Thank you so much to @karygurl for the christmas commission! It was a blast to make em’ (and I bet a blast to receive these babies as gifts too!). Slots are currently open by the way!
Again, merry christmas to you all, stay safe and happy holidays! ✨
Pairing: Nat Sewell x f!Detective Rating:E Word Count: 10.7k Notes: The 90s!Nate au that no one asked for and whose origins are murky to me now. Something about Mulder from the X-Files being on my dash…and something about Nate wearing his glasses…and somehow that became NATE in the 90s and now here we are?? It is long, and it’s about two people finding their way with each other, I believe. For @brightpinkpeppercornand@tuagonia, without whom this wouldn’t exist. Also posting during Hot In Wayhaven, Day #1: Foreplay. Shouts to the mods for a summer full of gorgeous content! (Pop over and read this on AO3, for self-indulgent endotes.)
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I. October:oh when you walk by every night, talking sweet and looking fine
She saw him there on Fridays.
His long arms stacked with five or six movies while he contemplated another, squinting down at the backs of the cases as though he wasn’t wearing glasses at all. She liked to watch him stoop (because he had so far to go), to search the shelves. Sometimes, he would lean and a swoop of hair would flop forward over his forehead. A combination of rakish and charming that made her heart beat fast.
you already know the drill, under the cut to see my misuse of capslock
I. October: oh when you walk by every night, talking sweet and looking fine
I already hate you.
…squinting down at the backs of the cases as though he wasn’t wearing glasses at all.
Am i going to end up just like…quoting the entire fic back at you? Perhaps.
But you’re doing the thing again, the thing I don’t have a name for. The organicness. The Trader Joe’s of the Writing World, Aj. HOW? This entire little section dedicated to sussing out his appearance is just making me all sorts of not good. Like unable to form actual words kinda not good. Just “ heem tol.”
Jujubes that threatened to pull her teeth out with each mouthful.
Shut up. Shut UP. SHUT UP. HELP!!! This is so visceral.
The faintly chemically smell of the carpet, with its bright, graphic triangles and squares running underneath her feet.
Omg and here it is. My favourite thing of all time. The thing. This decade-defining visual anchor. Hurts me and shocks me to life in one beautiful sentence which was meant to serve no other purpose but to bring us into the time and scene, but just elevates my emotions.
(And really, that sounded about right: Leigh Williams: Action Movie Girl. Good with a Glock, unable to cry, fully of quippy one-liners with inexplicably excellent tits. Some assembly required. Spare, barely lived-in apartment sold separately.)
What a clever and succinct way to paint us a picture of Leigh early doors and give us a chance to suss her out.
She wasted a lot of time reading the description for Basic Instinct (raunchy with Michael Douglas who did very little for her, but Sharon Stone, who did a lot)
A woman of taste.
THE ORCHIDS. My heart stopped. A very N Sewell thing to do, the modern day letter writing.
It wasn’t trickery of a happy Friday night. It wasn’t memory made sweet by her girlish crush.
Can i say this was my favourite line out of the whole story. I know youre not meant to pick favourites but like…………………………….what you did to me when I read this line, had me near-smacking my forehead to the table. I’m sorry, what? How? Where did you conjure this up from? I need to speak to it immediately as there are a few thoughts I’d like to ponder too. I’m taking you to court. For emotional distress.
This allure of what a Friday night brings at the stretch of a long week, the way it paints everything shiny and bright. And then drawing this emotion without overly describing it … I have reread this… so many times. And this is the line that has stuck with me for DAYS. How many Fridays have come and gone since you posted this? And I still think of it. You are too powerful.
SO-
Once more, something we saw in the Adam!AU, the lovely nods to canon. Friedman, Bobby, the friend visiting Nate (please say it’s A. No no maybe it’s F???), Nate’s past with the ocean. Beautiful. Just, spectacular and genius.
Huhuhuuuu and now let’s talk about the Nate Sewell and the way his RUNS HIS MOUTH.
HOT. HOT! and the sentence that comes before the one below??? *loud jar clinking in the background*
She didn’t know if he was asking her or if he was telling her or maybe he was begging too…
Not to like… incriminate myself further because this smutty scene is everything, but I am so happy for Leigh.
On screen, Alex Trebeck read out clues. A predictable, comfortable cadence that might have lulled her to sleep. A bright-eyed red-headed man thumbed the buzzer like it was trying to run away.
Hate you some more (affectionate)
Then pulled her feet in his lap while they watched Mulder and Scully view the footage of a sunken fighter plane, and discover mind-wiped people covered in black oil.
idk what it’s like to lose!
The progression of their attraction is so…potent. The draw berween them is the heaviest thing on the screen, from the moment you introduce their repeated awareness in the video store week on week (genuine tummy flips even thinking about it again) to that split second you think Leigh is about to get in get car and not Get It Good… !!! WOW.
omg this is so long already, but I have so much I want to say about the emotional journey Leigh and Nate go through. The ability to bring in something from canon and make it your own? This fandom is truly not worthy, this has been… such a treat. And that we get to revisit the way Nate and Leigh fall in love again and again, make each other want to be better for themselves and each other…and just being sexy (omg the desk scene, THE DESK SCENE).
Leigh’s gesture to take them on that trip was something that really tugged at my heart strings. To present Nate with the chance to reunite his love for marine life and all its beauty… while also opening up himself to love Leigh.
OH AND the aquarium scene that made ME want to cry (so beautifully described too).
That conclusion was so very, very satisfying because it says so much about how they’re not done here and it’s only the beginning.
okay this is long and i will shut up now and go reread for the fourth time…woozy emoji face
I’ve always wanted to draw both UB gents and ladies! And they also provided me a little practice on full body I guess (one that I still find myself struggling with)
I may reblog with close ups of each of em soon, for you know, icon purposes lol. Hope you love em!
