[3] Touching the Sea and Sky: From the Beginning Series
Sparkling Stars Touch the Sea and Sky
Title:[3.2]I Love You Pairing/Relationship:Yamada Ryosuke x Chinen Yuri Chapter Rating:G Collection Rating: NC-17 Warnings:Chapter:None Collection: M/M, NSFW, Explicit Language, Erotica, Public Sex Genre: Romantic fluffy stupid boys in love, M/M Type:Collection
[3.2] I Love You (August 2019, The boys spend a lazy Sunday afternoon browsing Youtube together) JulietAlayne.pink|Tumblr|Wattpad|AO3
PLEASE NOTE:
This is a Yamachii Romance/Home Life and features the boys in a romantic/intimate relationship with one another.
Yuri couldn’t help but smile, glancing down at Ryosuke’s fingers fiddling with the edge of the blanket, his head resting over his heart as they lazed about on a Sunday morning. They had a few things to do later that day, but in this moment, they were able to just relax–chosing to stay in bed as long as possible while surfing Youtube videos.
He couldn’t help but feel warm inside–if someone had told him years ago that he’d be married to his best friend in the whole world, living their own style of a ‘perfect’ life–then he would have told them it was impossible…those things might happen, but there was no way it could happen to him.
At least, he’d thought that–and now here he was, Ryosuke’s head moving ever so slightly to the beat of his own heart, and he couldn’t help it, dropping the controller and wrapping his arms around him to squeeze him tightly.
Ryosuke hummed, pushing against his arms to look up at him, “What was that for?”
Yuri couldn’t really put into words all of the feelings running through his mind, just shrugging, “I just love you.”
Ryosuke lifted up a bit further to press a soft, tender kiss to Yuri’s lips, smiling, “I love you too.”
He shuffled to lay back down, his fingers going back to the edge of the blanket while Yuri grabbed the remote to change the video, pausing for a second at one of the suggested videos on the side of it, knowing full well Ryosuke was going to pitch a fit, but it was in reality all his fault.
He did tell me to control the videos.
Without even a hint of remorse he pushed the play button, and at first, it was pretty clear Ryosuke wasn’t paying a bit of attention but he could tell the moment he realized what was playing, his body stiffening, his fingertips crushing the blanket in his hand, emitting a low growl that sounded suspiciously like “Yuri!”
As the series of “I love you” moments from various concerts through the year played on the tv, Ryosuke jerked upright, trying to grab the remote from Yuri who managed to keep it away from him, squealing, “It’s almost over! It’s almost over!”
Ryosuke huffed, throwing himself down on the other side of the bed as the “I love you” echoed in the background, covering his eyes with his arm to hide from the offending words and performances.
When it finally ended, after what he was fairly certain was at least four years minimum, he flung his arm down to look over at Yuri, “You know how much I hate that–I regret ever making the suggestion–I never thought it would become a 'thing’ at all.”
Yuri laughed softly, “Only you would think that you saying 'I love you’ to a bunch of fans wouldn’t become a 'thing’–you’re so naive.”
“Whatever,” Ryosuke shook his head, rolling over onto his side to look at Yuri, his expression softening, “Do you know why I suggested it?”
“Huh?” Yuri scooched down so his eyes were even with Ryosuke’s, lying on his side to face him as well, “What do you mean?”
“I mean when I suggested to say 'I love you’–do you know how come?”
Yuri blinked, confused, “Ah, you thought it would be cool?”
Ryosuke shook his head, laughing softly, “C'mon, you know me better than to imagine I actually had a burning desire to declare my undying love to the world…”
“That’s…true,” Yuri drew the words out, his mind whirling, “If not that then…”
“It felt like I was saying it to you–like…I know it wasn’t…but…” Ryosuke’s cheeks flamed red, as the memories of the myriad of times he’d said those words rushed through his mind.
Yuri watched him, his eyes wide as he considered the implications of this revelation, “Wait…that was like…I dunno, 2010 or something wasn’t it? That can’t be right!”
Ryosuke couldn’t understand how despite these many years together that Yuri just still couldn’t seem to understand the reality, reaching out to brush his fingertips across his cheek before pulling on his shoulder to make him come closer, “Yuri, I knew the minute I met you–I fell in love with you the second you walked into that room.”
Yuri smiled, shuffling further forward to allow himself to be wrapped in Ryosuke’s arms, his face pressed against his chest, “So, all of those 'I love you’s are…”
“Yours,” Ryosuke whispered, pressing a soft kiss to Yuri’s forehead.
