my broken house behind me (good things ahead)
by PennedByLynn

That’s actually how most of those early nights went. It was bizarre, not feeling like every moment of his life was focused on survival. And there was this voice, in the back of his head, telling him not to trust it. Telling him not to grow soft, not to get too attached because good shit doesn’t happen to Maybanks. He wasn’t meant to live someplace that asked for a security deposit, wasn’t cut out for a life where people expected more than the bare minimum from him. But when he found himself unable to trust the voice in his head, he chose to trust Kie instead.

Not like that had been easy or anything. Nothing about them was traditional. Their path to each other had not been clearly marked, more like covered in dirt and debris and barbed wire that would’ve kept fainter hearts at bay. He’d nearly slipped beneath the deluge of his own self-sabotage. He’s grateful every fucking day that Kie had fought the way she did, keeping them both afloat the same way he’d learned she’d done in the open waters outside the Coastal Venture. 

They were messy. They fought, knowing just which buttons to push to piss the other off. He still ran, on occasion, even if he hated himself for it. She threw insults she didn’t mean and sobbed when she thought he wasn’t looking, cradling an old Wreck t-shirt that she’d found god knows where.

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Or, when they return from South America, JJ tries to figure out how to build a life instead of just survive it. Featuring established Jiara in their own apartment, JJ’s ongoing struggle with his self worth, and That Leather Jacket

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