannah smiled as she held out the mug.

“Thank you,” Aasim gave a soft smile as he accepted the warm drink.

“Tough day at work?”

Aasim glanced up. “Mmm, yes, but nothing that you have to worry about.”

Savannah nodded along thoughtfully for a moment. “Sorry that your work day wasn’t great, but tonight is gonna be awesome! We’re gonna decorate Christmas cookies and watch a movie together. We’re even trying to decorate the popcorn to make it festive!”

“I can see that,” Aaasim took another sip of the hot cocoa then placed it on the table. “Why don’t I help with that?”

“Okay, I’ll help too!” Savannah followed after her dad and the two of them worked on getting the popcorn ready.

“I think you three unintentionally made this more difficult than it needed to be. You can add some dye to a bit of butter and evenly coat your popcorn kernels that way.” Savannah’s eyes went wide at the suggestion. “You’re right. Makes sense since you’re always super smart!”

Aasim smiled at that and then got to work helping his daughter with the popcorn. When Aniyah and Zachariah got back the popcorn was already set to go.

“Everything seems set there,” Aasim turned around and was surprised when Aniyah gave him a hug.

“Welcome home, Dad,” She then let go and spun around on her heel. “I think we should do a competition with Christmas cookie decorating.”

“Sounds good to me,” Zachariah gave his dad a welcome home hug then sat down at the table. “Let’s do kids versus parents.”

“Ooo! Yes!” Savannah grinned and sat down beside her brother.

“Won’t the butter mess with the texture of the popcorn soon?” Aasim pointed out but all his kids seemed too excited about this competition to consider the popcorn.

“Come on, Pookie, let’s show these kids a thing or two about decorating,” Ruby grabbed her husband’s hand and guided him over towards the table.

“Alright, my Dove.” He pulled out a chair for his wife then sat down next to her. “You three better be ready.”

“We totally are. We’re gonna kick your butts even with Zach on our team!” Aniyah declared loudly then pulled some bowls of frosting closer to her.

“Yeah! Wait, what? What’s wrong with me?” Zachariah huffed and sent a glare over at his youngest sibling.

Aniyah shrugged. “Don’t feel like answering. So, Savannah, I’ll be on sprinkle duty.”

“Wait, don’t change the topic!”

Soon the three siblings were all talking animatedly while Ruby grabbed her own bowls of frosting. “Come on, let’s get a head start on them,” A competitive smile pulled on Ruby’s lips.

Aasim nodded but didn’t work right away. Instead he took in this moment.

All the stress and worries he had were melting away. He watched as his kids continued to tease each other then looked over at his wife who continued to try to hold onto his hand for as long as she could before getting swept up in the art of Christmas cookie decorating. Life had been stressful lately and he knew that it wouldn’t stop anytime soon but still he had so much to be grateful for. A beautiful, loving wife, three children he loved dearly. Without thinking twice he pressed a kiss to Ruby’s cheek then started to get lost in the Christmas fun as a simple truth entered his mind. He really did have a wonderful life.

#twdg #twdg aasim #twdg ruby #twdg zachariah #twdg savannah #twdg aniyah #rusim #rusim family #ericson's diner au #twdg christmas #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge #fanfic

[ericsonclan]

A Christmas Comfort Film

Summary: Brody starts getting overwhelmed by the holiday season so Mitch helps her try to calm down with her favorite Christmas movie.

Word Count: 1312

Read on AO3

Everything was stressing her out. No matter how much Brody took deep breaths and went over the steps to calm down, her anxiety wouldn’t leave her alone. She began to pace back and forth in the apartment as she made a mental checklist of everything that had to be done in the next few weeks. It was not the happiest time of year for her currently. In fact, Christmas always had a tendency to stress Brody out. She loved the holiday a lot and each year it was always a ton of fun but there was just so much to do. The sheer amount of items to do on her list only seemed to grow with each year. She blamed all the hyper extroverts she had been befriending lately over the last few years. Her feet whacked against the floor as she ran her fingers through her hair. The speed of her movement made Oreo and TNT’s eyes widen. Both kittens wiggled their butts, back and forth ready to pounce on the moving target. Brody was completely unaware of their mischievous intent until she felt TNT’s sharp claws in her foot.

“Ow! Fuck! TNT!” Brody yelled and watched as the kitten’s eyes widened, ear tucked down and back arched before scampering off. Oreo looked over at his brother then up at Brody, a pathetic-sounding meow leaving his lips.

“Fine, you can stay but you’re on thin ice, buddy.” She pointed her finger at the striped kitten but Oreo wasn’t fazed at all as he headbutted against her leg.

“What’s got you in a mood, Brodes?” Mitch strolled over with his usual teasing smile until he spotted his girlfriend’s expression. “Shit, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Brody internally winced at the volume of her voice but she couldn’t seem to rein it in. “It’s just that everything is getting so fucking busy and everyone wants to do everything with me! Ruby keeps texting about what day we should make Christmas cookies, Louis wants to go Christmas caroling on Saturday but I already promised Sophie and Renata that I’d help them go shopping for White Elephant gifts for the Christmas work party and-” Brody was cut off her verbal spiral when her phone dinged with a text. Her shoulders instantly tensed and her breathing became uneven.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. You don’t have to answer that right away. People can wait.”

“It’s Ruby.”

“Okay, Ruby can fucking wait. Right now we’re gonna forget about all of them and focus on you. What do you want to do?”

Brody stopped her pacing when she heard her boyfriend’s question. She thought for a few seconds before her lips parted.

“I wanna watch a Christmas movie.” “Okay, then that’s what we’re gonna do,” Mitch walked over to the couch and worked to get the side pillows propped up. After that was done he disappeared into a different room for a minute. “Do you want your weighted blanket or the snowflake blanket?”

“The snowflake,” Brody sat down on the couch and worked to take a few deep breaths. She kept glancing over at her phone that was on the kitchen table, wondering if she should send a quick text. Before she could decide though Mitch had returned and worked to wrap the seasonal blue and white blanket around her. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead then got to work getting the movie set up.

She didn’t even have to say which movie she wanted; Mitch knew. A few seconds passed before Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas music started to play over the menu screen. Mitch grabbed the DVD remote and made his way back to the couch where Brody was laying down. As soon as he sat down Brody scooted closer and cuddled up next to him. His arms soon wrapped around her, slowly brushing up and down her arms as he pressed a button and the movie started. The sounds of bells hummed from the TV as the logo of The Cat in the Hat showed up on the screen. The cartoon cat wiggled his eyebrows as the opening song began. The title of the movie appeared in front of a snowflake just as a small meow could be heard. Looking over, Brody spotted Oreo staring up at them with big eyes.