“All mine,” Yuri mused, “That’s a lot of love.”
Ryosuke laughed softly, “I have a lot of love for you.”
“I won’t ever be able to hear you say those words the same way now,” Yuri admitted.
“What do you mean?” Ryosuke drew back to look down at Yuri.
Yuri tilted his head, his eyes soft, “I mean, I just always thought it was fan service, you know, and secretly, as your number one fan, I always liked to pretend that you were saying it to me too. Now, you say it was always mine…so…now it will be striking me straight in the heart anytime I hear it.”
“Good,” Ryosuke couldn’t help but smile, “It always belonged to you, now you can keep it forever.”
Ryosuke reached over to grab the remote off of Yuri’s pillow where he’d abandoned it, “Now, it’s my turn to find something that I can embarrass you with…”
“You won’t find anything, I have never done anything I am ashamed of,” Yuri whispered, shuffling around to press back up against Ryosuke to see the television as well.
“Oh really? That sounds like a challenge to me,” Ryosuke began to think carefully about what he could search for that would be embarrassing for Yuri…drawing a blank, “Why are you like this?”
“Because I’m me,” Yuri said proudly, “And you love me just the way I am.”
He reached back and snatched the remote out of Ryosuke’s hand before he could stop him, pressing the play button to make the 'I love you" compilation play again, shushing Ryosuke when he started to protest, “I’m allowed to enjoy this on an entirely different level now, shut up.”
Ryosuke shook his head, realizing he’d just created a monster…and then reached to drag him even closer, pressing a kiss against his head as he smiled, knowing in his heart that Yuri was absolutely right–he wouldn’t have him any other way.
__
The next day, they were filming the Parade ga Hajimaru PV–they’d arrived together, with Ryosuke hanging out with Yuri as they did his hair and makup since he was the first up to be filmed that morning. Yuri was a little surprised by Ryosuke staying–he would usually go off and find a corner to inconspicuously fall asleep in.
Which would inevitably end up on a video thanks to Yutti but still.
When he was nearly done, Ryosuke cleared his throat, pointing to the door to let Yuri know he was going to go on ahead. Yuri did the slight head nod–they were pretty proud of how sly they were…which was a little stupid because no one would think that they were up to anything at all if Ryosuke had just said “I’m gonna go wait in the studio”…but still, inside secrets were a part of their lives, and it paid for them to be always on alert and cautious so they never would slip up when it would really matter. This was certainly going to become something that mattered far more than just merely protecting poeple from finding out about them…no, it was best to handle things in very specific, clear cut ways…
Work was work.
Home was home.
And apart from when one or both of them were wearing white pants in general they were both able to keep those two seperate.
Well…barely…well, they tried–that has to count for something? It was in some ways becoming more and more difficult to keep things neatly divided, and they both knew in the next year the lines were even more likely to become blurred and unclear. It didn’t matter, they both wanted what they wanted together and that was all that mattered–they were blessed enough to be surrounded by people who not only supported them, but helped them conceal and misdirect people away from their relationship.
Yuri was in a wonderful mood, feeling happy and full of joy at all of the beautiful expectations that lay before them, he thanked the makeup artist and the stylist and headed toward the studio.
As soon as Yuri entered the space he saw Ryosuke talking to the people at the sound board, confused, because this wasn’t one of Ryosuke’s projects, he wasn’t really involved in the back end production so he was a little confused by him still not sleeping.
When he was told where to stand and the director instructed him, saying this was really a very short bit–that they were only going to play a tiny random clip just to get him in the zone–and that he didn’t even need to sing along or anything. The goal was to convey feelings–through his expressions and gestures–not to sing the song but to project those feelings to the camera and thus the fans.
Yuri understood, nodding, unpreprared for when the so called “random” clip began to play–knowing full well this was what Ryosuke had been doing at the sound board.
He couldn’t really be sure what feelings he conveyed…whether it revealed how much he loved that dumb boy or how flattered he was by his continual profound declarations throughout their years of surviving their mutual unrequited love. He wondered if the people there could see how much it effected him, how much his hear swelled, to know how loved he was, how cherished he was–how it felt to be loved by the one person in the world you only ever loved…to have that forever? Could they know?
He was careful to avoid looking toward the staff, knowing that there was a good chance that Ryosuke would be standing with them and in that case, it would be all too possible that perhaps his feelings would be entirely too clear, too apparent. Otherwise, he was sure that Ryosuke was glued to one of the video consoles to watch his reaction–either way…he hoped in his heart that what he felt was conveyed to him, because he figured if Ryosuke had spent the last nine years publicly declaring his love for him–then it would be okay if there was a bit of a reflection of that love that could be discovered in this one moment of time in return.
