MASTER POST: Like All Good Fairytales
Title: Like All Good Fairytales (this one starts with once upon a time)
Pairing: David Archuleta/David Cook
Rating: NC-17
Warning: Ridiculously, ridiculously AU.
Word count: ~21,000
Summary: Five lifetimes David and David would have fallen in love.
Artist(s): The fan-fucking-tabulous ciudad, who ninja-ed in here and gave me the best damn surprise I have ever gotten out of a story, ever, WITH NOT ONLY ART BUT ALSO AN. ENTIRE. SOUNDTRACK (YOU WANT TO BE CHECKING THAT OUT, TRUST ME), oh my god, and then seemed shocked when I wanted to show it off to every freaking human being on the planet. Shocked. Jesus Christ, woman, the amount of sheer joy you bring into my life is untouchable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The unbelievable starafar has also chipped in with a digital scrapbook accompaniment, jfc. You guys, I cannot even believe my life right now. This scrapbook fucking floors me every time, and the pages take my breath away, AND YOU KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS COOK IN A PINK SHIRT, GOD.
prologue: once upon a time
i. snow white fell in love with dopey
ii. cinderella realized that happily ever after takes work
iii. peter pan grew up
iv. prince charming found that sleeping beauty was a different person awake
v. the little mermaid never got to sing
epilogue: and they lived happily ever after
I'm dedicating this story to my incredible, incredible wife, hopefulgenius, who was a bigger inspiration for my finishing this than she will ever know. I wrote the entire last section of the story with her in mind, and I -- without a doubt, it is the story I'm proudest of ever writing. Meg, darling, god I adore you. I hope when you read this you know that that is how you make me feel every day, and then some.
Acknowledgements: That said, this was a strangely difficult big bang to write. I began it initially for dvbb, but when that challenge went out the window, I decided that the rest of the stories needed to be written anyway. I didn't manage to post this by the original deadline, unfortunately, but the fact that I posted it at all is thanks mainly to all the awesome people who've been encouraging me and holding my hand to get me through this.
First up, starafar deserves the hugest hugs and candy bars in the world for offering major hand-holding, being the best sounding board in the world (half the ideas in this thing I totally stole off you), for helping me out in every way possible (twitter forever!) and constantly telling me that this story did not suck like a hoover (which, total lie, BUT IT IS THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS). You've seen me at my worst and the fact that you didn't go running for the hills means you get extra, extra, extra kudos! <3333333333
Crazy amazing thanks must also go out to greensounds, x a billion, because honest-to-god, she probably fixed half the story, and saved the rest of it, and her constant cheerleading was the most amazing boost in the world. I am spoilt for life, now that I have had her last minute betas for pretty much every piece of fanfiction I've put up that needed a beta. A lot of the revamping that went into the story is completely thanks to you, and I am much, much more satisfied with the final product than the initial one.
Much love also goes out to bubbleforest, who helped me out in a major way by looking over the sections I was having problems with, and pointing out things that would probably not have made any lick of sense otherwise, and then heaping all this crazy praise on it that IT TOTALLY DID NOT DESERVE. And the best part is that SHE IS NOT EVEN IN THE FANDOM. You are the bestest, bb, idk what I did to deserve you. ♥
I must also send a billion, trillion, gazillion thank yous out to pixiebeanz, infiniteskies, rajkumari905, jehane18, mausi, irishdf and slashophile for their undying patience and faith and encouragement. I honestly don't know where I would be without everyone of you in my life. Also, to everyone who read this and left comments, thank you. You don't know how much this story means. If I have neglected to mention your name here, it is only because I am lame and stupid, but know that I am so very, very grateful for everything.