“Want him on your lap or not?”

“He can come up here,”

Mitch awkwardly shifted his weight to be able to pick up the kitten without messing with couch snuggles. Oreo was plopped down onto Brody’s lap and immediately the kitten began to purr loudly until his brother cried out as well. TNT was in the same spot as Oreo once was, waiting for his chance for cuddles.

“What about TNT?”

Brody shook her head. “No, I’m mad at him for attacking my foot.”

“Okay, you heard her, guess you don’t get cuddles for being shitty.”

Mitch’s answer did nothing to deter the young kitten who jumped up, fully believing he’d make it before he tumbled back down.

“Aww, baby. Mitch, help him up.”

“That didn’t take long,” Mitch teased but listened to his girlfriend and got the other kitten up on the couch as well. It took no time at all for the kittens to settle down and soon the couple returned their attention to the film just in time as the opening credits finished.

Animated snowflakes began to drift down from a dark blue background as the camera panned from snow-covered tree to snow-covered tree. The singing of the Whos started while they stood in a circle around a tree to bring it back to Who-ville. Brody started to hum along to the song as the Whos worked on the Christmas decorations, bopping her head lightly to the rhythm of the music. Her anxiety slowly began to slip away; she had a feeling it would as soon as Mitch set up this movie. This had always been her favorite Christmas film. Brody couldn’t remember how many times she had seen it, probably dozens of times by now. She knew each scene by heart and had the whole thing memorized, so much so that she had a tendency to quote movie lines as they were being said.

“Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot but the Grinch,” Brody spoke and waited for the dramatic music notes to play before continuing. “Who lived just north of Who-Ville did not. The Grinch hated Christmas the whole Christmas season. Oh please don’t ask why, no one quite knows the reason.”

Mitch watched in silent amusement. He always enjoyed hearing his girlfriend’s rendition of the lines. It made the movie better for him. Sure, he had always enjoyed the movie growing up - Willy had been a sucker for it - but there was something special about watching it with Brody.

It felt like no time had passed before Mitch could sense Brody’s shoulders lose their tension. Her breathing had become steadier and she was completely relaxed as she leaned against him. Her soft smile never seemed to leave her lips during the entire movie and that proved true during the iconic song too. Once it started she began to sing along, nudging Mitch to join her. It took him a few seconds but he quickly joined in.

“You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch,

You really are a heel

You’re as cuddly as cactus

You’re as charming as an eel

Mr. Grinch

You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel!”

Mitch and Brody had hit lower notes with the last part, holding onto them for far too long. Both of them shared a look, smiling and laughing for a minute. All the stress and worries that came with the holiday season melted away in that moment and Brody finally started to feel the simple joys that came with Christmas.

#twdg #twdg brody #twdg mitch #twdg moody #twdg christmas #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge #ericson's diner au #fanfic

[ericsonclan]

Walking on Sunshine

Summary: Lee shares a dance with Carley when he hears an old favorite song of his.

Word Count: 674

Read on AO3:

Lee hummed to himself as music played on his phone. Tapping his foot on the floor he worked to grab out all the fixings for pancakes and the ultimate breakfast. Saturday had finally rolled around again which meant Clementine would stop by for their weekly family breakfast. He couldn't wait to catch up with his daughter again and he knew that AJ and Carley were just as excited about this breakfast. While he worked to tie his apron on Lee bopped his head as the song Red Beans was just about to wrap up. As he sang along he felt his fingers slip and he fumbled to tie the apron on properly.

“I see that you’ve already gotten started,” Carley leaned against the wall by the kitchen and gave a loving smile to her husband.

“Couldn’t wait. Besides I wanted to give you a chance to sleep in on your day off,” Lee walked forward and planted a kiss on his wife’s lips.

Carley hummed softly and initiated another one before pulling back. “Did you start the coffee?”

“Yep, it’s all ready to go along with your favorite mug filled with coffee to help you wake up for the day,” Lee placed his hands on Carley’s hips for a second and stole another small kiss when suddenly the next song started and piqued his interest. The energetic and upbeat drums started up and he started to dance a little bit, his feet moving this way and that.

Carley chuckled to herself as she saw her husband get lost in his joy as he always did when Walking on Sunshine came on. When the intro finished up Lee reached out and pulled Carley forward to dance. Immediately the two of them got into the rhythm of swing dancing and Lee’s usual clumsiness seemed to disappear.

“I used to think maybe you loved me- now, baby, I’m sure.

And I just can’t wait till the day when you knock on my door.”

Lee sang along with the song while he spun Carley around and kept up the fast footwork as they moved to a more open space.

“Now every time I go for the mailbox I’ve gotta hold myself down.”

‘Cause, I just can’t wait till you write me you’re coming around.”

Lee took a step back and started to dance solo for a minute, getting more and more lost in the happiness of the song

“Now I’m walking on sunshine, whoa-oh

I’m walking on sunshine, whoa-oh,

I’m walking on sunshine, whoa-oh

And don’t it feel good?”

Carley laughed at her husband’s dorky dancing before pulling him back in and taking a turn with the lead for the dance.

Both of them kept up with the rhythm of the song and Carley’s laughter stayed constant as Lee performed spin after spin with her until the song had reached its conclusion. Lee did a quick dip with Carley and the couple shared the same smile as they worked to catch their breath.

“Got quite the smooth moves there,” Carley leaned in for another kiss but it was cut short when there was a knock on the front door.

“That must be Clem,” Carley looked towards the front door and quickly heard excited footsteps on the staircase. “Someone sure is happy.”

“I think we’re all excited to see her,” Lee turned to go to the front door and see his daughter again but immediately slipped on nothing and fell down right as AJ opened the front door.

A teasing smile appeared on Clementine’s lips as she looked at Lee. “Guess the floor won again,”

“Yeah, keep laughing it up, Sweet Pea,” Lee accepted some help from his wife, giving his daughter a knowing smirk.

“Oh I will,” Clementine strolled forward and closed the door behind her as AJ enthusiastically talked at lightning speed. Within seconds the family got back into the groove of their weekly tradition and got to work on pancakes as they savored each other’s company.

There was never a dull Saturday in the Everett household.

#twdg #twdg lee #twdg carley #twdg clementine #twdg aj #carlee #fanfic #ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

A Relaxing Moment

Summary: Brody and Mitch spend some time together and end up falling asleep on the couch.