Book review:She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
Written by wife and wife co-authors, She Gets the Girl is a fluffy hate-to-love lesbian romance in which two girls practice date with the aim of winning the girls of their dreams, but end up falling in love with each other in the process.
The book follows two girls, Alex and Molly, as they navigate the turbulent first few weeks of college, and explore the ups and downs of college relationships. While I felt that some parts of She Gets the Girl were weaker than others, I did enjoy the commentary on young adult relationships. In particular, Lippincott and Derrick do a fantastic job of showing Alex’s unhealthy relationship with a girl who treats her poorly, and examining how Alex’s low self-esteem and strained family relationships have led her to believe she’s not deserving of anything more than that.
There were certain parts of She Gets the Girl that I wasn’t as keen on - for example, in their first meeting Alex virgin-shames Molly in front of a large audience of strangers, humiliating her, and I felt that this was brushed off too easily. I would have also liked to see Alex and Molly’s very different home lives explored a little more; it seemed like an interesting possible conflict for the two girls to work through, but this was never fully developed.
Overall, though, She Gets the Girl is a sweet trope-filled new adult romance which is sure to appeal to fans of the genre.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of She Gets the Girl. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. She Gets the Girl will be released on April 5th 2022.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Rating: 3 stars | ★★★✰✰ Review cross-posted to Goodreads
A charming magical adventure set in the early 1900s. When Robin Blyth reluctantly accepts a new government position he finds himself unexpectedly swept up in magical conspiracies, deadly curses and a passionate whirlwind romance.
I chose to read A Marvellous Light on a whim, knowing very little about it other than the fact that it had a beautiful cover and had been blurbed by the author of The House In the Cerulean Sea. I’m pleased to report that it was everything I could have hoped for: a beautifully written queer romance wrapped up in the complications of magical intrigue and Edwardian sensibilities.
Told from the dual third-person perspectives of ordinary civil servant Robin Blyth and Edwin Courcey, the haughty magician forced to take Robin into his protection, A Marvellous Light centres around the mysterious disappearance of a liason between the ordinary and magical worlds. Robin and Edwin have a classic mutual-annoyance-to-friends-to-lovers relationship and their burgeoning feelings are definitely the heart of the book. The pace of the mystery slowed considerably after the first few chapters, but I didn’t really mind since this gave us more time to focus on Robin and Edwin getting to know each other.
One thing that definitely stood out to me in this novel is the worldbuiding. It’s a testament to debut author Marske’s skill that the magic of her world feels refreshingly original. Magicians in A Marvellous Light use gestures called cradles to weave together the requirements of their spells. It’s an entirely new way of approaching magic, but there’s a logic to the rules and regulations of Marske’s secret magical society that keeps it from becoming confusing.
All in all, there’s a lot to love about this novel and I’m excited to read more from Marske in the future!
Many thanks to Tor Books for providing a copy of A Marvellous Light. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Publisher: Tor Books Rating: 4 stars | ★★★★✰ Review cross-posted to Goodreads
A cute (if slightly predictable) You’ve Got Mail-style romance, featuring two IRL enemies who bond over their favourite TV show online.
At school, Stella Greene and Wesley Clarke are rivals battling it out for the chance to become valedictorian. Online, they’re both huge fans of the short-lived cult classic Warship Seven. When a local convention is announced, the two plan to meet up, unaware of each others’ IRL identities.
Stella and Wesley’s rivalry is told from both sides with the narrative switching between the two protagonists, occasionally interspersed with Warship Seven scenes which nicely parallel the protagonists’ lives. Warship Seven is, of course, a thinly veiled fictional Firefly, and as a huge Fireflyfan myself, I enjoyed how Tate incorporated the sci-fi story and its fandom into the novel. I also liked how Tate used her fictional story-within-a-story to comment on the different sides of fandom, from ship wars to misogyny within sci-fi fandoms.
There’s a lot to like about Shipped, although the main storyline is fairly predictable and none of the secondary characters especially stood out to me. Still, enemies-to-lovers is a classic trope for good reason and Wesley and Stella made for a cute couple. Overall, it’s an entertaining read, if not a particularly memorable one.
Many thanks to Meredith Tate for providing a copy of Shipped. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers Rating: 3 stars | ★★★✰✰ Review cross-posted to Goodreads
Let me preface this review by saying that I really, really wanted to like this book. May the Best Man Win is a queer contemporary romance in which a newly-out trans boy challenges his ex-boyfriend for the title of Homecoming King - only for old feelings to re-emerge as their rivalry spins out of control.
