just_a_girl_who_reads
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something blue by nymph-then-virgin (just_a_girl_who_reads)
Fandoms: The Vampire Diaries (TV), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms
01 Apr 2024
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Summary
something old, something new, something borrowed. . .
Recent bookmarks
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Summary
Christopher’s chest heaved once, followed by the sound of a stifled sob. Like a dam breaking, he hunched over slightly, shoulders shaking.
He was crying. Why would he be—
Oh.
He looked up at Eddie, tears streaming down his red cheeks, the dark makeup around his eyes somehow unaffected.
“I’m gay,” he confessed between shaky breaths, his voice cracking over the words.
or
Eddie refuses to raise himself
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- English
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- 15,737
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- 1/1
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Bookmarked by just_a_girl_who_reads
29 Oct 2025
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Bookmarker's Notes
favorite passage ❤️:
They were just sitting back on the couch after they had finished up, with Christopher knee-deep in a mostly convincing sales pitch about why Eddie should buy him some more makeup, when Eddie’s phone began to ring.
It was Buck, just on time for their usual nightly facetime call.
Despite the nervous trembling of his thumb, Eddie pressed “accept” with a wide grin and messy makeup still on his face.
“Buck!” Eddie greeted, already feeling less nervous at the sight of his best friend. He was laying in his bed, by the looks of it.
“Buck!” Christopher tacked on, leaning into the camera frame, all of his teeth on display as he smiled brilliantly.
“Well, hello,” Buck replied through a giggle. “I didn’t realize we were getting all dolled up for this call. I’m feeling underdressed,” he joked, running a hand through the messy pile of curls on his head.
“Horribly underdressed.” Christopher shook his head gravely. “Next time, you need to do your makeup with us.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Buck mock saluted, the playful glint in his eyes evident even through the low lighting. “How are my two pretty boys doing tonight? You guys seem like you’re having fun.”
Eddie felt his cheeks warming slightly at his words but decided to ignore it. He nodded.
“We are. We—”
“We wish you were here!” Christopher interrupted, as if Eddie weren’t there at all.
He would be annoyed if he weren’t so endeared. Some days it was hard to tell who loved Buck more— him or Christopher— and that just made him love Buck even more.
“I wish I was there, too!” Buck’s tone was light but Eddie would sense the melancholy weight behind it. Eddie swallowed hard.
“So, what’d you do today?” He quickly changed the subject, asking a question he already knew the answer to. When the two of them weren’t on facetime together, they were texting back and forth, updating each other on every move they made.
But still, Buck launched into a recap of his day, and for a little while, Eddie could almost pretend the three of them were in the same room again.
“Buck, are you asleep?” Christopher asked, obviously noticing Buck’s closed eyes and the fact that he hadn’t spoken in several minutes. Eddie snickered.
“No. ‘M ‘wake,” Buck mumbled, eyes still closed.
“He’s definitely asleep,” Eddie corrected, matter-of-factly. He turned to Christopher. “And you should be, too. It’s late.”
It was nearly midnight, but Eddie didn’t have the heart to tell Christopher and Buck they had to say goodnight earlier.
“Alright,” Christopher yawned. “G’night, Buck!”
Buck peeled his eyes open, smiling sleepily.
“Goodnight, Chris,” he returned.
Eddie and Christopher bid each other goodnight before wandering off to their bedrooms. As Eddie shut the door to his room, Buck spoke again.
“So,” he began, still sounding half-asleep. “You gonna do your makeup for me next time we see each other?”
Eddie snorted.
“In your dreams.”
Buck chuckled quietly in return before yawning.
“You wanna fall asleep on facetime again?”
Eddie didn’t even have to think about it. He quickly realized after arriving in El Paso that he slept better when Buck was on facetime with him, and based on how often Buck asked about it, Eddie would assume it was the same for him.
“Yes.”
As Eddie finally got into bed, the dark and silence of the room settling in around him like a soft blanket, Buck’s virtual presence keeping him company, he realized— something inside of him hurt. But it was a good hurt. It kind of felt like getting up to walk around after sitting down all day, or stretching your muscles after a good workout.
Or like tight old roots— loosening their grip on something they should’ve let go of a long time ago.
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“Hey Evan.” she whispered, tracing a gentle hand over his soft, pudgy cheek. “I’m your big sister. I’m going to take care of you.”
Evan blinked slowly as he took in his big sister’s face. As she drew her hand away from his cheek, he reached up with his own and seized her index finger, giggling as he grabbed his prize. His gummy smile was so wide, it crinkled his eyes nearly shut.
It was a contagious sound and a laugh burst out of Maddie’s chest with a sudden euphoric warmth. Evan’s grip on her finger didn’t loosen until they were leaving the hospital room and her dad took him back again. For hours afterwards she swore she could still feel the warm imprint where his tiny fingers had been wrapped around hers. "
Or
A look into the Buckley siblings' lives through vignettes of them holding hands.
Bookmarked by just_a_girl_who_reads
27 Sep 2025
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jail(baby)bird by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
01 Jun 2023
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Summary
“983,” the guard calls, clanging a baton on the bars of the cell. He doesn’t bother to look up, very busy tracing out the state of Texas in the lines on the wall. He’s found four of them so far. He’s trying for a fifth. “New buddy.”
He does exhale through his nose at that, slightly amused to find out what new victim they’re offering him this time. He doesn’t have a great reputation with his “buddies,” the fuckers attached by handcuff to their cellmates to make it harder to escape, a standard practice in FEDRA prison. He’s gone through four now, each and every one of them trying to pull a power play by picking a fight.
It hadn’t gone well for any one of them.
“Try not to kill this one too quickly,” the guard says, and there’s a certain amount of anticipatory glee in the man’s voice that sets off a quiet alarm in his head.
He lifts his head, needing to see what makes this new inmate so special.
And looks right at a kid who can’t be older than 14, absolutely swamped by a prison outfit meant for someone about three sizes larger.
A girl, in the middle of a men’s prison.
(an AU in which ellie and joel meet in a fedra prison)
- Language:
- English
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- 17,140
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- 2/2
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- 126
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- 2,797
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Bookmarked by just_a_girl_who_reads
01 Aug 2025
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cyclical by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
15 Apr 2023
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Summary
It’s a bit like trying on an old jacket, settling into Jackson. The general shape of it is familiar, even comforting in its own way, but there’s an adjustment period, a little breaking-in until everything fits like it should.
Well, it’s like an old jacket for him. The way Ellie looks sometimes, completely bewildered and turning to him for reassurance or clarification, he thinks it’s a bit more like trying on a Halloween costume for her.
Tommy and Maria had brought them their meals at first, and he’d at least been gratified to get some real food into her. After Silver Lake, she’d been off all meat for a long while, and in the hospital, exhaustion and pain had stolen what little appetite she’d managed to recover by that point. There’d been a little adjustment period here in Jackson, when they fell back on their routine of him taking bites of meat first to reassure her they were safe, but she’s slowly begun building back some flesh on her skinny little self, and it’s like he can feel a bit of his own restlessness settle with each plate of cheesy potatoes she downs with relish.
(settling into jackson goes well, giving joel and ellie their first taste of peace)
(and then someone sees ellie's bite scars)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 14,252
- Chapters:
- 2/2
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- 133
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- 1,928
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- 394
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Bookmarked by just_a_girl_who_reads
01 Aug 2025
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Summary
After Tommy unintentionally says something to Ellie that reminds her of her traumatic experience at Silver Lake, the two have a heart-to-heart.
Bookmarked by just_a_girl_who_reads
01 Aug 2025