Word Count: 764

Notes: Inspired by some hcs @apocalypsebi added in the tags when reblogging our Moody hcs post

Read on AO3:

Brody felt completely exhausted. That shift at Ericson’s Diner had completely drained her. With the impatient couple that kept yelling for her to hurry up and that one customer who kept picking at his food and complaining, Brody was at her limit. Luckily, she didn’t have to worry about any of that anymore. Instead, she could focus on this moment, laying on the couch, her head resting in Mitch’s lap as his fingers caressed her hair. A small hum left Brody’s lips as her boyfriend began to fiddle with her hair. Slowly he ran his fingers through it, too distracted by the episode of Adventure Time playing on the TV to realize what he was doing. He always enjoyed playing with Brody’s hair, he found it centering for some reason and Brody held that same feeling from receiving the gesture. It was nice and relaxing, so much so that Brody was starting to drift off.

“Shitty day?” Mitch asked as he watched Brody brush her thumb against the top of his free hand.

“Mmm, something like that. Not too bad, just a bit frustrating,” she murmured and let a yawn escape her lips. “What about you? Did you have a good day?”

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, Willy and I got to go to an arcade we used to go to growing up. I bumped into Violet on the way there and dragged her ass over with us. She kept grumbling about how she had plans for her free day but we just wanted to play a few rounds on that shitty rundown Mortal Kombat machine.” Mitch leaned further back into the couch. “She ended up kicking my ass and talking shit, but I’ll win next time,” Mitch’s lips held a proud smirk.

“Sounds like a fun day,” Brody yawned and tried her best to keep her eyes open.

“You can sleep if you want. I don’t mind,” Mitch offered but Brody shook her head and sat up for a minute. “No, my sleep schedule has been off.”

“Feeling anxious about something?” Mitch looked over with concern.

Brody shrugged. “I guess, but that’s nothing new. Can’t figure out what’s making me so antsy though which is starting to get on my nerves.” She gave another sharp yawn then glanced over at her boyfriend; his eyes had softened with worry. “Baby, I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Mitch mumbled, a small frown appearing on his lips. A second passed between the couple before he broke the silence. “Y’know, if you want, Brodes, you can stay at my place any night you want.”

Immediately Brody’s face flushed as she whispered a faint “oh” which made Mitch grow flustered in response.

“You don’t gotta if you don’t wanna,”

“No, that’s- It’s just-” Brody was trying to find her words. “Okay.”

Mitch’s eyes widened at that before a smile pulled on his lips. The type of smile that made Brody’s heart flutter as she got lost in how cute it was.

“Cool, it’ll be your first sleepover at my place,” Mitch pulled Brody into a hug and let her lean against him. Brody’s soft laughter quickly tickled his ear.

“Okay, we can paint each other’s nails and do each other’s hair. How’re your braiding skills?”

Mitch grew silent for a beat. “I braid like a fucking badass!” He declared proudly but Brody could always see through his fake bravado.

“Okay, we’ll put that to the test then,” Brody saw him tense up. “Calm down, Mitch, it’s not a big deal.” She pulled back to look at her boyfriend.

“I’m getting better,” Mitch grumbled, his mood souring slightly.

“I know. Hey, it’s okay.” Brody slowly brushed her hand up and down Mitch’s arm. “Come on, let’s finish up the episode,”

“Oh shit! I forgot!” Mitch’s gaze snapped up to the TV. Both of them had seen the show all the way through multiple times but Mitch still liked to pay attention when they watched. He was about to offer up his lap again to his girlfriend but before he had a chance he heard a soft pat and looked over.

“Your turn,” Brody smiled softly and watched as Mitch rested his head in her lap. With a leisureliness to it, Brody started to play with Mitch’s hair, her fingers sliding through it and gently stroking it. The comforting sensation made Mitch grow sleepy immediately. He had barely even registered that he was exhausted before he fell deep asleep. Brody smiled when she saw her boyfriend peacefully sleeping. After a deep, slow breath she felt herself fall into the warm embrace of sleep as well.

#twdg #twdg mitch #twdg brody #twdg moody #fanfic #ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

Not Interested

Summary: Omar shares with Louis that he's aroace.

Word Count: 2126

Read on AO3:

Omar could feel the heat from the grill as he placed down the burger patties. In an instant, the scent of cooking meat wafted in the air as the sizzling grew in volume.

“Ruby, I’m gonna need new fries dropped in five,”

“Got it!” Ruby called out as she worked on cutting some club sandwiches and plating them. She made sure to get the plating just right, having a good amount of fries to sandwich ratio. Once she was happy with the results she dinged the bell. “Table twelve is up!”

“On it!” Sophie grabbed the plates, placing them carefully on her arms before heading out. “To your left, Lou!”

“Oop,” Louis awkwardly sidestepped her then made his way over, ready to help organize orders. “What orders are we working on?”

“The ones for tables seven and ten,” Omar replied calmly and flipped the burgers. Placing slices of cheese on a few patties, he then got to work on the caramelized onions. A soft smile pulled on Omar’s lips as the rhythm of the kitchen was found. This was his happy place. Being able to cook and hearing that people enjoyed their food, there was never anything else quite like it. With Ruby’s help and Louis’ guidance, they were able to put out orders at an alarming rate until the lunch rush was done. After that orders appeared at a slower rate.

“Ruby, mind running the stove and grill for a few?”

“Not at all,” Ruby smiled and handed Omar a water bottle so he could take a minute to catch his breath. Omar accepted the water gratefully and finished half the bottle with ease. As much as he loved his passion for cooking he knew the importance of taking frequent breaks.

Louis suddenly appeared in the order window. “So, now that the orders have slowed down I can finally get to the topic I wanted to talk about today,” He leaned his arms on the window counter, a playful smile on his lips.

“You mean you didn’t want to talk about a dozen orders of cheeseburgers?” Omar sarcastically asked as he used a hand towel set aside for him to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

“Nope, although that was a wild lunch rush.” Louis grinned. “I’m here because I saw this cute girl at a booth who absolutely loved your cooking. She might still be there if you wanna talk with her for a bit,” Louis wiggled his eyebrows teasingly while Omar stared at him.

“Not interested.”

“Come on, man, it’s nice for the chef to talk to the customers.”

“But that’s not why you’re pushing for me to talk this time, is it?” Omar looked over at Louis.

Louis gave a mock surprised face. “Holy- You found out my secret! Yep, I felt like playing matchmaker. Everyone keeps falling in love around here so I thought you deserved a turn.”

Omar was silent for a beat.

“Not interested. Ruby, how are the ribs doing?”

“Just fine. They’ll be ready by the time dinner rolls around,”

“Great, and what about desserts?” Omar had completely moved onto the new topic. He made it clear that he had no interest in Louis’ suggestion

Ruby’s face fell for a second. “Sorry, the line has been so hectic lately that desserts have taken a hit.”

“Okay,” Omar nodded. “Louis, we could use another set of hands back here. Someone with pastry experience would be good.”

