#gretagolden fic

[gretagolden]

alone together | danny wagner — chapter one

danny wagner x female oc

summary: after his best friend ends up in a relationship with his high school crush, danny finds himself growing closer to her little sister. | word count: ~3.7k, please excuse any errors!

chapter warnings: uses marijuana

notes: likes, reblogs, comments are always appreciated! six months and three total rewrites later we’re back and gonna try this again! this is a trial run, if not we’ll just go back to ao3 and never discuss this again! for the sake of reference, the oc’s sister is the “oc” from like friends do — which was a sam fic i posted a while ago here. you don’t have to read to understand this fic that if you don’t want, but you can if you want to! there’s also more chapters of that that expanded on that story on ao3 as well if you’re interested in that. if you want the tag list for this story or just my tag list in general, let me know! 

   Abigail took the joint Oliver held out to her across the center console to where she laid with her legs stretched out across the back seat of the hot black leather that burned against her skin through the white fabric of her dress, her feet underneath where Oliver had reclined his driver seat all the way back and her upper body leaning against the opposite door of the backseat. She leaned forward to claim the small self-rolled thing from her older brother, inhale a hit, and then lean backed against the window again, letting the sun shine on her face and the cross-breeze hit her from the open sunroof and the few inches of the open window above her Oliver had left open. 

   “Congratulations, Gil.” He offered as he took the joint back, “you’ve officially entered the phase of life where this is a cry for help.” 

  She burst out in a short and sharp laugh, “how comforting.”  

  She felt the sun against the back of her neck and she squinted in its brightness. They could hear the chatter from the yard of the childhood home around the corner, all the people gathered to celebrate the graduation of the youngest Flynn child’s graduation from the University of Michigan. 

 “It’s true. Unless you somehow beat a Grammy, there’s not much else to make you special.” He turned his head to raise an eyebrow at her, “the in-laws have got you beat.”

 Gilly looked at her older brother — the only Flynn to not have their life flipped by the rise of Greta van Fleet; Birkenstocks, Bermuda shorts, a Ralph Lauren button down, floppy brown hair and 70s inspired mustache like he’d only recently outgrown the frat he’d left years ago. He knew who he was, some guy in dress pants in the financial sector of Chicago riding from River North to the financial district on a motorized scooter every morning. He wasn’t bothered by anything about it in the latest, he went to work during the week and hiked during the weekends and blew too much money at music festivals and enjoyed it all. “You say that like you care about being special.”

  “You’re right.” He said, looking at her from the rear view mirror, pointing at her “I don’t. But you do.”

  He squinted one eye shut, squishing his fingers like he was squishing her in his eyesight. 

   Gilly rolled her eyes, turning her head uncomfortably to look at Sam’s Tesla down the street. She remembered how young he was when he bought it, and remembered feeling stupid for feeling ashamed when she didn’t do the same at the same age – even though she didn’t even want a Tesla. It hadn’t been about the car, though, and her therapist had made her hash through it for ages until she’d felt nothing. But Oliver was right, it had been a blow to her ego. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join them,’ she muttered. 

   “I can’t believe you’re doing that, you know.” He sighed, “I mean, I’m glad, in the end. But I wish you’d let me convince Dad that Chicago is better.”’

    Out of everyone who hated The Nashville Thing, Oliver was a close second only to Gilly. The Nashville Thing had been contrived the previous summer at a ritzy country club somewhere  after a game of golf, when it became increasingly clear that Gilly planned on moving to Boston after graduating university and even more clear that her father was vehemently against it. A intermediary job, he proposed to Sam and Danny, somewhere where she’d know people – she could hear her father’s voice in her head – while she figured it out. Jack Flynn had told the boys that he trusted them, that it would be the best thing for Gilly, his youngest and dear daughter. Sam was desperate for Jack’s approval as his future son-in-law, Danny was desperate for Jack’s approval just as he’d always been since the first day he’d become his golf instructor. Everyone had been convinced it was the best course of action before the news had even made its way to Abigail Flynn. Oliver wouldn’t have been able to get a word in about Chicago even if he had tried.

 “Oh, yeah? With what pitch?” She smirked, antagonizing him playfully, “‘have Gilly come live in my city, where I’m basically living in a financial district frat house’? Do you know what Sam and Gracie have? A yard, and a guest bedroom.” 

   He rolled his eyes again, “And a Grammy.”

  “You’re really hung up on that, aren’t you?” She questioned, grinning. She sat up, pulling her legs into a crossed-cross position and sitting in the middle of the back seat. She leaned forward over the center console to grab the joint again, “you plotting to steal Sam Kiszka’s Grammy?”

   “No.” He smiled, turning his head to look at her, grinning back at his little sister. “just Jake’s.”

   She inhaled deeply, held it, and then exhaled slowly, staring out the front windshield. Without knowing why she’d felt the need to say it, she told him what he’d known for months. The only real heartbreak he’d ever known his sister to endure. “I wanted to go to Boston.” 

  “I know.” He said. His gaze softened, and his mouth twisted into a bittersweet morph between a frown and a pity smile. “I want you to go to Boston too.”

 Gilly watched in the rearview mirror as Gracie Flynn rounded the corner barefoot in her floral sundress. “Just not now,” she acquiesced, handing Oliver the joint from Gilly to be sure he was the one who was caught with it when their sister reached the car. 

 “Soon enough.” He promised before Gracie reached them.

  Gracie tapped on Oliver’s driver side window, and watched as he hit the button on the inside of his door and allowed the pane of glass to slide down the rest of the way. Once it was down all the way, she reached in, grabbed the joint from Oliver and leaned her upper body into the car to take a puff. She looked straight past Oliver to Gilly, “a party all for you and you’re not even in there.”

  The youngest sister shrugged. She loved Gracie, but being under her gaze always made her want to shrink away. Perhaps she loved her too much, always wanting to be enough and scared she wouldn’t amount to it if she let her older sister in too close. By all accounts, Gracie should’ve been the oldest. Gilly had little reserve with Oliver, but then, Gracie didn’t either – he was exorbitant and loud and wore his flaws on his sleeve so much so they became enduring, little more than charming quirks people brushed away. People loved him because they felt like they knew him the second they met him. People loved Gracie because they were never able to quite know her entirely. Gilly had gone twenty-two years without understanding her. Perhaps she was scared she’d just find herself looking back at a mirror. Nonetheless, she’d perfected the role of Gracie’s little sister, pestering and high strung in a way people found amusing in small doses. Anything more and people found her to be too much, she realized. That was what Gracie had perfected, in comparison. She was never too much. 

   “I’m not much of the partying type.” She offered back.

   Gracie raised an eyebrow, “that’s not what I heard from frat row.”

  “That’s different.” Gilly straightened up her posture, and then reached for her shoes on the floor behind the passenger seat, “That’s a Flynn family legacy.”

  “Nonetheless,” She handed what was left of the joint back to Oliver, “You’ve been requested inside.”

  Gilly managed to pull herself out from the car, though ungracefully, and walked alongside Gracie in silence as the pair made their way back to their parents house. She folded her arms into each other and across her chest as though she was trying to disappear from being seen, like she could make herself invisible if she willed it hard enough. As they neared the house, Gracie broke the silence with instructions, “go to your room when we get back — brush through your hair with your fingers and wish your eyes out with some eye drops. Light a match and wave it around you a bit, then perfume.” She sighed, “you should’ve changed.”

  Gilly nodded at the first bit, and then shrugged at the second. They made their way to the pavement path that cut down the length of the yard from the sidewalk up a small incline to the porch, only making it half-way up before someone shouted Gracie’s name behind them. Gilly turned to find Danny Wagner walking towards them, almost in a jog to meet them where the two girls stood. As he got closer, she saw a small box in his hand wrapped in an iridescent polka-dotted white wrapping paper. “Sorry I’m late. I’m glad I caught you guys before you went in,” he told them as he caught up to them, “I wasn’t sure whether to go through the front or the back.” 

  “Either way's fine, you know your way around.” Gracie smiled at him, bringing him in for a brief hug, “how are you?”

   “Good. Same as when I saw you and Sam last night, anyways.” He smiled as the hug ended, free hand pushing his sunglasses off his eyes to rest on the top of his head and then resting the hand on his hip. He wore black jeans and a white t-shirt, one that looked like he’d just bought it off the rack. He looked good, but that wasn’t new for him in Gilly’s estimation. She was still examining him when he turned to her, “happy graduation, Abigail.” 

  Gilly ran her hands up and down her arms, and nodded at him in appreciation with a tight smile — too high not to be awkward. “Thanks.” 

  “We should head in.” Gracie told them, “they’re missing us by now. Sam will be happy to see you.” 

  They followed the blonde girl inside diligently, and as they entered, Gilly held the screen door open for Danny to come in beside her. The Flynn family home hadn’t changed in 15 years. There was the small patch of tile sectioned from the rest of the room with a stairwell to the basement on the left and a wall on the right with a coat rack hanging on the wall above it and a small table for keys and knickknacks where the family left their shoes. The living room was unassuming on the other side of the stairwell, furnished in the same fashion it had for years with its boxy TV and light gray carpet and a bay window facing the front yard set in one wood paneled wall. The kitchen was frozen in the 90s behind it, with a wooden island and matching chairs to separate the two rooms — all light oak cabinets and light laminate countertops and a small cuckoo clock. The wooden stairs to the second floor to the right that hid the dining room across from the kitchen had the same carpet runner it had when Danny was in middle school. If he followed straight through past the kitchen, Danny could see the open French doors to the back patio, where he could smell the food on the grill and the chattering of the neighbors. 