Summarised like that, this book sounds pretty perfect. Which makes the experience of reading May the Best Man Win that much more disappointing.
My main gripe with this novel was the lack of likeable characters. Both protagonists were arseholes to each other and everyone around them; they were even willing to get their “friends” expelled to cover their own backs. I’m usually all for flawed protagonists and enemies-to-lovers storylines, but there was no character growth. Even while admitting that they’d been self-centered, awful friends, both Jeremy and Lukas continued to be self-centered, awful friends. If this book had been written from the perspective of any other character, Jeremy and Lukas would have been the clear villains of the story.
Maybe it’s because I’m not American, but I also didn’t really feel connected with the Homecoming event storyline. Honestly, I’m still not sure what ‘Homecoming’ is, even though it’s all anyone talks about for the entire book - to the extent that it started to seem farcical. Winning a school popularity contest is such a big deal that at multiple times the main characters bemoan the fact their future university places depend on them being crowned, which… seems like a stretch.
The one saving grace is that Jeremy and Lukas both have legitimate reasons for acting out and both boys are aware that their actions are shitty. The bad part is that the secondary characters all forgive them far too easily and the narrative tries to make us root for them as a couple even after they’ve been awful to each other.
Many thanks to Roaring Brook Press for providing a copy of May the Best Man Win. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press Rating: 1 star | ★✰✰✰✰ Review cross-posted to Goodreads
↳ a journey of navigating friendship, love, sex, and everything in between.
pairing: kim hongjoong x fem!reader x ateez genre: non!idol au, romance, smut, angst word count: 102.5k status: complete [◉] warnings: sexual content, substance use, language
disclaimer: this series focuses on relationships among friends — working through feelings, situations and scenarios along with the exploration of finding and enjoying oneself along the way.
→ all parts of this series coexist in the same universe.
01. 10.2k 02. 3.6k 03. 10.5k ft. jyh 04. 8.7k 05. 14.7k ft. jwy 06. 5.1k 07. 9.3k ft. psh 08. 8.1k 09. 6k ft. cs 10. 14k
Synopsis: During a sleepover, three unassuming friends play an infamous board game that leads to an array of unexpected events that change all of their lives.
[★]; TWO BOYS. TWO UNIVERSITIES. TWO RIVALING TEAMS. And then there’s you, stuck weightlessly in the middle of it.
The time left on the clock is running out— and soon, you’re going to have to pick a side.
info;
na jaemin x fem!reader [OR] lee jeno x fem!reader.
college basketball au.
slow burn.
this is a [PICK YOUR OWN ENDING] fic, which means that all these chapters will lead up to two routes; and who you end up with in the story depends on which ending you choose. Jeno? Jaemin? It’s up to you ;-)
genre;humor, romance, making friends, light drama, (eventual) light angst, story-driven, long read, chaptered, eventual steamy themes
warnings;will be updated as the story goes on, so please check here regularly! i don’t plan on having any crazyshit in here, but general warning forcursing and average college-aged fanfic shenanigans overall, and any specific warnings i come across will be mentioned in the corresponding chapter :-p
current wc;22k
projected wc; 40k+ (as of right now idek… this is Slow, Slow Burn, it is probably definitely going to be longer than this)
Title:Irrational Author:Mendeia Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort Rating: T Verse: 2003 Characters: Leatherhead, Donatello Chapters: 1/1 Pairing: One-sided Leatherhead/Donatello Status: Complete Summary: Oneshot. Slash one-sided . Leatherhead muses on the events of the “Good Genes” plotline and its impact on his heart. And on the turtle to whom he has lost himself…
Title: Jouissance Author:KameTerra Genre: Friendship, Romance Rating: T Verse: 2003 Characters: Raphael, Joi Reynard Pairing: Raphael/Joi Reynard Chapters: 1/1 Status: Complete Summary: From the beginning, everything they did together had had an energy, an intensity to it. He wouldn’t call it love, exactly… but that didn’t make it any easier to say goodbye. Raph X Joi
Title: Donnie Gets His Fix Author:FrostFire Genre: Romance Rating: NSFW Verse: 2012 Characters: Donatello, April O’Neil Pairing: April O’Neil/Donatello Chapters: 1/1 Status: Complete Summary: Donatello visits an upset April and winds up having the night of his life. Angst, Anthro, COMPLETE, Fingering, H/C, Oneshot