“Oh, alright, leave it to me and Vi!” Louis gave a thumbs up then went to check on an issue when he heard Marlon’s voice outside. Louis’ thoughts remained on his conversation with Omar though. Maybe he just wasn't interested in girls. Louis pondered that for a moment then settled on that answer. Yep, that had to be it.

So he changed course over the next few days and kept his eyes out for any guys that Omar would be interested in. Louis took the slower moments in the day when work wasn’t so demanding on him to find someone. He leaned against the wall, scoping out the customers for a few minutes.

“Stop staring, you’re gonna scare them off,” Violet strolled forward.

“Oh, right,” Louis scratched the back of his head with a smile. Violet’s eyes narrowed, studying her best friend for a second.

“You’re acting weird.”

“Nope! Just being my normal weird self,” Louis responded as he acted casual. Violet crossed her arms then followed his gaze over to where it once had been. There, sitting in the booth, was a lanky guy who was busy checking his photos on his camera while he waited for his food.

“Why were you checking him out?”

“I wasn’t, not for me anyway. I was checking him out for Omar. I’m already taken anyways,” Louis glanced over at the guy and noticed that he was finally touching his food. As soon as he bit into the chicken sandwich his eyes began to shimmer. He seemed really fascinated by his meal and stopped for a moment to jot down the restaurant’s name.

“Hey, do you think he’s gay?” Louis asked and waited for a response from Violet but it didn’t come. When he looked over he saw Violet’s expression. “What?”

“How the fuck would I know that?”

“Becuase you’re gay so your gaydar must be insanely good,”

Violet was about to point out that not every gay person had good gaydar but she just sighed deeply in response instead. There was a moment of silence between the pair of best friends.

“So?”

Violet looked up at Louis then rolled her eyes and glanced over at the guy. “Yeah, probably. I have to get to work and so do you so quit slacking off and doing stupid shit,” Violet walked away but Louis stayed where he was until he decided to talk to the guy.

“Hey there, are you enjoying your food?”

Louis’ voice made the guy glance up. Immediately a friendly smile appeared on his lips.

“Yeah, it’s great.”

“My name’s Louis, I’m one of the owners of Ericson’s Diner,” Louis held out his hand and smiled when the guy grasped and shook it.

“Trey.”

Omar was busy with the orders that kept piling up. He and Ruby were quickly in the weeds. All he could do was buckle down and work to the best of his abilities with Ruby. The two struggled in the kitchen, wondering when they would catch a break when Louis strolled in.

“Omar, buddy, guess who found you a guy-”

“Not interested.”

“Come on, you didn't even hear-”

“Louis. I’m not interested.” Omar shot a look over at his friend then sighed when he saw the flicker of emotion in Louis’ eyes. “Meet me out back on my break.”

Louis beamed. “Awesome! Okay, now let’s get you out of the weeds,” He rolled up his sleeves and went to work. It was thanks to everyone working together that they were able to get through that random influx of orders. It had bled into the dinner orders and the rush had lasted until the restaurant was closed. After Omar and Ruby had finished closing down the kitchen, Ruby wandered off to find Brody and get ready for their girls' night while Omar grabbed a water bottle and went out back. A few minutes later Louis showed up with his usual happy expression.

“Hey, sorry about earlier,” Louis scratched his head and gave an apologetic smile.

“It’s fine,” Omar picked at the plastic cover of the water bottle. “I shouldn’t have snapped.”

“It’s okay,” Louis sat down next to Omar. “The orders today were insane so you didn’t get a chance to meet the guy but maybe he’ll show back up soon. He loved the food. His name is Trey and he works as a-”

“Just stop,” Omar cut Louis off. It took him a moment to realize how harsh that sounded. “Sorry. I’m not interested though.”

“You didn’t even meet him though,” Louis pointed out as he leaned back on his arms.

Omar stayed quiet for a minute, debating whether he really wanted to delve into this. Louis could tell that his friend was thinking about something serious so he didn’t speak up again.

“I’m not interested in guys or girls. I’m not interested in anyone that way.” Omar spoke in a softer voice than usual. “I get that you like playing matchmaker but just stop doing it for me.”

“Oh,” Louis stared at the sky for a few seconds. “So when you said you weren’t interested that was for dating in general?”

Omar nodded but didn’t elaborate anymore.

Louis looked over at his friend but Omar wouldn’t make eye contact so Louis’ gaze returned to the night sky again. He had just always assumed that everyone wanted to be with someone. Ever since he was a kid, Louis had always thought that romance and finding a special someone was the best thing ever. Even when he didn’t have the best example of love in front of him growing up, he still believed that. But sitting here with Omar he began to realize that his view might be narrow.

A silence overtook the space between them for a while before Louis rose up to his feet.

“Alright, I got the message loud and clear, I won’t bother you about it anymore,” Louis smiled then gave a quick goodbye. Omar returned it and sat in silence.

That went about as well as he could have hoped for. He figured things might be a little awkward between him and Louis from now on. Anyone that he had told about this always got weird about it. With a long sigh, Omar finished his water then got up to leave.

Just as he had guessed, things were a bit disjointed between him and Louis at first. Omar didn’t really know what to do besides roll with it. The days slowly went by until it reached Friday, a day that all the different couples that worked at Ericson’s Diner seemed to have an unspoken agreement was a date night. Omar usually didn’t care at all but ever since he opened up to Louis, he’d started to feel a bit alienated. Something that he had fully accepted about himself was becoming something he was growing self-conscious of. He hated feeling this way and so he decided to try to push it away and make tonight a fun night for himself too.

As he watched Aasim help Ruby with her coat though and the two shared a kiss, Omar felt those feelings of self-consciousness return. He held onto them until he heard Louis’ happy voice behind him.

“There’s the man I was looking for,”

Omar spun around to see Louis walking forward with Violet and Marlon beside him.

“Got any fun plans tonight?”

Omar knew his answer was no but he wasn’t really in the mood to say that and then get replies about their nights. “I don’t know.”

“Well, if you aren’t busy, wanna come over to my place? Vi, Marlon, and I are having a pizza night. Wanna join?”

Omar’s eyes widened for a second before returning to their normal state. “Aren’t you three usually off with your girlfriends?”

“Yeah, but we make sure to set aside time for friendship nights too. We saw you and figured you might have fun,” Marlon chimed in with a casual smile.

“We’re gonna watch Ratatouille since Mar has never seen it,” Louis noticed the shimmer in Omar’s eyes at the name of that movie.

“Don’t know how Marlon hasn’t seen it. I thought he watched all the rat movies. Figured he connected with his kind.” Violet held a small teasing smile on her lips which only grew when she saw the frown on Marlon’s lips.