  Gracie nearly immediately headed back through outside, and Gilly was about to head up the stairs before Danny reached out and grabbed her arm to get attention, “Hey, got you a gift.” 

   “Hm?” Gilly stopped on the first step and turned around, wide-eyed and anxious.

   Danny caught a whiff of her, looked at her only to find her slightly out of it, and broke out into an amused laugh, “are you high?”

   “No,” she shook her head, lying, “no, no I —“

  “Damn, you started even earlier than I did after I graduated high school.” His laugh spread into a grin, his hand dropped from her arm with a look of pride on his face.

  Heat rushed to her cheeks, and she lowered her hair so that the dark strains fell and obscured her face as she rubbed her eyes. “Please don’t tell anyone,” she asked him as she looked back up. 

  Danny shook his head, thrilled to be in on the secret. “Your dad keeps the extra matches in the toolbox in the garage, if you need them.” 

  She nodded gratefully, “I’ll see you outside.” 

  She stepped down and around him, and Danny turned his head to watch as she headed straight across the room to the small dark hallway where the laundry machine buzzed and concealed the door to the garage. She disappeared from the house without a sound. 

  She found Danny outside half an hour later, holding out a corona for him in the hand that was free from her seltzer. She must’ve gotten them from the fridge, the way they cold hit against his hand. It was almost jarring to him, how grown up she was — though the jarring part was that it meant that he was also grown up. She was only a year younger than him, but he still felt eighteen and she had just graduated college. More than growing up, she’d grown into herself. Tall and poised, dark hair long and babyface gone. Her smile was braceless now, but it still lit up her eyes, even if they’d become piercing and sharp as she’d gotten older. 

   “Disgusting, isn’t it?” She asked, handing the bottle to Danny before turning to where his gaze had been before — on her sister and Sammy over near the fence of their lawn, together for nearly half a year when it really should have been a year already. They were sharing a small plastic plate of cheese and crackers and grapes, smiling at some joke they were sharing in their own conversation, whispered just to each other. They looked happy, attached at the hip but just discreet enough that you couldn’t exactly call it PDA. 

  “Why?” Danny questioned, looking at the girl her family had affectionately nicknamed Gilly since she was a kid, bad bangs grown out and complexion cleared of imperfections. The sun was shining down through the trees that branched over the porch, making shadows that cast shapes across her face and the white fabric of her sundress. “Because you have a crush on Sammy?”

  Gilly huffed, arms crossed. “Not nearly as big as the one you have on Gracie.”

   His brow knit together, shaking his head as he swiped the condensation off his beer bottle and wiped it onto his jeans, “I don’t have a crush on Gracie.”  

   The younger girl cracked a smile, “You’re a terrible liar.”

   They went silent for a moment, standing together like a pair of outsiders observing the larger gathering of Gilly’s college graduation party, a cake with her name in script and a large Congratulations! above it in the U Mich colors half eaten on opposite ends of the porch. Oliver was sneaking a piece away, and waved at them before disappearing back inside. Their dads joined Mr. Kiszka around the grill and she was glad the initial fanfare of doing the rounds to greet everyone and thank them was over. The air was encroaching on muggy, summer was settling in. Last time they’d all been together in a similar way, it had been Sammy and Daniel’s graduation trip to the cabin — the trip where Gilly had sprained her ankle on a hike and Danny had carried her down the trail, refusing to leave her alone even when everyone else had gone out again. They left a week later, and though she’d rarely seen most of them since, it was always Danny who’d kept in most contact. 

  After her father had pitched the idea of convincing Gilly to move to Nashville to work with the boys to Danny and Sam on the golf course, it was Sam and Josh who had done the most convincing, but it was Danny who had the influence. There was a special sensitivity Gracie had for Danny, an appreciation for how he used to drive her home from school, and never missed her birthday, the way he’d always answered when she’d drunk call him at college on her way home alone from a party. For his part, Danny, of course, was largely unaware of this sway. 

   Gilly began walking then, down the porch and to a corner between the railing and the fence where a vacant yard table stood. Her pace was slow, and Danny had to attempt with effort to slow and match it with his longer legs.

    “You’re really moving to Nashville then, are you?” He asked her, rocking back on his heels and simultaneously lifting his corona to his lips. He appreciated the tall trees, but he squinted anyway as though they weren’t blocking the sun just so.

    Gilly nodded, her lips in a tight line and her brows lifted in a sort of mock shrug, “not like I’ve got anything else going on, the job market is shit without nepotism. I heard the cheese shop here was hiring, though.”

   She’d turned to face him, and then pushed herself up on the table, shaking off her ballet flats to the grass below and pulling her knees up to her body. Danny stopped before her. She gazed at him, and a part of her wanted to tell him about Boston. She bit her tongue instead. 

    “I’d much rather you be with us than at the cheese shop.” He huffed a laugh, “Is it nepotism if he’s not technically your family?”

     “Yet.” She looked back to Sam and her sister, huddled together close over the same plate, sharing the same seltzer, and grinning at each other lost in their conversation. “I give it two years before they’re engaged,” she said simply, “I think everyone always knew it was going to be them in the end.”

    He nodded, but it seemed almost absent, as if his mind was somewhere else entirely. Certainly, she figured, he was thinking about Gracie. She felt bad for bringing it up, she had probably twisted the dull knife more than she’d meant to. Whatever he denied, she wasn’t entirely wrong. It was her own sort of masochism, to deny that it was a dull knife in her own chest too. 

   “Sam said you’re resisting East Nashville.” He redirected the subject, not wanting to look at his best friends together anymore. 

   Gilly’s eyes flickered back to him. She’d always looked at him the same way — her gaze on him had always been distinct, though he’d never really been able to figure out what it had meant. Now, it was almost so intense he felt like he should look away even though he couldn’t. She looked at everyone like she held their entire universe in her pupils and was simply waiting for them to divulge what she already knew. Gilly in her very existence was severe — that was the word. 

    “Is it not pathetic enough that I’m moving to Nashville just because my sister's boyfriend suggested it when my parents asked him to without also moving into his neighborhood?” She asked, and he couldn’t deny the edge of insecurity that frayed at the tone of her wit.

   “You’re not burdening us, you know.” He promised her. He turned his body to lean against the porch railing but still faced her, an eyebrow raised, “have you ever considered Sam offered it because we want you there?”

  Gilly laughed this time, turning her head away from him and up to stare at the trees, hiding the embarrassment she felt and didn’t want him to see. “yeah, sure. The little sister is always a blast to have around.” 

   Danny shook his head, “it’d do you good to stop cutting yourself short, Abigail.” 

   He smiled tentatively at her. She let him lay the placation at her feet. If she had any guts at all, she thought, she’d tell him she already had. 

   Abigail looked back to Gracie, the sister who was smart and kind and had just the right amount of wit and charm. The sister who wanted to live close to home to their parents. The sister who knew her limits, and knew herself, and seemed to always know exactly what to do and why and when. The sister she loved, and the sister Danny loved too. Cutting herself short had always been the default when she had a free ride on Gracie’s coattails, it made it easier to not be too much that way. 

   She didn’t tell Danny this. Instead she teased him, like she always antagonized everyone, “What, are you my dad now?”

  “I sure wouldn’t mind being able to golf like him.”

   She shut her eyes briefly, as if she should’ve seen it coming, “you’re an old man.”

   He shrugged, pleased with his efforts. “Think about it though?” He asked, and continued when she groaned, “please. For me?”

  She sighed. There was never a scenario in which she didn’t end up in East Nashville anyway. Her shoulders dropped, her head lulled back to look at him. “Okay.”

  “Is that a yes?” He questioned, hopefully.

  Gilly hated to admit she liked that his eyes lit up. She shut one eye, reaching out and up to pull the black sunglasses off his head. She didn’t put them on, but held them between her hands in his lap. She pretended to considered it for a moment. 

  “You suck.” She told him affirmatively, looking back at her parents on the porch before turning back to him, “like, massively.” 

  “I know.” He told her. He didn’t feel bad about it, though. It would be good for her to get out of Michigan, to feel the sun more. There was better food in Nashville, better bars, better music — it was better to be twenty-two there than anywhere near Frankenmuth or Ann Arbor. 

