Burden of Tomorrow [Friday Night Lights]

[disalae]

Title: Burden of Tomorrow
Characters/Pairings: Luke, Luke/Becky, peripheral Tim
Rating: R
Warning: Sex, and the high school aged kids having it. Minor language.
Summary: Lessons on saying the right thing at the right time. Major S4 spoilers.
A/N: Wish Meme fic for stainofmylove. Original prompt here.

Comments

[stainofmylove]

Liz ... I feel fucking broken right now. I don't even know what to say. This is simply, utterly fantastic. It's better than fantastic. It's the show, man. It is so everything that is so amazing about the show. It's honest and heart-wrenching, it's surprising but inevitable, it's better than anything I could possibly think up or imagine for these two. GAH.

They're cute and funny and awkward and sexy: She looks like she’s thinking real hard about something. “So I’m just here as manual labor?”

Don’t panic. “I said you could just sit in here.”

Her response is a laugh and a reassuring “Relax,” as she pops the rest of the candy bar in her mouth and shoves the creaky door open. He can’t help but stare a little. “Well don’t just sit there.”

They're almost too straight with each other (HOTTT), with bonus DEVIL TOWN: He hisses when she puts her fingers on the welt and presses lightly, asking him if it hurts. It does, so he tells her that, and she just winks and tells him to stop being a baby. Says, “Don’t you get worse than that every Friday night?”

He totally gets her on such a sweet, sad, subconscious level: “I just want you to know that I think you’re really pretty.”

and: “Irresistible, right?” she says in a playful voice, but he can also hear in her voice that she needs to hear the answer.

You do awkward, first time sex like NOBODY, man. It's like you pack every single emotion in there, even awkwardness and outright funny--but it is still SO SCORCHING HOT: “Anything,” he blurts, swallowing hard. “Anything’s fine. That- that’s fine.”

And Luke is such a boy. FNL has some fucking fantastic women, but so much about the show is about being a "man," whatever that means, and you have it here in so many levels with Luke. His inner world and struggles are so spot-on: He takes her home when she asks, the car ride just as quiet as before; well, except for the fact that he can hear her crying and he doesn’t know a damn thing that he's willing to say that will make this better.

LORD, girl!!! I don't know if I've ever heard that feeling expressed so well. It is like you are LIVING IN MY BRAIN. You brought out every single fucking thing I find interesting and compelling about this pairing, and the end portion really fucking knocked me out. Especially: The movie’s halfway through, and during one of the quiet scenes she turns to him, tears in her eyes, and out of nowhere pleads to him in a choked voice, “Please don’t hate me.”

and: “And when I said I’d be there for you, I meant it. I mean it.”

The vulnerability and the kindness there between them hurt almost more than anything else. And it ending with him just asking her not to say no? *goes and cries in a corner* I'm sorry to just keep quoting your own words back at you, but I really don't even know what I could say better ... THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH FOR WRITING THIS FOR ME. I LOVE THIS. I LOVE YOU.

[disalae]

I-I don't...aaaaaah you have MADE MY DAY. After I posted this I was worried you might not like it, and then I saw this and I seriously burst into this huge smile the minute I saw just the LENGTH of this comment for chrissakes. And then I read it and preened like a motherfucker and, I know people get awards for best fics, but we need an award for best commenter to go to you.

This pairing was fun to write because they totally COULD be a little awkward and playful and well, like kids. Because in the end, they totally are just teenagers doing something really out of their realm of expertise and experience.

Haha, bonus Devil Town? You mean just talking about Friday night? I thought I'd like, inadvertently quoted or something (and yeah, I know the song/that it's in the show, but maybe not as well as I thought? Haha).

Hee, awkward first time sex...a little bird told me you might like that. I almost skipped out on it for narrative purposes (made the fic a little top heavy), but I made it work. Glad it came out well for you. I find with that it's hard to not just make things...work out? Ya gotta make sure there's equal parts "this is awesome" and equal parts "well, that didn't go quite as planned," which can be hard after writing like, I dunno, Deb/Quinn when both parties know what they're doing. Gotta dial it back...but it's always a good challenge and makes for some both sweet and sexy scenes.

Luke is totally such a boy, and kinda weirdly polite and always trying not to be a disappointment. I seriously felt like he was shit on left and right during the 4th season so many times, and yet he still stayed calm and respectful. Still understood when decisions had to be made that he didn't want (moving to East, Becky, not being able to play, having to work on the farm instead of practice, I could go on...) and accepted them. I think the character could have easily been a dick, but he's not. It was fun to explore inside his head and see how he would react to the kind of pressure he was under.

I'm soooo glad the end worked for you. I was afraid it was getting a little too fluffy. But, I also knew you wanted to see them being good to each other, so I couldn't end it all angsty. And frankly, why would I want to? These kids need something good, am I right?

tl;dr I LOVE YOU and I'm so glad you liked this I could just explode.