“Whatever, I’m not arguing about this again.” Marlon was quiet for a second but caved in. “I don’t even look like one, okay? I thought you were over giving me shit about my looks.”

“Eh, the haircut that you got for Soph only bought you some time,” Violet held onto her smug expression. While the two of them butted heads Louis kept his attention on Omar.

“So, you in?”

Omar thought for a second. The awkwardness between him and Louis seemed to be fully gone. Maybe things wouldn’t end up going like they had in the past after all.

“Okay,” Omar gave a short nod which made Louis’ smile grow.

“Awesome! Okay, you two, you can fight about rats in the car,” Louis led the way with Omar. He struck up a casual conversation with him; his usual energy had clearly returned. Omar couldn’t help but smile at that. Even though it wasn’t something he normally did, he was excited for this friend's night.

#twdg #twdg omar #twdg ruby #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg marlon #twdg trey #louis omar brotp #louis violet brotp #louis violet marlon brotp #aroace #fanfic #ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

Go for it, James!

Summary: James tries his best to get up the courage to confess to Jesse that he likes him.

Word Count: 1346

Read on AO3:

James couldn’t seem to concentrate at all today. In fact, he hadn’t been able to focus all week. Ever since he had realized he had feelings for Jesse, a mixture of panic and giddiness had hit him like a truck. His nerves were on fire and his mind was spinning faster than it normally did.

James couldn't seem to get Jesse off his mind. How his long, black hair blew gently in the wind, how deep and calming his brown eyes were. His smile which was rarer than those around him but just as beautiful. Whenever James saw Jesse’s smile he swore he felt his heart skip a beat. But now that he was aware of his feelings James didn't know exactly what to do.

He was about ninety-nine percent sure that Jesse was gay. He felt like he had a good read on Jesse and James’ vibes with people when it came to that subject had never been wrong. But while he was ninety-nine percent sure that Jesse was into dudes he was also 0.2 percent sure that he was into him. Just because Jesse was gay didn’t mean that he automatically liked him. James was never one to have the strongest self-confidence and when it came to boys liking him he was always sure that they didn’t.

The fact that Jesse wasn’t the easiest person to read when it came to romantic feelings didn’t help either. Still, it didn’t stop James daydreaming about confessing and Jesse returning those feelings. That felt like such a long shot though and most times when James lay on the grass daydreaming his anxiety and doubt would come crashing down. He’d roll around in frustration then push away his feelings and focus on the fantasy of Jesse reciprocating the feelings.

One day when James was daydreaming again, thinking about his master plan for confessing to the guy he liked, Jesse found him.

“What are you doing?” Jesse looked down at James with a quirked eyebrow. Immediately James felt his face warm and he quickly sat up.

“Nothing, just daydreaming.”

“What about?” Jesse asked as he casually helped James up.

The question sent a tidal wave of emotions through James’ veins and he looked at the ground. “Nothing important.”

Jesse watched him for a second then led the way down the sidewalk. “Okay, if you say so. We have some time before class. I can teach you that birdcall if you want.”

“Oh, sure,” James messed with his hair for a second then jogged forward to catch up with his crush. The two walked in silence. James felt hyper-aware of how close he was to Jesse. His eyes were laser-focused on making sure that their hands didn’t accidentally brush against each other even though that had never happened in the past. James was too nervous to function right now though and if he felt Jesse’s soft hand in his he was afraid he’d short circuit.

“So, did you study for the quiz?” Jesse asked as he sat down.

James’ mind was blanking on what Jesse even meant until he realized he was talking about their environmental studies class. “Umm yes, I did, stayed up late to make sure I remembered everything,” James looked to see his hands were moving animatedly. Shit, his anxiety was picking up.

Jesse’s eyes stayed on James’ hands. “Nervous about it?”

“No!” James blurted out too loudly. “I- Let’s focus on the bird call,”

Jesse was silent as he studied James before nodding. “Okay. I figured you’d like to learn the loon call since you can probably spot a few in West Virginia,” he explained as he leaned forward. James knew Jesse had learned all about the wildlife in West Virginia in hopes it would help connect him to the new state he had moved to.

“Okay,” James gave a nod.

“Alright, it's a pretty simple call. Even a dumbass couldn’t mess it up,” Jesse spoke and scooted closer to James. The warm cadence of his voice drew James in, making his focus on other things slip away.

“So you want to put your thumbs together and make sure the nails are touching,” Jesse held James’ hands and gently guided them into the right position. James could feel his heart pounding in his ears as he tried to pay attention to the instructions. “You make the base of your palms touch too and position your thumbs like this before shaping your hands into a ball.” Jesse carefully moved James’ hands. “Place your lips at the base of your nails and it should make a sound. Try it.”

James nodded and took a deep breath before giving it a go. A soft sound emitted from his hands.

“Good. Now, you just have to flutter your back hand like this,” Jesse pushed some hair away from his face and tucked it behind his ears. The action completely distracted James until he heard the bird call coming from Jesse as he fluttered one of his hands. “See? Easy. Give it a try.”

James nodded “Right, easy,” He took a few minutes to make sure his positioning was right then tried his best to do a loon call. It was sloppy and sounded clumsy due to his nerves. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine, you just need practice.” A faint, reassuring smile appeared on Jesse’s lips which caught James off guard. Jesse’s brows furrowed “What?”

“Nothing. Just…” James grew quiet. He should just go for it. The ideal confession plan he had in his mind would never come to fruition, not when he always panicked and backed out. It was now or never. “Jesse, I have to tell you something.”

There was silence. Jesse was waiting to hear what James had to say.

“You see the thing is, well, that is, I want to say…” James started to do little hand movements as he felt his nerves rise. He kept glancing up at Jesse, spotting his eyes then averting his gaze. He couldn’t do this if he looked Jesse in the eyes. He continued trying to convey what he was feeling in words but with the pressure of it all that he had placed on himself he kept fumbling over them and the speed of his hand movements increased. Until Jesse spoke up.

“James-”

“I like you! More than a friend and yes it's in that kind of way!” James blurted out before his face turned a sharp shade of red. Quickly his eyes became hidden underneath his hair and he felt himself internally screaming. He felt like he wanted to dig a hole and hide away in it for a long, long time. There was no way this was going to go how he had daydreamed it would.

“I like you too,”

James’ eyes shot up at those words and he saw a soft smile on Jesse’s lips.

“You do?”

“Yeah. So, wanna go on a hike together? Maybe after class today?”

Jesse’s words ricocheted within James’ mind. He was still processing all that was happening. Finally, his words came out. “Yes, I wanna do that.” He quickly got up and started speeding towards one of the buildings.