   If he would’ve told her this, she wouldn’t have believed him. When she was eventually pulled from the conversation, she took his glasses with her. He didn’t bother to try to get them back at the end of the party, and left the house at dusk unperturbed at her theft. He’d just get them back in Nashville.

taglist: @shutupdevvie​ @highdefkiszka​

#danny wagner fanfic #danny wagner fic #danny wagner fanfiction #gretagolden fic #like friends do gretagolden #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet fic #greta van fleet fanfiction

[shutupdevvie]

Do you have Sam fic recs? I can never find many🥺

yes of course i do !! here are some of my faves :))

series

shoebox by @highdefkiszka (there is no universe where i am not recommending this fic any chance i get)

pink lemonade by @garbagevanfleet (i feel like we all know this one by now)

sunshine daydream by @hearts-hunger

like friends do by @gretagolden

the cop out by @screechesincoherently and @capturethechaos

smut

neglected by @jake-kiszkas-smirk (and don’t forget to read part two)

got you in my head by @spark-my-nature

no trespassing by @streamingcolors-gvf (i love recommending halloween fics in february)

seven by @garbagevanfleet

bad habit by @geminisecrets

fright night by @dharma-divine

the accountant by @geminisecrets

snapchat by @godlygreta

fluff

how easy it is to love you by @hearts-hunger (genuinely one of my favorite fics ever. and one of my number one comfort fics.)

in your arms by @alwysthre

stranger danger by @hyperfixated-gvf

pretty boy by @mywaykiszka

bug by @jakekiszkaenthusiast

writers

literally all of @gretasmokerising’s sam fics (especially poems and promises AND puppy love. two of my absolute faves.)

and anything by @sparrowofthedawnsworld (especially storms call for distractions AND locked out)

#devs asks #devs recs #samrecs #list

[hearts-hunger]

hi dear maddie 🤍 today's been a bit weird cause i'm headed back to uni tomorrow and i'm in dire need of some danny fluff – is there any fic you'd recommend?

i hope you are well darling <3

- the anon who knows the waiter who looks exactly like danny (that's a long signature)

hi my sweetheart! i'm sorry today wasn't exactly as you would have hoped, but i'm manifesting a wonderful day for you tomorrow so you should be feeling those happy and warm and positive vibes coming at you asap 😌✨ to help it along i would LOVE to share some of my favorite danny fluff recs:

wonderful tonight by @mountain-in-springtime is a fic i want to live in forever; it's just pure domestic fluff and soft caretaking between you and danny. mal writes danny with so much care and love and it shows in this fic.

homeward bound by @gretagolden is one i read a while ago and it stuck with me because of how absolutely tender it is. danny squeezes under the bed with the reader to get away from the world for a minute, and nix gets his gentle giant thing perfectly right in this fic.

we're gonna be fine by @gretasmokerising is almost painful it's so wonderful. kait doesn't even know that i've read this one hehe, since i was just reading it earlier today and haven't had time to reblog it, but it just about made me cry. not only is there very soft husband-to-be danny, but there's lots of fluff with the kiszka boys too.

also, if i may be so bold as to rec one of my own fics, with your head on my shoulder is real fluffy with lots of soft hurt/comfort thrown in there too :)

i hope you like these my love, and i hope they help give some peace and comfort tonight. i love you!

#i love your long signature too hehe #danny waiter nonnie #danny recs #maddie talks to friends!

[highdefinitions]

2022 Writer’s Tag.

I think it might be fun to look back on what we’ve all achieved this year, let you give yourselves a well deserved pat on the back and also share what you love. When you’re done maybe tag someone else so they can share too?

1. How do you feel 2022 has gone in terms of writing?

i am so excited with how 2022 had gone in terms of my writing. felt like i improved a lot and was really glad to have gotten back into it!!

2. What piece are you proudest of this year? It can be a shot/blurb/headcannon, a whole series or even a specific chapter.

you already know what i'm going to say...the dead don't die is by far my favorite...i do however hold a special place in my heart for closest to heaven i love iris and josh and YOU SHOULD TOO

3. Is there anything you posted that you wish had reached more people? (No such thing as a flop here!) Shout it out, it might catch a new pair of eyes!

oh 100% closest to heaven!! i felt like some of my best writing was put into that fic and i still do. i know it's long but it's cutie and you can read it here !

4. Can you give us a hint of anything coming before the end of the year? Maybe even a little taster?

i KNOW you're all on the edge of your seats for the Next Big Percy Project ! god i love being sarcastic ! you know what i also love being? cryptic ! no but for real, some of you already know, i've hinted at a new series coming...soon-ish(?)

5. Are you setting any writing goals for next year, or just going with the flow? If you are, what are they?

i try not to set too many goals for myself. oh my god that sounds terrible. no i just mean like...i don't want to say that i'm going to do something and then not do it...if that makes more sense. i definitely want to finish the dead don't die (if i don't finish it this year which is unlikely), and i want to work loads on the next series project and get back into the groove of writing that again since i started it before picking up the dead don't die!! also potentially another series if i finish this next one? who knows. hopefully i can squeeze in some time to write some more oneshot stuff or even expand on the sparrowverse. i have lots of ideas of ideas to do, but right now it's hard to set anything in stone :)

6. Do you have any one shots or finished pieces you’re tempted to expand on or revisit next year?

uhm really the only pieces that i would continue to expand on is the sparrowverse. hopefully maybe eventually i'll get danny's addition to the story... i don't think i'd add to the dead don't die once it's done i think that one is going to be finished when it's done

7. Is there anything new you’re tempted to try out? A new style/trope/AU/another person in the fandom?

i do not know...maybe inspiration will strike me for some danny fics...as for aus i'll probably delve into another one i won't lie to you i am not at all immune to them

8. Now to hype some other writers! What’s a piece you read back in the first half of the year that you can shout out?

oh i'm terrible at reading and remembering things...uhhhhh YOU'RE ASKING FOR HALF A YEAR AGO UHH I STARTED THIS SHIT IN APRIL UHH

like friends do by my bff @gretagolden <3

and of course like the first fic i ever read lazarus by @garbagevanfleet

9. And how about something you’ve read more recently?

i feel awful. i haven’t been too good at reading this recent because i’m a LOSER and school sucks a little bit. but summer in the city by @gretasmokerising was so fantastic!!

10. A fun one to finish...If you could insert yourself into any fic in the fandom, which would it be and what do you think would happen?

hmmm i’m not sure really!! maybe any cabin fever fic universe by @hearts-hunger !! anything maddie writes is so sweet i could die

I was tagged by the ever lovely @writingcold and I am tagging @gretasmokerising (or really anyone that wants to do it!!!)

[starsasone]

Alana’s Fic Recs

Here’s a working list of my favorite fics! I will be adding to it as I remember/discover more. I know that there’s not many Danny fics on here but I am still looking for some--if you know of any good ones, let me know!

Most of these are 18+ so MINORS DNI

Josh

Instigator by @capturethechaos  

Manage Me by @capturethechaos 

Pretty by @jakekiszkaenthusiast 

Honey, Make This Easy by @vapelordjoshy

Feather Light by @tripthelightfandomtastic 

Honey by @caravelmp3 

I Hear the River Say Your Name by @stardustbarbarians 

ABADDON by @garbagevanfleet 

Cabin Fever by @hearts-hunger

Ode to a Conversation Stuck in your Throat by @brckenbells

Keep on Growing by @geminisecrets

Weeping Hearts by @niallsboxx

Dioskouroi by @dharma-divine

The Great Outdoors by @stardustchordssammy

Table for Two by @welightthefire and @allieboop

Bottlerock by @finestoflines

Tears of Rain by @streamingcolors-gvf

Sam

The Cop Out by @screechesincoherently

Neon Moon by @tripthelightfandomtastic 

As The World Caves In @tlexx

Sinister by @godlygreta

Shoebox by @highdefkiszka

Pink Lemonade by @garbagevanfleet

Like Friends Do by @gretagolden

Jake

Poems, Prayers, and Promises by @sing-against-the-sky 

Give Love a Chance by @age-of-flower-power 

Boston Calling by @sammysvanfeet 

Don’t Make Me Beg Now Baby by @athenasbloodyspear 

LAZARUS by @garbagevanfleet 

No Strings Attached by @hearts-hunger

Renaissance Man by @stardustchordssammy 

Amongst the Stars by @samkiszkasfacialhair 

The Dead Don't Die by @highdefkiszka

If I Believe You by @busybusybusyb

fuck buddies by @godlygreta

Neapolitan by @writingcold

gate & garden by @bluevelvetgvf

Dioskouroi by @dharma-divine

honey & chamomile, peaches & cream by @daisyful-gvf

Table for Two by @welightthefire and @allieboop

Danny

Chamomile by @allieboop

UPDATED 9/11/22

#greta van fic #greta van fleet #greta van fleet fic #josh gvf #josh kiszka fic #josh gvf fic #jake gvf #jake fic #jake gvf fic #sammy gvf #sam gvf #sammy gvf fic #sam gvf fic #fic recs

[bowievanfleet]

bowie's recs!!

hello hello!!! while you guys are waiting for me to actually provide content regularly, here's some AMAZING works of art that you can read, approved by me :)) all of these writers are absolutely amazing and i adore them so please go show them and their fics some love <33

(this'll be updated regularly, whenever i find a new fic i'm obsessed with :))

*indicates smut

JAKE

-SERIES-

*LAZARUS (duh)- @garbagevanfleet

no strings attached- @hearts-hunger

*a family affair- @gretavandutchy

bruised (major tw for this one besties!!)- @vetaglanfeet

the dead don't die - @highdefkiszka

-ONESHOTS-

anything @vetaglanfeet has ever written lmao

like your mother- @arcaneblaine

*file corrupted- @aureummel

the garden- @allieboop

oh we're in love, aren't we?- @jacob-gvf

criminal records- @highdefkiszka

all the subliminal things - @stardustbarbarians

giggles (makes me wanna actually die in the best way) - @sparrowofthedawnsworld

*backstabber - @themoreyou-love

*cabin in the woods 1 + 2

*guitar fingers 1 + 2

*alabama song

*call and response

^ all by @gretavanlace <3 ^

oh baby (my guilty pleasure fic) - @jakeytkiszka

JOSH

-SERIES-

*ABADDON- @garbagevanfleet

*brightest blue- @garbagevanfleet

*cabin fever- @hearts-hunger

-ONESHOTS-

sweet josh fluff - @gretasmokerising

bliss - @sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine

*retrograde - @garbagevanfleet

*purple haze - @gretavanlace

*garnet - @gretavanlace

*light my love - @gretavanlace

*i know you are, but what am i? @stardustchordssammy

SAM

-series-

*blue hour- @gretavandutchy

sunshine daydream- @hearts-hunger

*a lover's plight- @gretavandutchy

like friends do - @gretagolden

-oneshots-

*neon moon (literally my fav sam oneshot ever i'm sorry)- @tripthelightfandomtastic

flinch- @vetaglanfeet

shameless plug for my fic, paper rings ;)

DANNY

i have yet to come across any danny fics that have stood out to me!!! please please please point me in the direction of some if you have any recs :))

that's probably not all but those were the ones my brain could think of rn :))) as i said before, go show these lovely people some love and appreciation for all the hard work they out into these fics, they deserve it!

