TenderAsHell❤️

@tenderashell.bsky.social

Casey - She/Her (allegedly) - Demi/Bi - 30s Queer Romance Enthusiast 🏴‍☠️🌈 https://archiveofourown.org/users/5VeryHappyYears/pseuds/5VeryHappyYears/works?fandom_id=72534322

Been ages since I've done these! This is from a one-shot I started writing sitting in the departure lounge in Adelaide last year, after visiting pirate pals. Stede's had a wine country bachelor weekend away before marrying Mary, and now meets a man-of-his-dreams flight attendant on the way home...

This godawful week is finally over, and he’s paid extra and sweet-talked Maggie at the desk into giving him a seat nowhere near Nigel and Chauncey, and all he has to do now that the bachelor obligations are over is, well. Marry Mary. Settle into a life that’s guaranteed to suck his soul dry.

Fuck.

There’s a loud burst of laughter from his left that makes him turn reflexively, but it’s not the twins, thank god. His father had insisted they come on this trip and they’ve been exactly the amount of utter nightmare Stede expected.

No, it’s a little cluster of flight attendants wearing the navy and orange colours of his carrier. The one who’d just laughed uproariously is balding, but has a crown of silver hair and a thick beard to match, and he looks so jolly that Stede can’t help but smile.

Which is when the man who’s with him happens to look across, and oh, shit.

Oh, god, that is—that is a very attractive man.A man who’s looking right at him, while Stede still has a goofy, borrowed smile on his face, and he makes a solid attempt to rearrange his mouth, but no, that—that doesn’t help, he’s fairly sure, because the flight attendant’s eyes drop away from his, travel a path that takes in Stede’s teal blazer and his floral silk shirt and his magenta corduroy trousers before raking all the way back up to his face with sharp focus.

His slow-spreading smile has a degree of intensity that makes Stede feel like he’s being lasered into pieces where he sits.

The guy turns away to talk to his friend, and Stede takes in a huge gasp of air, palms spread on the table, willing himself to be normal, for fuck’s sakes. He’s never been immune to the attractiveness of other men. He considers himself a lover of beauty, after all. It’s never felt like it says anything important about him that he’s able to aesthetically appreciate other humans who happen to share his gender.

But Christ, the heat that’s boiling through him now is either some sort of impending-arranged-marriage-inspired crisis, or some sort of wine-inspired medical event, because he’s on the edge of breaking into a sweat.
✨#WIPSnips✨ A Daily Writing Share Tag@wipsnips.bsky.social · 13h ago

The #WIPSnips word for August 5th is “carrier” (Sorry y’all The scheduled post failed.) #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt

The word for August 5th is “carrier”