fic: the people we used to be (part two)

[ladysonsie]

Title: the people we used to be
Author: ladysonsie
Artist: sweetiejelly
Rating: Soft NC-17
Disclaimer: These characters? Not mine. Just borrowing to play in the sandbox with. I like to get 'em dirty, okay?
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Noah
Word Count: 12.2k
Warnings: Strong language. Mini!angst. Sexual content.
Spoilers: None. Show's over, kids!
Summary: Two AU style

Comments

[sweetiejelly]

So I knew this was going to be awesome because it's you. But it's beyond, really. Gah, I love your words, Steph. I honestly do. So very much my favorites. I love that you gave Noah a seeing eye dog - holy cow, she sounds adorable. And he was blind! I should have known. Otherwise, how else would he have wound up on the streets, right? SIgh. They are all so very broken here and lovely in how their fragments fit. I love the way you structured this and split the canon open over these other, almost parallel universe/ other lives where they end up helping each other and belonging anyway. ♥

So, I wasn't kidding about the need to quote. lol Here are some of my faves.

Love the visual/thermal image here:
The nicotine blows through his body like a sweet, delicious heat and he tries to relax a little.

Lovelove how you describe the city and tie it to how broken Luke is:
Chaotic crowds of people getting ready to push through another mundane day. In this place bursting at the seams with swirls of the quiet anonymous trying to get by.

Luke’s always felt more at home here. Where he can fuck up and not get judged, that allows him to keep trying to figure out what he’s doing and who he is. People never stopping to wonder or even bother to care.

Damaged strangers filled to the brim in this bowl of bitter stench with tall buildings and winding gutters. No one to really see just how broken his insides truly are.

No one to really see him at all.

And then of course, it's a blind guy who sees him. I love that.

The golden retriever, who is cleverly named Lucy!
“Thank you,” Luke returns barely above a whisper and the man just nods and puts the cup back down. He the takes his hand and starts to gently pet his friend.

Luke thinks it might be his only friend in this entire world.

The whole part where Noah gets through to Luke about how he's so lucky to have people who care about him and love him and needs to at least try to make good with them. My heart!

This time his hands are empty except for the two quarters from that very first encounter he had with Noah that he is rubbing together in his pocket.
He kept them. <3

Luke feels like the city is seeing them both for the first time as the stroll by the skyscrapers. Listening to the sounds of the cabs rush down the worn streets. This city that can forget you as she swallows up the smog and lights and steam from the alleys. She doesn’t have time to pay attention to who you are.

Unless you make her.

And they are now. They are each walking together feeling like they can be seen for who they are.

Not where they come from.

That sound the city is making is hope.
This is gorgeous and perfectly bookends the city not seeing them in the first part.

(darn; need to split this comment into 2!)

[sweetiejelly]

(... and here's the rest!)

Love to help bring words and sounds and art together in such a way that it actually came alive.

Where chaos would reign and nothing would be the same.
Hee! This made me smile a bit, if a bit sadly.

Long, slow drops plopping down on the windshield as Noah drives though the canyon. The kind of rain that feels like it will last forever doing just this. Blanketing this town in a steady beat against her, needing to protect everyone from the truth that happens when it’s noting but calm winds and dark silence to showcase everyone’s sins in the open.

There is a barrier when it rains here, people aren’t used to it. The energy changes as everyone moves through the streets watching the black tar get a fresh shining. You feel almost safe to do the ungodly things you shouldn’t be doing because by morning it all will be clean and back to normal.
This is gorgeous and sets the mood perfectly.

He can feel his body slowly letting go and giving in to this evening. Letting someone else have the control is helping to relax Noah, give his senses a break from being pulled by everything in his life.

Just them right now. Just them together and filling each other in ways that Noah can’t explain.
That whole hotel scene is hot but also completely coated in this melancholy too that makes it more beautiful. Gah, love all of that - how Luke's so bossy in every 'verse even here and how Noah just needs to let go.

Luke gets off the phone and looks around the room. The ache in his bones is gone and it’s replaced by that flood of warmth he’s missed for so long.

That feeling of home.

The people they might have been are different now.

But they will always be them when they are together.

And that feels a lot like a promise.
♥! Perfect.

[ladysonsie]

I saved this to answer last because I couldn't figure out how to properly say thank you. And I still can't. The comments were so lovely and appreciative and mean so much coming from you and your were so great helping and being patient through this whole process.

So, all I can still come up with is a sincere 'thank you' for being you and helping me with this.

You are so special and I'm super thankful to have you in my life.

ps. and yes! I don't think I ever said but feel free to draw Lucy whenever you want or when life finally calms down for you. More ronnie!art is always a good thing to put out in this world.

love you. ♥