#riasrecs #greta van fleet #gvf #jake kiszka #greta van fleet fanfic #gvf fanfiction #jake kiszka x reader #gvf fanfic #peaceful army #jake gvf #sam kiszka #danny wagner #sam gvf #sammy gvf #josh gvf

[obetrolncocktails]

For Your Sake, I'll Remember | Jake Kiszka X Reader

Warnings: This fic will describe explicit details of death and grief--please do not read if you have sensitivity to these topics.

A/N: This is definitely something different than what we usually do, but we thought we would give it a try! Excited for this collaboration with @capturethechaos 💜💜

Read this for a bit more context!

Let me know if you would like to be added to the tag list!

Tag List: @theweightofstardust@thecoldwind@stardustdanny@stxverandle@weightofdreams-gvf@starchords@kiszkashorizons@mywaysooon@gretavanhoney@jakekiszska@sparrowofthedawn@gustingirl@cowboysamkiszka@fictional-duchess@gretagolden@bypeapod@aureummel@screechesincoherently@capturethechaos@ageoftambourine@basically-hayley@gretavanfleas@tlexx@amouratomique@strangeh0rizons@wriwrites@fosterkidwiththebrokenjaw@gvfvanfleet@jakekiszkasgiggle@katie-gvf@mgk777@streamsofstardust@shellygvf@celestialfauna@gretavankleep37@thatcatbsong@tripthelightfandomtastic@teddiie@mckenna4@myownparadise96@b3l1nda@doodle417@ashabeannn@emsgvf

#jake kiszka fanfic #Jake kiszka #Jake gvf #greta van fleet #gvf #josh gvf #josh kiszka #jake kiszka #jake gvf #gretavanfleet #sammy gvf #danny gvf #danny wagner gvf #gvf fanfiction #gvf fic #jake kiszka gvf #new idea #may or may not work #let me know how you feel #give us some feedback!

[auroraseddie]

i started reading fic last night . im coming to you tumblr guru for recommendations . can i ask for a fluff and smut fic for each member ?

-🤖

aaaa sorry this took so long i was compiling my thoughts...

ive deemed it to be too hard to pick one for each so im tagging a bunch of fic writers and i recommend any and all of their work if they are tagged!!!!

@tlexx

@gustingirl

@starchords

@hearts-hunger

@golden-van-fleet

@earthlysorrows

@cowboysamkiszka

@gretagolden

@gretavanwinkle

@obetrolncocktails

@wickedwomaan

@garagebandvanfleet

@arcaneblaine

@hyperfixated-gvf

@screechesincoherently

@capturethechaos

@tripthelight-fanfic

@jakesguitarstring

@godblessmarywanna

@godlygreta

@gretavanhoney

@garbagevanfleet

@heatabovejakey

@ghostly-luck

@caravelstan

@sweetboitom

@jakekiszska

@ageoftambourine

@strangeh0rizons

@joshkiszkas

@heatabove-heatbelow

@aureummel

@eatmejoshkiszka

@satans-helper

#there are probably so many more that i didn't tag!!! #if i forgot you im sorry #i love each and every one of these writers no matter how much or how little they have posted #i expect to hear how you feel #ESPECIALLY IF YOU READ CABIN FEVER BY HEARTS-HUNGER #AND LOST BOYS BY TLEXX #AND WHATS POSTED OF STAR MATES BY EARTHLYSORROWS #absolute best series on this hell site #top tier recommendations from yours truly #fic rec #my asks #🤖 nonnie

[gretagolden]

like friends do | sam kiszka pt. 2

sam kiszka x fem!reader (or oc if you’d prefer)

summary: seven months after admitting his feelings for his best friend, sam returns from tour to discuss what happened between them the summer before | word count: ~4.1k

warnings: nothing much, a small bit of cursing.

notes: likes, reblogs, replies, interaction in general etc. are always appreciated! i hope this lives up for those who wanted a part two, thank you for your patience! if you want to join my taglist, just send me a message or an ask and i’ll gladly do so!

Sam didn’t know why he was shocked seeing her there, as if he hadn’t gone exactly because it was her favorite bookstore. It made him freeze in his place; he hadn’t gone home for the holidays and now that he had returned, it had been nearly seven months since he’d seen her. There was snow on the ground and the sky was grey, she looked like she always did in the winter – washed out and tired. Still, somehow, she looked peaceful, as if she accepted the deep set dreariness that came with pulling her black peacoat out of the closet every year with grace. She was still beautiful, and Sam was still in love with her. 

He tried to seem casual standing at the opposite end of the long bookshelf she stood at, pretending not to notice her as though he wasn’t desperate for her to catch his attention. At the far end, she smiled into the book she was pursuing discreetly, knowing the game he was playing. Sam feigned a clearing of his throat eventually that made her look over to him with a tilt of her head, turning her attention away from the book as she shut it carefully.

“I heard you were coming back to town.” She addressed him, smiling at him with a hint of mischief.

Sam let him himself get a good look at her as he nodded, watching her movements meticulously as she put away the book as if he was trying to convince himself she was real. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

She shrugged, sighing deeply, shoving her hands into the pockets of her coat. “It's been forty-eight hours, you know how much I hate looking desperate.”

“You’d rather me be the desperate one?” He asked 

She shook her head, “You’ve never looked desperate a day in your life, Sammy.”

Sam hated the fact that he couldn’t read her, hated that he didn’t know if it was a joke or something deeper, more problematic, in her words. If she wasn’t her, he would’ve thought that maybe it was an insecurity betraying her and bubbling at the surface. “Josh would disagree,” he offered instead.

She cracked an amused smile, “And when has Josh ever been agreeable?”

He returned his smile, and the pair fell into silence. Realistically, this is where they’d say their goodbyes and get on with their days. This was what other people did, you run into one another at a store and make enough small talk to appease social conventions. Other people didn’t have their bodies frozen in place staring at one another. Sam refused to tear himself away from her again. They weren’t other people.

“Do you want to – I don’t know – are you available? It’s nearly lunchtime, isn’t it?” Sam asked. He didn’t know why he was so nervous, she was his best friend, and he knew it wasn’t unrequited, but it had been so long. She’d made him a promise, but he understood how weird his life was, he’d understand if she hadn’t of kept it. She agreed, looking at him in a reassuring manner. She knew what he was anxious about, she wanted to reassure him there was no reason for it. “The diner is still shit?” He felt seven months of weight and anxiety lift off his chest. “Perfect.” 

He held the door of the bookstore open for her as they left, and she waited for him on the sidewalk to join her before they made their way across the block. They walked close to one another, arms of their jackets brushing against one another discreetly. Sam had the urge to reach out and hold her hand. He restrained himself, instead he asked: “So?”

“So.” She repeated, staring down at the cracks in the sidewalk as they walked. 

“Any boyfriends?” He asked, squinting out of borderline embarrassment over the question, hoping to just rip the bandaid now. If she said yes here, it would break his heart with pity before he got his hopes up any higher.

She laughed at this, shaking her head with a smile. “No.” She answered simply, turning her head to glance at him in a way that made his heart race in his chest. She nudged him in a playful manner, “Any groupies you’ve become partial to?”

He shook his head without a sense of irony, “Aren’t even any groupies that I’m impartial to.”

She let the meaning of the words wash over her, like some sort of all consuming wave had randomly rushed through the street and swept her up forever. She swallowed harshly, nervously. “You’re being serious, then.” She concluded, “there were really no girls?”

Sam nodded, every inch of his body on edge. “Ask Jake. It made me insufferable.”

“How are you then?” She asked, trying to steer everything back on track. She had been prepared for a lot of things, most of them the worst case scenario until another, even worse, case scenario would find its way into her head. It had been a long seven months. Nothing like this had ever crossed her mind. “Other than being insufferable, I mean.” 

“To be honest, it’s hard to stand here and be this close to you and not kiss you.” Sam confessed. He allowed himself to look at her, try to register what she was feeling. She raised her eyebrows, as if to say well, and a tight smile formed across her lips. She nodded once, slowly. “How are you?” He ventured to ask.

They were stopped at a crosswalk now, waiting for the street light to let them pass. She appeared lost in some thought, and then she turned to look at him straight on. “It’s hard to stand here and be this close to you and not cry.” She inhaled sharply at the last word, as if it was just as surprising for her to say it as it was for him to hear it. She didn’t mean it to be cruel, or necessarily even emotional, and it wasn’t – just honest, simple. 

“I don’t know if that’s supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing with you.” Sam admitted, brow furrowed. He wanted to hug her, but he wasn’t sure if she would necessarily want the same thing. 

She shrugged as the orange hand blinked away to the white crossing figure. “I don’t know. Sometimes I miss you so much it hurts.” 