“James, wait, where the hell are you going?” Jesse jogged over to catch up.

“Class. We need to finish it before we can go hiking.”

“Yeah, I know that, but it isn’t for another half hour,”

“Oh,” A wave of embarrassment washed over James.

Jesse gave a small, well-meaning laugh “Come on, let’s just look at the clouds for a bit,”

James nodded and followed after Jesse who lay on the grass. Soon James lay beside him and stared up at the sky where clouds moved by at a brisker pace than usual. The two stayed silent for a few seconds before James felt Jesse’s hand brush against his which made his heart do somersaults. Except this time he wasn’t worried about moving it. In fact, he could get used to this. Hesitantly he took the small next step, gently wrapping his pinky around Jesse’s as the pair started talking about the clouds.

#twdg #twdg james #twdg jesse #twdg messe #fanfic #ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

Priceless Pictures

Summary: Prisha spots a photo booth and wants to take some pictures with Violet.

Word Count: 976

Read on AO3:

“Well, that movie was extremely disappointing, sorry about that,” Prisha sighed before giving a smile to her girlfriend. Violet looked over at Prisha, noticing that she was giving herself a way harder time than she needed to.

“It’s fine, Sophie and Louis always drag me out for bad flicks. Even the ones that look good sometimes turn out to be shitty. It happens,” Violet shrugged then brushed her hand against Prisha’s. Slowly she intertwined their fingers.

Prisha gave her girlfriend’s hand a gentle squeeze. “You’re right. Should we go grab some ice cream to wrap up the date?”

“Sure,” Violet smiled as Prisha swayed their joined hands back and forth. The couple enjoyed the crisp, cool breeze that danced on the air. The stars were slowly becoming visible in the deep blue sky as a crescent moon shone brightly. Violet’s eyes stayed on the sky, a soft expression resting on her face until she felt her girlfriend’s gaze on her. Glancing over, she locked eyes with Prisha “What?”

“Nothing, I just love the way your eyes sparkle when you look at the stars. That’s all.”

Violet’s face warmed at that and she immediately looked away. “I just really like stars,”

“I know, there’s no need to get defensive,” Prisha chuckled softly before she noticed something that made her stop in her tracks. Violet hadn’t caught onto it right away though, causing her arm to awkwardly pull on Prisha’s before she realized her girlfriend wasn’t moving.

“What’s up?” Violet’s gaze wandered over and she noticed a photo booth near the outside courtyard of the mall. She studied it for a second then her focus turned to Prisha’s eyes. A hopeful curiosity shimmered within them. “Want to use it?”

Prisha looked over with a small smile. “Yes.” She guided the way over then worked to get out her wallet.

“Don’t. You paid for the movie so I can pay for this,” Violet rummaged around in her pocket then took out her worn-down wallet. Taking out the few dollars she needed, Violet then worked to get the crinkles out of it so that the machine would accept it. She could feel Prisha’s excitement radiating from her with each passing second. “Ever been in a photobooth before?”

Prisha shook her head. “No, I was too busy studying most of the time to come to malls and it wasn’t as if I had many friends that were vying to have me hang out with them. Never went with a girlfriend either. Back in high school, Maren and I were too afraid to be seen in public by someone we knew and have it blow up in our faces. Always thought a photobooth was romantic though. What about you?” Prisha glanced over at her girlfriend.

“Sure. One time Mitch, Marlon, Louis, and me all tried to fit into one. Didn’t work out so well,” Violet shook her head good-naturedly. Working on the last wrinkle in the bill Violet then placed it in the slot. “Come on, you little shit,” Violet grumbled as the machine worked against her. After a few attempts though it finally accepted the money. With that out of the way, both girls got ready for the next few seconds of pictures taken in rapid succession.

“Oh, should we do any sort of poses?” Prisha asked a little too late as Violet pressed the button to start the camera.

“Shit, ummm, just wing it!”

“Alright,” Prisha couldn’t think of anything in time which resulted in their first picture being them with shy smiles. As the next photo was getting ready to get taken Prisha held up her hand, forming half a heart. Violet quickly completed the heart then gave a happy smile to the camera.

“Okay, what next?” Violet asked and was surprised when Prisha placed a gentle kiss on her cheek right as the photo was taken, capturing Violet’s flustered expression in all its glory. Her heart was pounding in her ears as she looked up at Prisha. Wanting to return the element of surprise, Violet decided to take the lead in the final picture. Cupping Prisha’s face, she captured her girlfriend’s lips in a kiss. Prisha’s eyes widened for a second before closing as she deepened the kiss right as the picture was taken.

The two of them held onto it for a moment before pulling apart. Violet felt a smile tug on her lips when she saw Prisha’s expression. It was a rarer one to appear on her girlfriend’s face, a dorky, dreamy one. One that Violet only seemed to see from Prisha whenever she caught her off guard with something romantic. It was an expression that didn’t last forever though as Prisha quickly got out of the booth.

“Let’s see how the photos turned out,” She excitedly grabbed the two strips of photos and examined the individual slides. Violet joined her a second later, taking in how shy and awkward they had been in the first one before slowly but surely they grew completely comfortable and fell headfirst into the romance of it all.

“I’ll be sure to put this up somewhere important,” Prisha smiled then handed Violet over her copy. Violet looked at it for a second, feeling emotions flutter in her heart before tucking it away in her pocket for safekeeping. This was a memory she wanted to treasure and hold onto.

“Should we give it another go or shall we go get ice cream instead?” “Hmm, ice cream. We can do the photo booth again sometime soon,” Violet’s smile grew when she saw how happy those words made her girlfriend.

“It’s a deal!” Prisha immediately took Violet's hand in hers once more and was off, leading the way towards the ice cream shop and lost in the feelings Violet gave her. Every time she was with her girlfriend she felt over the moon.

#twdg #twdg violet #twdg prisha #twdg privet #fanfic #ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

Sweet as a Milkshake

Summary: Gabe tries to find the perfect outfit for his diner date with Nurgul

Word Count: 1423

Read on AO3:

Gabe could feel his frustrations growing. No matter what jacket he chose he looked like a total dork. He couldn’t afford to look like a dork today, not when he had a date with Nurgul. He wanted to look cool, mysterious, handsome not like how Gabe normally saw himself. Still each time he tried a new look he only found himself hating how he looked. When he looked in the mirror in a leather jacket he had stolen from Javi’s closet Gabe knew it didn’t look right. Tossing it aside with an angry huff he searched for a new jacket.

“Something’s got your beanie all up in a twist,” Mariana leaned against the doorway with her usual teasing smile.

