(Untitled)

[mockturtletale]

it's not just where you make your bed
Liam/Zayn, pre-OT5 h/c fic for harriet_vane, a hundred years after it was promised.
pg-13, 4,502 words, untrue.

Comments

[alwayseven]

I love the way you write. This is the first thing I've read of yours and there were so many places that I was just in awe of the way you construct a sentence and the language you choose.

This is beautiful and sweet. It felt very much like Liam, very true to his voice. I especially love the Louis pieces and the way Liam just knew that he was going to get taken care of whether he wanted to or not.

Thank you so much for this, I am looking forward to reading more from you.

[mockturtletale]

Oh thank you so much! I was so nervous about posting this because it's my first fic in a new fandom and my goodness what a lovely first comment to receive!

I'm so glad you found it true to Liam's voice, he's not necessarily the band member I would pick first to write in the POV of, but I found it really fun and enjoyable to do so and it means a lot that it rang true for you!

Thank you so much for this wonderful comment, I'm looking forward to writing more for you to read! ♥

[romasquerade]

And you thought I wouldn't LIKE IT. You're crazy.

I can definitely see where this is different than the things you've written before. The writing, the style, it's ... wholly you while also being something new or different, that's clear. I love it -- differently than other things you've written, it pushes different buttons, but I love it just the same.

I like that it isn't explicitly h/c in that they're all... doting over him and taking care of him in the obvious ways. I think you got this spot on, how they each do different things to make Liam feel better, how they approach him or give him space but it's always what he needs. It's truer this way, realer. They each fit together in different ways and it makes sense that they play off of that, that they rely on their strengths and weaknesses with one another to be a comfort. You handled that fantastically, really well.

And for some details now:

Just before he hangs up they all shout various versions of ‘goodbye’ at him, and he can’t tell what any of them actually say, but the sound

[mockturtletale]

Yeah this definitely isn't h/c in the traditional sense! It's kind of ... not so much an exaggerated idea of how they might take care of them so much as it's a more realistic picture of how I really think they would take care of him?

The line about Harry texting Liam having not slept is definitely a nod to your ideas on him!

I actually had a little piece in there explaining that Liam kind of .. picks up on the fact that he thinks it 'too soon', and how telling that is even to him, because that was an idea that I was really stuck on, here, but I eventually took the explanation out and felt like even if no-one picked up on it it was better to hint at it and have no-one catch it than to work too hard to explain it, so I'm thrilled that you noticed!

I'm glad you like this, dude! ♥

[harriet_vane]

OH MY GOD

*_______________*

And the thing is, this is h/c and it's exactly as cuddly and lovely and taking-care-of-each-other as you want h/c to be but at the same time it's secretly a really sweet character study of each of them and how much they love each other and all the different ways they take care of each other and Liam/Zayn ;____; they are so cute together it actually hurts me a little.

Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. ♥

[mockturtletale]

I definitely set out to write more straightforward, clear h/c, but along the way I noticed that it was turning into more of a character study than anything, but it's one framed by this incident and grounded in how they ALL take care of one another, so I hope that it was still something like the kind of story that you wanted to read! I hope that eventually I'll be able to write shamelessly fluffy h/c, but I think I was just so excited to be writing about them that I lost focus and got caught up in spinning out all the details of their interactions instead.

I'm so glad that you liked this! :D ♥

[diora1]

My favorite thing about this is how well the boys know each other - they have become the extension of a collective. You juxtapose the public and private personas of the boys so well. Harry's bravado was particularly poignant.

There will never be enough exploration of the way the boys became that collective, that cohesive group from 5 boys who wanted to be solo artists, but most of all wanted to spend their lives making music. The transition from soloists to a group could not have been easy, particularly not in the jam packed speed required by x-factor.

Ok, my real favorite is Liam, because Liam is my favorite always. I have a fannish type, I recognize this, I will always be susceptible to the strong, serious, sensible type - as long as that is part of the personality, I will embrace that person with joy.

[mockturtletale]

I for sure tried to show a very personal angle of facets of their personalities that we glimpse in the public eye. I wanted the story to feel personal in that sense, and to be true to who I think they are by turning that into something that translates pretty seamlessly into an authentic but deeper and different picture behind closed doors. I'm so glad you liked the section about Harry's bravado! That was one of my favorites to write!

Even watching X Factor at the time it was ridiculous to see how quickly they gelled and how easily they seemed to fall together and hold fast in that sense, so here with things like Liam having been worried about how Harry might realize his potential I wanted to account for the fact that even though they were just dropped into this situation and expected to get along right away, that's something that happened and happened quickly but not necessarily easily or in the right way at first.

Hahahaha, Liam is ... he's definitely not my favorite! My friend romasquerade work off the basis that they're ALL our favorites,

[makesomelove]

UGH, I LOVED THIS. I am in agony because FINALLY, a beautiful fanfiction about human beings being human beings and not a conspiracy theory about management. Also my reaction to Louis in this:

[mockturtletale]

I kind of want to write fic where "management" is their code word for like .... their sexual and romantic volition. They are with their girlfriends simply and solely because of MANAGEMENT. They maybe bone each other because MANAGEMENT DICTATES THAT THEY HAVE TO.