Inside the diner, they sat at the long and narrow counter that faced the window out onto the street, bodies close enough without having to look each other in the eye. She disappeared away from their seats nearly immediately, leaving Sam to stare at the patterns of the table in between quick glances behind his shoulder to watch her order from the counter. When she returned, he gathered enough courage to look her way as she sat down. 

She sighed gently, and then nodded to the coffee cup in her hands, “this was the last cup of the pot – they’re making more for you, it’ll be out soon.”

Sam wore a curious expression on his face as his attention moved from the coffee mug to her face, “you remembered how I take my coffee?”

“I remembered your entire order, Sammy, cream and sugar and chocolate pancakes aren’t witchcraft.” She brushed off her next comment as quickly as she said it, “and anyways, it’s easy when it’s the same as mine.”

Sammy frowned. Her comments were slight, but he recognized them — the underpinning of herself. Like she wanted to make herself palatable by being both everything at once and nothing at all. The nonchalant disposition was a deflection if anything, and it hit and dug at whatever was really brewing at the core. She wanted to seem detached, like nothing bothered her – to protect herself, he supposed. That’s what hurt him, really, the fact that she felt she felt like she had to protect herself from him. They had the same order at the favorite restaurant they shared, and yet she still felt as though she had to shield a part of herself from him. 

“You don’t have to live in a state of impartiality, you know.” He told her, “You’re not difficult to love... I don’t know why you make it so hard on yourself.”

She nearly winced, like he’d poked her in a bruised rib, just in the right place and just barely sharp enough to hurt. She stared out the window, her hands wrapped around the mug. She was avoiding looking at him, but she could feel his gaze on her in her peripheral vision. She shrugged, “So you won’t, I suppose.” 

Sam huffed slightly, a deep sigh of bewilderment, “Haven’t you got it in your head yet that I worship you?”

She focused on the heat of the mug in her grasp. Sammy was just being grandiose, she told herself, that’s who he was. She shook her head dismissively, “There’s no need to do that.”

“I know.” He reassured her, nodding slowly with a swallow of his throat. He appeared as though he was deep in thought. “But if there was, I would.”

He said it so casually, so much so like it was just simply a fact of his life, that she didn’t know what to say. She almost felt guilty, though she couldn’t exactly put her finger on why. She knew any words she could try to say would just get caught in her throat. When a strand of Sam’s hair fell away from his face, she reached up to tuck it back behind his ear and only realized what she’d done when he looked at her curiously. She felt self-conscious at the blush that she could feel creep across her cheeks even though she thought she could feel him lean in just the slightest bit to her touch. She looked away again, and pulled her hand away from him. 

The waiter arrived with their food then, setting down a pot of coffee to refill, handing Sammy a pre-made mug and placing their plates in front of them before disappearing into the kitchen. She reached for the coffee first without thinking, refilling her mug only to realize when she’d put the pot back down that Sammy had reached over to up her pancakes after he’d done so to his own, an old habit he’d picked up from the time she’d broken her wrist and had never stopped afterwards. Her own nostalgia betrayed her, the corner of her mouth tilting up into a smile as she watched him pour the syrup over her plate absent-mindedly. 

It was only when he’d set the syrup container down and raised the side of his thumb to his mouth to swipe off the syrup that had gotten on it that he looked up to her and caught the look in her eye. “What?” He asked, pulling his thumb away from his mouth with a look of confusion until he realized, “oh, shit. I’m sorry if that isn’t okay anymore, I wasn’t thinking —“

She shook her head, eyebrows furrowed, cutting him off. Without thinking she interrupted him, “I almost went, you know.” She looked at him carefully, biting her lip down in between her teeth out of anxiety. 

“What?” He asked again, now frozen. His hand fell from its grip on its coffee mug. He knew what he thought she meant, but no — his mind was just playing tricks on him, surely not —

“When you asked me to go with you,” she said the words like they each weighed something tremendous, confirming Sam’s thoughts. She could feel his eyes analyzing every atom of her face. She frowned, at herself mostly, “for a split second, I – I thought about saying yes.”

“Oh.” He nodded, and she watched as the expression on his face morphed to match hers. His lips formed a thin smile, weary almost, as his eyes threatened to glaze over before he blinked them back. “And I suppose that's your way of telling me you’re in love with me?”

He partially meant to pass it off as a joke, if the serious tone in his voice hadn’t betrayed him. In all the years he’d known her, he never imagined she’d be the type to willingly admit feelings anywhere, let alone sitting at the counter of a public diner where people had a full view of them on display as they walked by outside. He was trying to give her an out, a rope to pull and banter off of. Instead, she studied the pattern of his sweater and the small specks of linen fuzzing out from its soft material. She leaned into him again, the side of her head nearly resting on his shoulder as she leaned into him. She nodded if only a fraction and closed her eyes as if she could barely handle it herself. She whispered just loud enough for him to hear, “Too much to function.”

He reached down to the edge of her stool and pulled it as close to his as possible so that they were as close as they could be. She reached for his hand under the counter gently, intertwining their fingers and pulling their hands into her coat pocket. They stayed like that, hand in hand in her coat pocket on her lap, as though it was a sacred secret between them and no one else to see. His thumb ran over her knuckles for the rest of the meal until they were ready to leave.

She waited outside the diner as Sam paid the bill he insisted on picking up at the counter. She watched the cars drive by as she leaned against the wall, bundled into herself as much as humanly possible. She stood up when the bell above the door rang and he walked out to join her, sliding a beanie over his head as he greeted her with a smile, “There you are.” 

She smiled back at him, the sweet smile he missed everyday while he was gone. “I wouldn’t have gone anywhere else.”

“Can I walk you home?” He asked, mostly as an excuse. Her apartment was a brief enough walk she could’ve done it with her eyes closed, but he wanted to anyway. Maybe he thought might get a glimpse into her living room, perhaps that at least still stayed the same. 

They were standing next to each other, backs to the wall besides the window of the diner. She nodded, “Is that what you want?” She looked down at the ground by his feet, studying his Blundstones.

“I want you.” He admitted, and he hoped it said everything: yes I want to walk you home, and I want to come inside with you, too, and I want you to tell me every second of what you’ve done since I’ve been gone because even though I’ve been all over this world that still isn’t as interesting to me as you are. 

She didn’t know why Sam made her feel the way he did, or what had changed between them when she’d stopped denying it. She had the sudden urge curl up inside his sweater, tell him he was all she wanted too. She didn’t know why she couldn’t, why her tongue felt like sandpaper trying to get the words out. She felt like she was grieving something, never mind that he was standing right beside her. Something had shifted, like she had to relearn how to love him again in a way that he was also privy to and not just within the internal adoration she’d held for him in her mind. She’d watched online — the entire tour, as people fawned over him, grasping at mere seconds of his presence. Was she not any better? The tension between them was something different now than it had been before. It was tedious and daunting, like a wall she was dreading to climb in fear of what was on the other side. She felt on edge around him, and it was a new feeling; one she hated.

She nodded and they walked the short distance together in a silence that felt like it teetered between comfortable and contemplative, and it was strange how exposing silence could be to the vulnerable. 

 At one point she’d broken the quiet to tell him, “I’m sorry.”

The words made Sam’s mouth flicker into a confused frown, “For what?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged, “A lot, I guess. Everything.”

“Stop that.” He insisted softly, reaching over to brush back some of her hair from her face carefully. 

She gave him a weak smile with an unreadable expression in her eyes. She thought maybe he was reading her mind, she was always convinced he could. She used to think that he knew everything she was feeling without her ever having to say it. Stop that, he was telling her, stop tearing yourself up inside over nothing. He knew why she was saying sorry even if she couldn’t articulate it. They didn’t say anything else. 

When they ended up at her front door, she didn’t even register pulling out her keys until she realized Sam had retrieved the extra key from its hiding spot. 

“Thanks.” She said, though she felt positively useless and ridiculously for being in her head. She watched him unlock the door and open for her to enter. She did so, and he followed her – just over the threshold. Sam shut the door behind him.

“Of course.” He handed the key back to her, and then awkwardly shoved his hands in his pocket. They stood staring at each other in silence for a time before finally Sam gave in, “What are we doing here? – I mean, what is this?”

She looked at him with a genuine expression, and then cast her gaze quickly to the floor. She shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“Right, okay.” His voice was devoid of infliction, an overcompensation to try to hide his disappointment and confusion. “I’ll see you around, I guess.”

At first all she could do was nod, numb and bizarre feeling. He started to turn around and began to walk back towards the door and in a split second she reached out for his hand, “Don’t say that. It’s been months, Sam, the last thing I want is for you to —“ She finally got a hold of him and the quick contact of it made a pull of resistance that tugged at him and made him stop to turn around. She didn’t drop his hand, “at least hug me will you?”

He sighed, there was a unique kind of longing and sadness in his eyes. She could hardly look him in the eye and face the equally sad and desperate look on his features. He pulled her hand into him and wrapped his arms around her, “What’s wrong?” His cheek was tucked in against her head, and she could feel his voice in his hair. “You have to talk to me.”

She slid her arms through his, clasping up and around over his shoulders. She held him tightly, like she was afraid he’d disappear if she didn’t. “I’ve missed my best friend.”

Sam rubbed his hand against her back, like he used to when they were younger and she had a bad day. “I’m right here.”