“Not in the mood, Mari,” Gabe grumbled and worked on his quest for the perfect jacket.

“When are you ever in the mood for a healthy dose of my teasing?” Mariana kicked off from the doorframe. “So, what’s the occasion?”

“It’s nothing,” Gabe grumbled, tossing aside some failed choices. Mariana watched her older brother for a minute before a smile appeared on her lips.

“Are you getting ready for a date with Nurgul?”

Gabe froze. She had guessed right.

“Aha, that explains everything,”

“No, it doesn’t! Maybe I’m just trying on jackets to be cool,”

“Oh yeah?” Mariana sat down on the bed. “Then why are your ears turning red? They only turn that red when it's about Nuri. Plus you were blasting those cheesy love songs in your room again.”

“Shut up,” Gabe pulled on his beanie, covering his ears. He knew she was right. His ears only got red for two reasons: out of embarrassment from lying or because he was getting flustered. And Nurgul made him flustered in the best way possible. But it also made him a total mess.

“Whatever, so maybe I have a date with her. I need to look cool, something that doesn’t make me look like a complete dork,”

“Not possible, I’m afraid it's a terminal case of dorkitis that you have,”

A grumpy frown appeared on Gabe’s lips. “Ha ha. When did you become a comedian?” His voice dripped with sarcasm.

“I was born with these skills. Better watch out, Uncle Javi, I’m coming for your crown!” Mariana called out towards the kitchen downstairs. The constant laughter and flirations down there ceased between their uncles for a moment.

“And which crown would that be?” Javi yelled upstairs.

“The comedy crown! I’m the queen now so whatever I say goes! My first decree is that we have arroz con pollo for dinner tonight!”

“Neither of you even were comedic royalty,” Gabe mumbled but no one was paying attention to his pouting.

“Fine with me! Think we can cook that tonight, Santi?”

“Sounds good to me, mi príncipe. As long as we can- Javi, your sticks!” Santiago’s voice immediately changed in intonation.

“Oh shit! My cinnamon sticks!” Javi quickly dropped the conversation with his husband and niece as he struggled to save his snack.

“Well there we go, secured us a great dinner,” Mariana playfully kicked her legs while a smug smile rested on her lips. She hoped Javi would use the recipe they had found in their mom’s old things when they had moved. Her smile quickly disappeared though when she saw her older brother hold up their dad’s old army jacket.

“Why did you keep that?”

Gabe looked over when he heard his sister’s tense tone. “I didn’t want to throw it away. Wanted to keep a part of him I guess,”

“Yeah, well that is the reason why he abandoned us so maybe pick a better memento,” Mariana’s eyes glared at the army logo before she hid them. Her shoulders were tighter now and her smile gone.

There was a sad silence between the pair of siblings. Gabe wasn’t sure what to say now. He was just as pissed at his dad as Mariana was but he couldn’t fully bring himself to throw out everything that his dad had given him. Seconds slowly ticked by until Mariana hopped off the bed.

“Wear this,” She grabbed a light blue zip-up hoodie with a dark blue hood. “You’ll still look dorky but I think Nurgul likes that about you. Don’t try so hard to be cool, just accept the dorkiness.”

Gabe took the hoodie with a bit of a confused look. “Oh, thanks,”

“No problem, see you later,” Mariana turned without another word and went to the door.

“Mari,”

She glanced back at her older brother “If you ever want to talk… about dad, I’ll listen.”

Mariana studied her brother’s expression then gave a short nod. “I know, thanks,” After a beat she left.

Gabe stared at the door then quickly looked back at the mirror. Pulling his arms through the hoodie sleeves he got it settled just right over his white shirt. Yeah, Mariana was right. He just had to be himself. That’s who Nurgul liked. Double-checking his hair and practicing his wave and smile for when he saw his girlfriend, Gabe strolled out. His feet whacked against the steps before he jogged to the door and grabbed his red converse. “I’m heading out!”

“Okay, be safe and back in time for dinner!” Javi called out from the living room.

“I will!”

“Be a gentleman and pay for the meal too!” Santiago’s voice chimed in.

“Yeah, I know.” Gabe double-checked that he had everything then opened the door and hopped down the front steps. Trying to still carry the cool swagger he felt he had a portion of, Gabe strolled down the street and made his way over to a nearby diner. He was hoping he’d arrive right when Nurgul did.

As fate would have it she had beat him to the diner and already saved them a booth.

“Gabe! Over here!” Nurgul gave a wave and a soft smile that made Gabe practically melt like butter on the spot. She looked absolutely adorable in her dark gray cardigan that wrapped around her form and covered a lighter gray top.  

“Hey, Nuri,” Gabe jogged over and gave a dorky smile. “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”

“Nope, I just got here,” Nurgul’s smile remained, making Gabe’s heart tumble around his chest.

“Good, I’m glad,” He quickly picked up the menu in front of him. “So, what should we get this time? Stick with our usual order of burgers?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Awesome! Then for milkshakes, one chocolate, and one strawberry?” “Oh, actually, I was thinking… hmm, maybe it’s stupid,” Nurgul nervous played with her nails as her foot dragged across the ground.

“I bet it's not. What is it?”

“Well, when I first came to the States me and my mom used to watch a lot of romantic comedies to help learn English quicker. And in one of them I saw a couple sharing a milkshake so I thought it would be romantic if we tried it,” Nurgul tucked some of her short black hair behind her ear. Gabe’s face instantly heated up at that and he awkwardly fidgeted with his beanie.

“Yeah, I’d like that. Oh, here’s the waiter,”

Gabe quickly gave the order and to Nurgul’s surprise, he had made the milkshake order strawberry. After a minute the waiter brought the milkshake over with two straws. On top of the whipped cream stood a single cherry as well as a little heart symbol. Glancing over to his right, Gabe could see the waiter giving a thumbs up. That fact made both Gabe and Nurgul nervous.

A moment passed before both of them put their straws into the milkshake and reached out to hold the glass. Instantly their hands touched and their eyes locked. The couple became flustered, their faces heating up as they both glanced away. Neither one moved their hand though and Gabe’s soon rested on top of Nurgul’s. That gesture made Nurgul’s heart twirl around inside her chest and she couldn’t help but feel like she had stepped into an actual romance movie in an old-looking diner, sharing a milkshake with a boy she had had a major crush on for a while until she had finally got the nerve to ask him out. Now Gabe was her boyfriend and she could still hardly believe it. It really felt too good to be true sometimes. To meet someone as sweet and caring as him… it made Nurgul feel all warm and cozy inside. She wanted the feeling to last forever and it always seemed to whenever she was near Gabe.

