1 - 20 of 35 Works by Tea_and_Sympathy
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As the cloth fell to Lawrence’s waist and left him naked and exposed, Ali exclaimed, “Habibi!” The word punched from him with a sharp intake of breath at the sight of Lawrence’s flayed skin. Ali didn't know if he heard the word as friend or beloved and, in truth, he wasn’t sure himself which he meant by it.
“Is it that bad?” Lawrence asked.
Ali, lost for words, said, “It… it looks uncomfortable.”
Lawrence laughed. “Ali,” he said, “You’re practically an Englishman in your mastery of understatement. Yes, it is a little uncomfortable. But I can bear it.”
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Sam hears a small voice in the doorway say, “We need to talk.”
He looks up to see Fred leaning there watching him—he looks tired and anxious. Sam wants to go to him and wrap him in his arms, but he feels all courage and resolve drain straight out of him. He quips, “Those are the four scariest words in the English language. What’s up, babycakes?”
“Sam, please, I’m serious. I didn’t dream it, did I?”
“What?”
“Did you kiss me?”
Series
- Part 2 of One of Your Five a Day
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Sam liked lychees—there was something obscene about them. You could peel their unpromising, spiky shells, and inside they were all fleshy and luscious, but also somehow virginal. Delicious.
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- Part 1 of One of Your Five a Day
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“Have you never wanted to write your name somewhere you shouldn’t—leave a mark on the world for posterity?”
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He had told Henry he knew when to toe the line and keep quiet. But he wanted to change the shape of this family, take up space in it, not merely slot into its well-worn groove. Tom made him want to declare things, to refuse to be silent. Yes, Will was jealous. Jealous of Tom’s family, jealous of Tom, jealously in love with him—with all of them.
As the only child of a feckless mother and no father he had ever known, love, and the learning of it, was an exquisite pain—Will wanted no opioid to dull it.
Series
- Part 7 of Nothing New Under the Sun
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Whom the Gods Would Destroy They First Make Mad by Tea_and_Sympathy for stuartdakins
Fandoms: History Boys - All Media Types, History Boys (2006), History Boys - Bennett, Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
16 May 2024
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"It’s a funny thing that it’s not more frowned upon, what with it being so full of the forbidden. I’m amazed little boys are allowed to read it, it’s quite racy. Apollo and Hyacinth, for instance. Very romantic. Tragic.”
“I know you want me to ask, but what’s the point; you’re going to tell me anyway.”
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Henry laughed and called Will a tart, and Will said it took one to know one.They enjoyed the kind of friendship that allowed them to be spectacularly rude to one another. Will said, “Why are you here? Spit it out."
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- Part 6 of Nothing New Under the Sun
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Henry hung the kettle on the hook over the fire as usual and watched it swing a little—the rusted metal catching the light was almost pretty. He sighed and poked at the fire to rouse it from the doldrums. Alfred was here again. Henry was making tea again.
“Henry?” said Alfred.
Henry was stirred from his gloom by Alfred’s voice, soft and close, somehow entreating. It filled him with an unnamed dread. “What is it?” Henry asked.
“I…Never mind the tea.”
Series
- Part 5 of Nothing New Under the Sun
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"Who is he then, this Alfred?"
"No one. It was a mistake—a slip of the tongue."
"Henry, how long have we been friends—the odd fuck notwithstanding?"
Dear Will, who'd been his first friend when Henry fetched up in Whitechapel all those years ago, deserved better than this. "Forever," said Henry.
Series
- Part 4 of Nothing New Under the Sun
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“Oh, is that what it is—love?" said Charlotte. "How grand."
"I think so."
Charlotte's mouth opened and closed around a response she thought better of giving. Instead, she said, "You best know so, Henry, because I don't intend to suffer this much heartache over anything less than love." She did not say—if you don't love him, I will rip out your heart with my bare hands and present it to Alfred, still quivering, on a silver platter. No, she did not say that.
In which Henry and Charlotte go head to head and squeeze six months of relationship development into one walk. Henry attempts to explain internalised homophobia and misogyny, complex sexualities, and thinks about touching on gender—all without any of the neat shorthand we take for granted. It's like describing a spiral staircase with your hands tied behind your back. They learn things—about each other, about life, about themselves.
Series
- Part 3 of Nothing New Under the Sun
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In which Charlotte and Alfred have a difficult conversation that doesn't go the way either of them might have imagined. Things get a little...heated, and Charlotte is torn between what she thinks she should feel and what she really feels, what she thinks she should want and what she really wants. But, make no mistake, Charlotte is taking charge.