She shook her head, and then, as if it explained it, said: “You didn’t come home over the holidays.” She didn’t pull away from the hug, too scared to have to face his reaction. She felt stupid over it, and worse – insecure. But it was the truth, they’d been walking on eggshells for months and when he didn’t come home, she figured he’d grown tired of it and resolved she hadn’t been worth it.

She could feel him still at her words, brows furrowing as if she wasn’t making any sense.  “What?”

“You didn’t come home – I thought you, well, I guess I wasn’t sure what you were thinking. I thought you’d changed your mind. There were all these photos of you on tour, and it looked like so much, and I just figured even if you hadn’t changed your mind, I had at least slipped out of it.” The admission tumbled from her ungracefully, full of stutters and trip ups, she hadn’t moved from Sam’s arm but she felt out of breath as though she’d ran a marathon, “I didn’t want to bother you. I didn’t want to wait at the airport for you with bated breath and then look like a fool if you’d come home only to have changed your mind… And then you didn’t come home at all.”

The idea of her greeting him at the airport infiltrated his thoughts so overwhelmingly he thought it might never leave. She wouldn’t have looked like a fool. God, that’s all he’d ever wanted — to walk off a plane and straight into her arms. 

Sam pulled back from her, staring at her face with clear confusion on his. “We talked after the holidays?” He’d spent everyday thinking about her – to him, the idea that she could ever slip his mind was ridiculous, even though he’d never have the courage to tell her that. Perhaps she thought the same thing, perhaps that’s why they were standing in the predicament they were in now.

She didn’t know how to explain it to him; she shut her eyes as if not being able to see him was some kind of shield even though she was still standing right in front of him. She knew it wasn’t fair, she’d been the one to convince him to go without her. But fear compounds, she’d gotten it in her head that she’d doomed herself.

“I thought you were letting me down easy.” She tried to keep an even temperament as if to not betray the way it really had made her feel — the amount of time she’d spent beside herself in worry overanalyzing every choice she’d ever made, “I was trying to salvage the friendship.” 

“I was being cautious.” Maybe he’d been overly careful, he realized, but he’d memorized every word she’d said in his bedroom that night. Everything he had done had been to honor that. She wasn’t one to want a lapdog, he wanted to give her space. “You make me nervous, that’s all.”

“You never get nervous.” She protested lightly. That was the one thing she’d always known about Sammy, his self-assuredness. 

Sam chuckled softly, shaking his head, “Yes I do.” He insisted, “I’m nervous now.” 

She studied his eyes, the shades of brown and honey blending together within them, “I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

She swallowed. His eyes flitted down to her lips, and she knew he was going to kiss her. Even then, it hadn't prepared her. It was a gross underestimation to compensate for the way she felt that was so intense and all-consuming she didn’t think there’d ever be the words for it, but she liked the way he kissed. His hands cradled either side of her face, the pads of his thumbs on her cheeks and she clung to him, one hand grabbing his forearm and the other in his hair. It felt like waking up to the window open on an early spring morning and the soft glow of a favorite vintage lamp all the while feeling like it could make the earth stand still. Even in the summer, when it had been desperate and messy, it’s been like this; Sammy was all that mattered. 

 He broke away a fraction, enough for her to whisper, “you good?”

He laughed through a breath, “more than.”

She stepped back, suddenly aware of how close she was to him. She laughed with him, flustered.

“I’ve got a set of keys to the lake house, you know.” He says, an unfamiliar bashful shyness settling in him. He cleared his throat, “No one ever goes up there this time of year.”

“Right.” She responded. She bit at the inside of her cheek, attempting to curb her hopes.

“If I didn’t know any better I'd ask you to come with me.” He told her, fancying himself clever at the recall of what he’d told her the last time he’d seen her. A smirk fought it’s way onto the corner of his lips, “and, obviously, like a fucking idiot, I’d want you to say yes.”

She smiled at him, “This time, I would.”

taglist: @highdefkiszka​ @weightofdreamz​ 

#sam kiszka #sam kiszka fanfic #sam kiszka fanfiction #sam kiszka fic #sam gvf #gvf fanfiction #sammy gvf #gvf fanfic #gvf fic #greta van fleet fanfiction #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet fic #josh kiszka fanfiction #danny wagner fanficfion #jake kiszka fanfiction #gretagolden fic #gretagolden

[gretagolden]

bestie did you delete homeward bound? im sneakily stalking your masterlist and i wanted to read it and it doesn’t work 🥺

i had a bit of a freak out moment a couple of weeks ago where i just kind of bugged out and privated most of my fics for a slew of reasons when i was sorta thinking about leaving. i’ve just gone and made homeward bound public again though, so you should be able to access it from my masterlist now!

#ask nix💌 #gretagolden fic

[shutupdevvie]

hey! i was wondering if you have any like childhood friends to lovers fic recs? <3

hi !! i do have a couple for you :)) quite a few of them are josh (he’s very popular for this trope it would seem)

josh

christmas mouse by @gretavanlace (yes this is a christmas fic. yes it is more friends to lovers than childhood friends to lovers. i am offering it anyway)

keep on growing (parts one and two) by @geminisecrets (one of my favorite fics ever tbh)

the ugly duckling by @ficthots

missing buttons by @gretavanlace (two lace recs on one post ??)

sweet as berries by @daisyful-gvf (i don’t think there is a universe where i make this list and DONT include berries)

jake

virgins never die by @arcaneblaine (don’t even say anything because this is *technically* “childhood” friends to lovers)

sam

like friends do by @gretagolden

four knocks by @tripthelight-fanfic

shoebox by @highdefkiszka (does this even count ?? idk i’m putting it anyway)

danny

hush by @gretavanfreaky

jake and josh

shake my faith by @capturethechaos and @earthlysorrows (duh did we think i wasn’t putting this ??)

all

unforgettable by @godlygreta (this has less of that friends to lovers storyline but there is some and i love this fic. very smutty though)

#devs asks #devs recs

[shutupdevvie]

i love some good mutual pining in fics where both are too oblivious that they really like each other and it takes some meddling from their friends to make it happen… i feel like it’s such a sam thing to get tired of a lovesick danny and do some meddling of his own to get him to finally make a move on her

if you know of any fics like this with any of the guys please let me know

ok i'm gonna apologize right now because this is gonna be kind of discombobulated of a list. some of it is pining, some of it is pining with meddling, some of it is kind of the forbidden lovers thing from the other ask idk.

also you're so right that it seems like such a sam thing to meddle for danny but I COULDN'T FIND THAT. where is it ?? i know i have sam meddling for jake in here but what about danny ?? anywho

josh

closest to heaven by @highdefkiszka

keep on growing by @geminisecrets

apartment by @highdefkiszka

insomnia by @jakekiszkasleftnutsack

jake

kiss her you fool by @capturethechaos

fight what you fear by @highdefkiszka

the one where everyone finds out by @whollyfree

we are the land by @spark-my-nature

a welcome interruption by @starshine-wagner

wedding in italy by @pennylanefics

sore loser by @sparrowofthedawnsworld (plus part two)

sam

like friends do by @gretagolden

sunshine daydream by @hearts-hunger

#devs recs #devs asks

[highdefinitions]

do u have a fav fic (not your own)

really really love like friends do by @gretagolden !! sammy and gracie are my loves :))

also a very big fan of brightest blue by @garbagevanfleet and off limits by @dharma-divine !!

#percy’s asks

[gretagolden]

like friends do | sam kiszka

sam kiszka x fem!reader (or oc if you prefer!)

summary: when on vacation with his best friend, sam faces a dare that brings buried feelings to the surface and forces him to face the feelings he swore he’d always keep a secret. | word count: ~3.8k

warnings: nothing much, a bit of play-wrestling in a paragraph, i suppose my grandmother would barely consider it nsfw if she squinted, nothing really that explicit at all. | please excuse any errors! | as always, reminder that my blog/all of my fics at 18+!

notes: likes, reblogs, replies, interaction in general etc. are always appreciated! i’m finally back to fics, and a dear thank you to all the friends i’ve been using as soundboard all week. it was originally based off of one of those friends to lovers prompt list and then whole thing took a life of it’s own, so credits to whoever reposted that for inspo<3 i do have a mini playlist that i listened to religiously while writing this the past week if anyone wants it as well. anyways, i hope you enjoy! psa: i've wiped my taglist and am restarting it! so if want to join my taglist, just send me a message or an ask and i’ll gladly do so!

part two!

Sam looked at her out of the corner of his eye; book tented over her face, a pair of his old jean shorts unbuttoned and folded at the waist over her swimsuit, her knees bent and her feet flat against the grass of the lawn. 

Underneath the book, her lips contorted into a smirk, humming briefly before she spoke, “If you’re going to stare, Sammy, you might want to learn how to be discreet.” She teased him carefully, pulling the book off her face and turning her head to glance at him, squinting from the sun. 

He rolled his eyes in response, thanking god he was already sunburned to hide any blush that would threaten to creep across his face. “I was not staring.” He said, a tone of defiance and nonchalance in his voice. Of course, that was a lie. He’d most definitely been staring at her, he’d been stealing glances at her for years. He’d tried to stop, kept hoping one day he’d be gone on tour long enough that when he came home he’d be able to be around her without feeling like his heart was going to leap out of his chest. 

It never worked, and vacations like these hardly helped; no one wore anything close to a full outfit at the lakehouse, and so there they were – Sammy and the best friend he was hopelessly in love with, laying in the yard half-naked in swimming suits for what felt like the millionth hour in heaven before he was shipped out onto a tour that would separate them for weeks on end.