#twdg #twdg gabe #twdg mari #twdg javi #twdg santiago #twdg nurgul #twdg gabegul #twdg javiago #gabe mari brotp #fanfic #ericson's diner au

[ericsonclan]

Are You An Angel?

Summary: Tripp gets some help from Javi to ask Sarita out on a date.

Word Count: 1238

Read on A03:

Javi couldn’t help but watch with amusement as he took a sip of his pumpkin latte. A playful grin rested on his lips. His eyes stayed on Tripp who kept fumbling around with his words while speaking to the owner of the shop. She didn’t seem to mind though. In fact, every time Tripp tried to impress her she’d tuck her dark brown hair behind her ear, giving a polite laugh at his god awful jokes. Every time she laughed a dorky smile appeared on Tripp’s face and he’d continue. Minutes passed before she spoke softly to him and motioned over to Javi. As soon as Tripp looked back his eyes widened.

“Shit my nuts,” He had totally forgotten about him. “I’ll see you later, Sarita.”

“I look forward to it,” Sarita leaned her arms on the counter and gave a friendly wave as Javi opened the door. “It was nice meeting you, Javier!”

“Pleasure’s all mine and please, just call me Javi,” Javi smiled as Tripp instinctively lowered his head to avoid bumping it on the top of the door while heading out.

The pair of friends walked in silence for a few seconds before Tripp broke it.

“Listen if you’re going to have that shit-eating grin on the whole walk back, you might as well talk,”

“Oh, do I have a smile on my face?” Javi looked over at his giant of a friend. “I didn’t know.”

“Uh huh, keep being a smug little shit over there,”

“Little?” Javi blinked in confusion. “I’m over six feet tall!”

“Yeah, well you’re little to me!”

“Well then that girl you like must be tiny in your eyes,”

Tripp stopped at Javi’s words, his mouth slightly ajar.

“You know about my crush on Sarita? How?”

Javi gave him a look. “Dude, seriously, I think anyone in a ten mile radius could tell you have a mondo crush on her.”

“I-” Tripp couldn’t think of any words to deny it. “So what if I do?” He stormed on forward while Javi took a long, slow sip from his latte.

“Well, are you going to ask her out?”

Tripp scoffed “Yeah, right, I always put my foot in my mouth around Sarita and my heart is going ass over tea kettle every time I see her,”

“She doesn’t seem to mind.” Javi noticed Tripp’s small, frustrated pout that hid around his beard. “How about this? I’ll help you out. Give you some flirting advice. Once you start flirting its super easy to ask someone out,”

Tripp shook his head. “Yeah, well maybe for you. Not everyone gets to be hot and have charisma shooting out of their ass,”

“Thanks for the compliment and sure, maybe not, but I’ll help you with the charisma part. You’re totally fine in the hotness department,”

Tripp looked over at his friend, studying his expression. Javi had been able to land a hot man from Spain and he did seem to know a thing or two about flirting. So what could go wrong?

Everything would go wrong. That was the thought that bounced around in Tripp’s head as he closed up his pastry shop early so he could try his best to use the new pick up lines on Sarita. He and Javi had stayed up super late practicing and while it didn’t go great, it also wasn’t a complete and total disaster. Stepping outside his shop, Tripp could spot Javi who was chilling nearby giving a thumbs up to Tripp, letting him know he had his back.

After a few minutes, Sarita was closing up shop. After locking the door she spotted Tripp. Immediately a soft smile appeared on her lips.

“Tripp, I missed you today during lunch time. You didn’t drop by. Did something come up at your shop? ” She walked closer and with each step Tripp could feel his heart pounding against his ribcage. It was now or never.

Without a word of response, he pulled out a set of notecards from his back pocket. The pen markings on them were slightly smeared from sweat.

“Are you an angel? Cause-” Immediately Tripp’s fingers became like butter and the notecards fell onto the ground, scattering everywhere. “Shit!” His panic spiked and he quickly leaned over. The force of the movement caused Tripp’s pants, a pair of tight jeans that Javi had convinced him to wear, to rip right down the middle.

“Fuck! Son of a goddamn!” Tripp swore, feeling defeated by how much of a mess this was becoming. Javi watched silently from the sidelines. He had to admit it was definitely going worse than he thought it would. He wasn’t sure exactly what to do as Tripp grew more and more conflicted between picking up his notecards and covering his boxers that were covered in little airplanes.

“Are you okay, Tripp?”

“I’m fine, just my stupid pride is hurt. And my pants,” Tripp awkwardly cupped his behind and didn’t look up at Sarita. “I was just trying to get up the nerve to say that I like you and ask you on a proper date but it all went to shit,” Tripp hid his eyes, completely deflated by this whole event. He just wanted to jump into a massive pit and forget about all of this.

“Well, this isn’t a long term fix but here,” Sartia unzipped her jacket and slid it off her arms. Before Tripp could say otherwise she wrapped her soft blue jacket around his waist. It didn’t quite fit all the way around though. Instead, Tripp awkwardly held the ends of the arm sleeves while the rest of the jacket covered up his behind.

“Thanks, you really saved my ass there,” Tripp gave an awkward smile and tried to scratch the back of his neck before realizing the jacket was slipping and quickly readjusted his focus.

“Glad to help,” Sarita’s signature gentle smile reappeared on her lips “And Tripp?”

“Yeah?”

��I like you too and if you’re still offering that date, I’ll take it. Just tell me when and where.”

Tripp’s eyes grew wide at that and he felt his heart doing somersaults. “Really? You’re not yanking my chain?”

“I’m not, I really like you,” Sarita’s gaze was focused on the ground as she tucked back her hair before looking up at him.

Tripp froze at that before absolutely beaming. “There’s a great steak place not far from here. I figured we could go there tomorrow after work, make it a late night date.”

Sarita gave a short nod. “I’d like that. Well, I should get going, but I’ll see you tomorrow,”

“Okay, see ya,” Tripp had a dreamy expression on his face until he realized something. “Wait! Sarita! I still have your jacket!”

“Keep it,” Sarita spun around on her heel and slowly started to walk backwards. “I’ll pick it up tomorrow. Goodbye, Tripp, and good luck with your pants.”

With that she left, walking towards her car while Tripp stood there in disbelief.

“Well, well, well, look who’s the master flirt now,” Javi gave Tripp a friendly whack on the back. “Good for you, buddy!”

“Yeah,” Tripp let a smile overtake his lips. “It is good.”

Javi looked at his friend for a moment. Sure, Tripp was a work in progress when it came to flirting and romance but anyone worth their salt could see that he was a total gem. He and Sarita were both lucky.

#twdg #twdg tripp #twdg javi #twdg sarita #twdg trarita #javi tripp brotp #fanfic #ericson's diner au