Series
- Part 2 of Nothing New Under the Sun
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Alfred knows that on Sunday, he will go to church—as usual. He does not know the Vicar will intone from Ecclesiastes, and he will burn with shame because he is thinking of Henry Ashe. His thoughts are impure, profane, sinful, and he will have to press his hymn book painfully into his lap to distract and punish himself.
Series
- Part 1 of Nothing New Under the Sun
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This Smallest of Incidents by Tea_and_Sympathy
Fandoms: History Boys (2006), History Boys - All Media Types, History Boys - Bennett
21 Jul 2023
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Dakin was beginning to get very tired of sitting by Scripps on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice he had peeped into the book Scripps was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought Dakin, without pictures or conversation? So, he was considering in his own mind (as well as he could, for the hot day made him feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of kissing Scripps would be worth the trouble of talking him into it, when suddenly...
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La Petite Mort by Tea_and_Sympathy
Fandoms: History Boys - All Media Types, History Boys - Bennett, History Boys (2006)
31 Oct 2022
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Dakin gabbled on, willing himself to stop, “Look, it got out of hand. I changed my mind. I tried to leave, and… let’s just say he didn’t like it. He knocked me about a bit, gave me a fat lip, then he threw me out anyway.”
“Ah,” said Irwin, “You went home with Dr Jekyll, and you got Mr Hyde. You should be more careful on a night like this.”
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When the Rain Washes You Clean by Tea_and_Sympathy
Fandoms: History Boys (2006), History Boys - All Media Types
24 Jun 2022
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"I haven't had a lot of fun the past few months. As for sex, it's not been top of my list of priorities. I haven't...since...in fact... I don't feel very—"
"—Well, you are." Stuart put his hand on Tom's thigh, trying to sense the damage through the fabric. "It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be us—you and me. It could be fun, couldn't it, you and me?”
Series
- Part 4 of Like the Deserts Miss the Rain
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In The Flesh by Tea_and_Sympathy
Fandoms: History Boys (2006), History Boys - All Media Types, History Boys - Bennett
08 Mar 2022
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You know that thing where you lose touch with someone you were close to, and you randomly get back together, and you pick up right where you left off, and it's so easy you wonder why on earth you let it go in the first place? That.
But first, our hero (Dakin) must perform the Labours of Heracles to get past Irwin's family.
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A Candle for Advent (aka, I Saw Tommy Kissing Santa Claus) by Tea_and_Sympathy for Vestas_Kitchen, cuppaktea
Fandoms: History Boys (2006), History Boys - Bennett
24 Dec 2021
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They stopped at the lights—riding a frustrating, red wave. Tom drummed his fingers as though it might speed things along while a man carried a Christmas tree across the road, and a small boy ran behind, patting the trunk. Tom laughed, “He’s not really pulling his weight, is he?” he said, and Stuart grunted, “He’s doing his best”.
In which our boys face the future and conclude it's best done together—for better or worse.
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“... will you be so unkind as to make me declare it, Mr Gibson—my sin, my hypocrisy?”
Billy stepped closer, although there was little space unoccupied. He placed his hand gently over the spot where the letter lay with the effect of branding it into John’s flesh. Billy Gibson had, of course, touched him before. Billy Gibson touched him every day with a detached, professional efficiency that rendered it entirely barren. Billy Gibson had never touched him before.
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Cogito Ergo Sum by Tea_and_Sympathy for stuartdakins
Fandoms: The Terror (TV 2018), The Terror - Dan Simmons
02 Jul 2021
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Cornelius Hickey is listening to his thoughts. That is to say, there are thoughts, but Cornelius Hickey is not thinking them because he is dead.
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White Cliffs of Dover by bathfullofglass, Tea_and_Sympathy
Fandoms: History Boys (2006), History Boys - All Media Types, History Boys - Bennett
27 Apr 2021
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In which our boys are transported to the 1940s
It’s funny, Posner thinks, but in a dozen flights he hasn’t even seen Dover. He’s seen neither Dover, nor France, nor Germany, nor Denmark—all he’s seen is a patch of sky over the heads of Scripps and Dakin when they carve out a minute on a calm section of the route. All the places they’ve been he knows only from his maps: bends in the rivers, city markers, scraps of fields, anti-aircraft weapon stations. Maybe it’s for the best.