She laughed, the kind of laugh he wished he could catch in a jar like it was a lightning bug. She rolled over onto her stomach closer to him and propped herself up on her elbows to look down at him. He’d gone to close his eyes again, but he knew she was looking over him from the way she blocked some of the brightness of the sun and her hair reached down to tickle the side of his cheek. 

Lightly, she reached up to run her fingers over the bridge of his nose and across his face. She let herself admire him: the freckles that were cropping up from the summer sun and his eyelashes, the shape of his upper lip. She supposed she was the one staring now, like a hypocrite, but wasn’t he used to it by now? The way so many people fawned over him day in and day out. Her Sammy, she supposed, belonged to the masses now, but she comforted herself knowing they didn’t get to love him like this – tracing the microscopic details of his face. She gently blew her breath across his sunburn, and when he gently brought his hand up to move her face away, she smiled. 

“Are you flustered?” She asked, moving a stray strand of hair off his face, “Samuel have a little crush?”

“Dear god, no.” He teased back, lying through his teeth, “you’re the worst.”

“I dare you to prove it.” She said before she could take it back, and immediately began to internally chastise herself. Cursing herself for being so brash and bold, so childish. Sam’s eyes flew open, staring at her with a look that was more alarm than confusion. 

“What?” He questioned, staring now unabashedly, taking in every detail of her face that might help him read her expression to figure out what she might mean. 

She looked away from him, pulling out grass from the yard in her fist. “If you don’t like me, kiss me,” she shrugged. She suddenly felt an intense sort of shyness. She turned back to him, sprinkling the grass across his chest, “it’ll be obvious then, and I promise I’ll never tease you about it again. Everyone else in town right now anyways.”

“Just to see what it’s like.” She offered, and then, as if to lighten the mood, “If you’re not too chicken.”

Sam rolled his eyes at her works, repeating her words in a mocking tone — if you’re not too chicken — before launching quickly, sitting up in a swift moment and grabbing her wrists, play-wrestling her down onto her back. She laughed again, loud and uninhibited, as the grass she had left in her grasp fell away and the pair rolled and fought one another. Flailing limbs grasping at each other, hair obstructing any chance at a clear eyesight, Sam’s hands at her torso tickling her sides until she managed to get the upper hand, getting her grip around his hands and fighting her way to get above him. 

His chest rose and fell intensely, heart racing when he realized their position – the girl he was hopeless over straddling above him. She let his hands above his head go slowly but he didn’t move them; he let them stretch out as they laid against the grass, his palms facing up towards the sun. He didn’t move, swallowing harshly and trying to gain his composure before speaking, “you good?”

She nodded stiffly, measuring his face with her gaze, “More than.” She ghosted her thumb over his lips.

All hope was lost when she kissed him, the dare thrown into the lake like fish bait. Even if there hadn't been any feelings before, there certainly would be now. He could taste the watermelon they’d eaten for breakfast in her mouth and her fingers shifted to lightly thread into his hair framing his face like a halo after coming undone from his bun. Was this it? The best moment of his life? He didn’t think anything could ever compare, certainly the taste of watermelon would be ruined forever. He tried to memorize her; the curve of her lip, her breath, and the feel of her skin. His hand slipped up, grazing across her collarbone and running down the side of her torso to her waist and his shorts that she wore, his index finger curling around an empty belt loop of his shorts at her side.

She couldn’t care about the consequences of the moment when all that was running through her head was a chant of his name, careless of the boundary that had been crossed. People didn’t kiss their friends like this. It  was reckless, but she couldn’t keep up a facade of cool anymore –– especially not when his touch felt like fire. Did he kiss other girls like this? She prayed he didn’t, that she was special; if he’d kissed anyone else like he was kissing her, it seemed impossible to her that someone would ever be able to find pleasure in anyone else’s lips ever again. She liked the idea that he was giving her his all, that he was just for her, even if it was just for this one moment.

He gently tugged her closer into him, and she whined quietly in his mouth. Another sound he wished to store in the lightning bug jar, he noted to himself just as the sound of the gravel started to creak in the driveway at the front of the house and she pulled away, much to his utter dismay. He groaned slightly at the loss of the contact. She pulled away with a gasp that Sam had only heard before when she’d break up through the water after jumping off the dock. 

She slid off him to kneel beside him and collect herself, Sam’s hand still lingering on her hip, afraid that the moment would evaporate into another one of his dreams if he lost contact with her. She looked over at him, he had propped himself up on his elbows but hadn’t moved. He reached for her face once more, and she let him pull her in again, chasing after his lips just as much as he did hers before her brain caught up to her body. She shook her head just slightly, realizing how lost up in the moment she was getting, and pulled back.

“Satisfied?” She asked as she stood up before he could reach for her again. It was her desperate attempt to regain her composure before she’d have to face the others inside.

No, he thought, I’ll never be satisfied again. “Yeah,” he said instead, nodding though still stunned.

She nodded curtly without another word, taking a deep breath before disappearing back into the house to greet his brothers. Sammy stared after her in disbelief, and remained frozen in his place.

The rest of the week was agony for Sam as she avoided him, her warm smiles and lingering touches suddenly turned into a cold shoulder towards him. Danny thought he was being ridiculous, Josh teased him for acting so weird, Jake hit him in the side of the head with a frisbee when he caught him staring off into space lost in his thoughts and called him a philosophical narcissistic for believing that whatever he was thinking about was profound enough to get lost in for three days straight. 

She didn’t say a thing, it seemed like she held her breath every time he even got close to her. Found an excuse to scurry away whenever they found themselves alone in the same room. It made him fear the idea that he had hurt her somehow, and the thought was so upsetting it made him ill. But he felt her staring at him, too, any time the others were too distracted to notice if she did. He desperately wanted to look back, but he knew that was precisely how he’d ended up frozen out from her, and by a miracle then, he found the strength not to. He watched her politely disappear into her room each night –– the room that had been his as a kid, until she had mentioned it was her favorite room once and he’d given it to her to stay in whenever she joined them without another word.

Every night, he’d silently watched her; from the kitchen, from the couch, from the dining room table, all different views of the same scene. She’d take her leave first, and when he went to bed himself he’d hear her pacing above him in the attic. He tried to pretend he didn’t hear, didn’t notice her shift as if it wasn’t eating him alive. The last night of the trip, he found himself standing at the bottom of the stairs up to the attic as if climbing them was akin to walking the plank. He forced himself up the first one –– quiet to make sure he didn’t peak the attention from his brothers –– and then the next, and the next. When he reached the top, he stepped around the creaking floorboards across the hallway. He stood outside the room for what felt like forever looking at the cracked door before gaining the courage to knock and wait for her come in! to sound from the other side. 

“Hey.” He greeted carefully, pushing the door open further and leaning against the doorframe. 

“Hi Sammy.” She looked back at him briefly before going back to her tasks of packing.

Sam didn’t do anything for a few moments, just watched her as she went back to her silent routine, not bothering to continue the conversation like she usually did. He cleared his throat to gain his courage before asking, “Are you okay?” 

She looked up at him with an unreadable look, though internally she could feel herself slowly losing her composure. She shrugged, “Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” She asked, feigning ignorance before nodding to a folded shirt on her dresser, “can you hand me that?”

He nodded, reaching for it and then handing it to her. She retrieved it without fuss, quick to pull away before he gently caught her wrist. “Darling,” he pleaded knowingly. 

“What?” She asked, feeling her anxiety turn into an irritation she wished would go away. He didn’t deserve it, he wasn’t at fault — it was her, she’d put herself in this situation. It came out shaky and exhausted, she thought it made her sound pathetic.

Sam hated feeling on edge around her. He wanted to be okay with her again; curl up into her warmth without feeling misplaced, crawl under the covers of the bed and just hold her, feel the calm of her heartbeat beneath the quilt. 

He dropped her hand, and took a moment instead to study the room, perhaps as though he was trying to give her a moment to ease herself. To reassure her it wasn’t his attention to upset her, that he’d give her anything she wanted if she just asked. He spotted his old teddy bear from his childhood on the rocking chair in the corner, an old family picture frame on the mantle. “You know this is the room I used to like staying in as a kid.”

“I know.” She admitted, a kind of way to offer him just enough of a confirmation to what he had already concluded on his own –– it was precisely why it had been her favorite. She was letting him in on a secret, they shared knowing smiles. It was her way of reassuring him, too. She had found his old tech decks in the night stand drawer just a few nights before, and had slipped one of them into her own bag as a keepsake.

“You’ve been avoiding me all week.” He didn’t sound accusatory, he was simply making an observation. He bit his bottom lip out of anxiety, trying to quietly find his words. “You can’t — we can’t pretend like nothing happened. That isn’t – that isn’t just something that friends do. Are you honestly going to stand here and tell me you felt nothing?”

His voice was calm, quiet and gentle. He looked into her eyes so intensely she nearly felt as though she could cover herself up somehow, like she was utterly too vulnerable to him now. 

She sat down on the bed, shrugging again. “It doesn’t really matter what I felt when you’re about to get on a tour bus for six months.” She studied him in a search to find any answers tucked away in his eyes, “you said you were satisfied.” 

“You can’t seriously be saying that while you’re packing my band shirt into your duffle, can you?” Sam looked at her with an incredulous and desperate expression. 

She paused and sighed, eyes closed for a brief second. Earnestly, she asked: “What do you want me to say?” 

Sam stood, looking at her in the soft light of the lamps in the room casting shadows against the wood of the walls, a frown etched onto his face. He took a deep breath, hands shoved into his pockets. He wanted her to say that it was worth it. He didn’t want to be the only one going through the emotional turmoil of reeling from that day. His worst fear was that she regretted it. He wanted her to like him, because it was obvious enough that she loved him, but this kind of like was different from that kind of love he’d come to know from her as a friend. How could he ask her to say that, though, when he didn’t even know what to say? He looked at her, and he had always been awful at saying what he felt, but there she was – sitting on his old bed, wearing clothes that used to be his, speaking with lips he now knew what it felt like to kiss. He could never go back, and it scared him beyond reason.

“If I didn’t know you, I’d ask you to come with us.” He told her with a sudden surge of resolve, closing the steps between them so that he was standing at the edge of the bed and looking down at her. “And I’d want you to say yes, obviously, because I’m a fucking idiot.”

Her gaze snapped up within a millisecond, searching his eyes to try to find if this was another irrational dare or not. “What?” 

Sammy sat down across from her, pulling his legs into a criss-crossed fold and gently patting her knee so that she’d do the same — their knees touching as they sat on the bed like they were children. Her eyes never left his, her head spinning, 

“What I want to do is ask you to come with me. Figure it out on the road.” He told her, “a part of wishes I didn’t know better so that I would.”

He knew it was a pipe dream at best. It didn't make any sense, not really, but it’s all his mind had been caught up since she’d kissed him; an image of her in the balcony of a venue watching them play as his girl. It was selfish, and entirely preposterous, but when he laid in bed watching the sunrise outside his window in the morning it’s what he wanted more than anything. But he knew what she would say, who she was. It wasn’t her, she wasn’t a portable commodity he could just tuck away in his tour bunk for comfort. As much as she had always supported them wholeheartedly, she also knew herself, and he knew her. She’d be miserable on tour, it wasn’t a secret. 

“You’re right.” She shook her head with a frown, fidgeting with the folded pair of shorts in her lap. “Trust me, you don’t like me that much.”

Sam laughed at this fondly, as if she was being silly. It made her feel like a young girl again, wanting approval from him –– the satisfaction one got from earning it. His laugh made her feel as if she’d done so. She didn’t hate the feeling. “Trust me, I do,” He promised.

She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She maneuvered her feet between the bed and underneath his legs to maintain contact. She felt protected around him, and exposed. She could hardly explain how she felt both. “You were always the one who was better with the grand gestures of life.” 

“I’d say kissing me is pretty grand.” He nudged her leg a bit, trying to find some good faith humor between them. He missed teasing her, too. It hadn’t felt grand in the moment, it had felt right, but he supposed that was the tightrope people always balanced on in love. 

“It was a dare.” She whispered, bemused, amused. She placed the shorts in her lap to her side on the bed and took her turn to look at him with an expression that felt almost borderline desperate. Her body moved with her words, her nervous energy buzzing through her shoulders and head, and her hands talking almost as much as her mouth. “I couldn’t of known you kissed like that — I didn’t think you felt that way!”

He thought about his next words carefully before he said them, “I’m glad you did it.” His jaw tightened as he studied his lap, confusion etching his brows at her words, his tongue bit between his teeth. They sat in silence for a moment before he asked: “How could you not? Know, I mean.” 

She shrugged, finally feeling the tenseness in her chest dissipate. “I guess we both thought we were obvious.” She said it to get a laugh out of him, and she did. She admired the small smile on his face for a moment before she answered the question he’d feigned to answer. 

“I like you, Sammy,” she offered, he must know that, “but I have a life here. Those two things can be true at once.” 

The corner of his mouth twitched, and he nodded. He didn’t know why he felt like he was going to cry, he felt ridiculous. He studied the quilt, and admitted, “I’m scared I’ll lose you if you don’t come.” 

She softened, head tilted as she studied him with concern and ponderance, “And with the pressure of it all? Sammy, I’m afraid I’ll lose you if I do.” 

He huffed slightly, as if both bothered and amused him in a twisted way. “Damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”

She took his hand gently, squeezing it. She didn’t think they were damned at all. They’d work it out, eventually, when he came back and there was room to breathe. Rushing it would only rob them of it, this was for the better. “Not necessarily.” 

He distracted himself with her hand, turning it over so that the palm was exposed, and he could trace the lines of it with his thumb. He held her gently, as if she was a rare porcelain he could hardly believe he was holding –– a map to a lost treasure, a key to all the secrets of the universe he’d ever need. Maybe he was being dramatic. He didn’t care. 

“Remember when we were younger and I always made you compare our hands?” He asked out of the silence, and when she nodded, he smiled. “I did it initially because I liked you. I read in one of Ronnie’s magazines that it was a way to flirt. But then I just liked it, the ritual of it. Liked the idea that it connected us — that your hands would become partial mine to somehow, if we did it enough. I don’t know, like the lines on our palms would come to always know each other through all the pencil stains and calluses, or something. That I would be the only one who knows you in that way.”  

It was stupid and insignificant, such a small thing. He clung to the small things anyway, life was nothing if not a collection of small and precious things. She could see the wheels turning in his head, and let them be, knowing him enough to not be bothered by the silence. He’d tell her if he wanted, there was no hiding now. 

There were a million things she wanted to say; Go and be Sammy, and I’ll be here when you come back and nothing will have changed and we’ll figure it out then… Instead she promised: “You always will be.”  

“We’ll be okay?” He asked, looking at her with one eye squinted shut, as if he was suddenly shy and she was the sun that shone too bright to be in the presence of so directly. He didn’t look like a rockstar, he just looked like Sammy. He never let go over her hand. 

She brought his knuckles up to her lip to kiss them, a gentle gesture of fondness. She slipped her own fingers in through his when she pulled back and brought her cheek to instead rest on the back of his hand, “Of course we will.”

They rode in the back seat of Jake’s car together when they left the next morning; she rested her head on Sam’s shoulder when she dozed off into a nap. Jake didn’t say anything when he looked into the rear view only to find his little brother lost in his thoughts again, staring at her with a shy kind of awe that made everything between the two make sense.

part two!

#sam kiszka #sam kiszka fanfic #sam kiszka fanfiction #sam kiszka fic #sam gvf #sammy gvf #gvf fanfiction #gvf fanfic #gvf fic #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet fanfiction #greta van fleet fic #josh kiszka fanfiction #jake kiszka fanfiction #danny wagner fanficfion #gretagolden fic

[gretagolden]

gretagolden masterlist

hello! welcome to the masterlist of my fanfictions for the band greta van fleet! below all my currently published works are linked, and will be updated regularly as i publish more! my ask box is always open if you have a question, want to send something my way, or suggest an idea for a fic you’d like to see! if you’d like to join my taglist, either just send me a message or an ask, and i will gladly add you! please remember that these fics are all 18+ (even if they do not contain smut) just for the sake of my own comfort! enjoy!

disclaimer: i do not claim to know any of the people involved in these fanficitions. these are fictional stories, not based in the reality of the lives of the people included – as i have no idea what their lives are actually like, nor claim to. i do not mean any harm to those mentioned in these stories; this is all completely fiction, please do not take anything in these stories as fact

For the Better

Sam Kiszka x female reader

For the first time after breaking up, Sam runs into his ex and realizes it’s the only thing he’s wanted, and needed, since.

Like Friends Do

Sam Kiszka x female reader/oc

When on vacation with his best friend, Sam faces a dare that brings buried feelings to the surface and forces him to face the feelings he swore he’d always keep a secret.

part one | part two

Platonic

Josh Kiszka x female reader

Josh’s relationship with his best friend isn’t entirely platonic, and when the holidays make the drinks go down smoother, the things that go unspoken slip from tongues more freely. 

Falling

Josh Kiszka x female reader

Several months after a falling out, Josh Kiszka’s ex-best friend shows up at his door with a scraped-up knee and a mountain of regret for what had happened between them. 

New Year's Day

Jake Kiszka x female reader

Jake wakes up on the morning of new year’s day and begins the new year with his girlfriend

Real Life

Jake Kiszka x gender neutral reader

After moving to Nashville, Jake reconnects with an old acquaintance from Frankenmuth and the pair strike up a tradition of late night drives during which their friendship grows. 

Alone Together

Daniel Wagner x female oc

After his best friend ends up in a relationship with his high school crush, Danny finds himself growing closer to her little sister.

Homeward Bound

Daniel Wagner x female reader

Danny hides away with his girlfriend for a moment in her childhood bedroom while on a trip to her hometown to meet her family.

Stranger Birthdays

Daniel Wagner x gender neutral reader

On your birthday, you meet Danny in peculiar circumstances but strike a conversation and begin to grow closer regardless

#gvf fanfiction #gvf fanfic #gvf fic #greta van fleet fanfiction #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet fic #sam kiszka fanfiction #sam kiszka fic #sam kiszka fanfic #josh kiszka fanfiction #josh kiszka fanfic #josh kiszka fic #jake kiszka fanfiction #jake kiszka fanfic #jake kiszka fic #danny wagner fanficfion #danny wagner fanfic #danny wagner fic #gretagolden fic #gretagolden

[gretagolden]

realistic timeline for part two of like friends do is probably next Monday — so a week from today? this is also me publicly announcing there’s going to be a part two for like friends do bc i forgot to do that earlier lol oops

#sam kiszka fanfiction #sam kiszka fanfic #sam kiszka fic #gvf fanfic #greta van fleet fanfiction #gretagolden #gretagolden fic