Title: can we turn this meta up?
Fandom: fan friction
Rating: teen
Length: ~1600 words
Author notes: +old friends for the bingo here, ladiesbingo, & a new fandom with this quick vid

“Promise me, promise me that we’ll write together at least every summer. That even if we go to different colleges, we’ll stay friends,” Allie says.

Liz agrees easy, sincere even though she doesn’t think it’ll last. Nothing does. A bit nihilistic, but Allie’s going off to ivory towers on the opposite coast and she’s gonna save her money with a state school. They’ve never been in the same league- money or writing. Allie has the better end, always has, and Liz tries not to compare herself, nothing good ever comes of it. (Allie’s mother whole-heartedly agrees, glares whenever she dares visit Allie at her house.)

“Of course. You’re the Sherlock to my Dracula,” Liz says, and they giggle, the moment broken.

.

After their first year of college, Allie comes home and they meet up at the local library. Liz tries to get out of the house as often as she can- while commuting saves a bunch, she feels awkward still living at home, her brother making snide comments about when she’ll move out properly. (He doesn’t say like mum, but everyone can hear it in the silence.)

Allie doesn’t say why she doesn’t want to meet at her house, and Liz doesn’t press her. Writing together time is all about fun, a bit of senior year all over again. In retrospect, Liz can’t believe she got any A’s on her report card at all, the two of them writing together after school nearly every day.

Greetings and hugs out of the way, they settle down at the furthest computer. It’s probably an unnecessary precaution, on a nice July morning they’re the only ones here, but Allie’s good at thinking stuff through.

“Could we write different characters today? I haven’t seen the latest Doctor Who-”

“You haven’t?” Liz exclaims, shocked enough to nearly yell. Allie once sneaked in the school library in the middle of a test to watch a Doctor Who trailer.

She flushes, “I’ve been busy. How do you feel about Harry Potter?”

“Okay,” Liz says, softer, remembering where they are. “Any ideas?”

“Maybe Professor Vector-”

“Oh! We never did that Cedric as a sparkly vampire bit!” Liz interrupts, biting her lip after. “Sorry, I just remembered.”

Allie pushes her hair behind her ear, “Let’s do that- I’ll write Harry?”

Liz nods, “And I’ll do Edward-Cedric-hybrid.”

“Probably mostly Cedric,” Allie points out.

“Yeah, Edward was a dick. But we’re keeping the sparkles!”

“On the quidditch pitch, sparkling under the sun,” Allie adds.

“Yeah,” Liz says, and they start writing. Liz likes to think she’s gotten better over the past year, and she probably has, but Allie’s writing is magnificent. While Liz writes a sexy scene with Cedric drinking Harry’s blood, Allie creates a new realm. A hidden country where the vampires live without fear, without muggles or wizards, and how Cedric must return but cannot leave his beloved. Liz tries adding some comedic relief, but somehow it makes the story darker, manic almost.

It ends with Harry’s death, a hundred and eighty years into the future, and then Cedric returning to the vampires forevermore.

Liz wipes at her eyes, gives a watery chuckle. “Well that was different.”

“I’m sorry-”

She shakes a hand at her, “It’s really good, just sad.”

Liz looks down at her lap, “Yeah.”

“We could try something else?”

Her phone vibrates, and Liz already knows who it is by her face.

“Sorry I have to get back, next time for sure.” Allie gives her a quick hug and answers her phone, walking away and talking to her mother.

Liz emails a copy of their story to herself, resisting the urge to retcon the ending. Harry could be the master of death and appear in the vampire colony, or he could still be a horcrux somehow, or, or, or-

Liz has never seen the point in sad endings; there’s enough of those in real life.

.

They don’t write together again until the next summer. Allie’s mother lines her up with a last minute internship on the weekends, and Liz works the weeks at Barty’s Garage. It’s mostly paperwork stuff, but sometimes when Barty’s bored enough, he’ll teach her a few things about whatever bike is in the shop. Allie visits her sometimes at the garage, brings her lunch, careful not to get any grease on her. All things considered, it’s a decent summer.

After their sophomore year, Allie insists they write for a new show she started. It’s a comedy about Mothman, and while it’s very funny and cute, it doesn’t really give Liz any writing feels. And after an afternoon of a blinking cursor on a blank page, it doesn’t give any to Allie either.

So they try making up their own fiction instead, with their own characters and everything. It takes weeks to decide on the world and people, and by the time they’re ready to attempt writing, Liz is wishing she just made up some bullshit about cryptids.

They write through July and August, writing the most either has since their senior year. A bunch of the fics are crap, but a bunch are good too, and a few are really great, make Liz smile whenever she thinks of them. All too soon Allie is going back east, and Liz is already missing her.

Missing her so much that Liz decides to write some fic on her own. She hasn’t really done it much since they started writing together in high school. It’s easier, more fun to bounce ideas off another person. Alone, she pauses all the time trying to remember what she was going to happen next, what a certain word is, if any of this is even in character or not. It’s stuff she didn’t care about with Allie, and anything too terrible Allie would happily delete.

She could write twenty pages of unrepentant filth, and Allie isn’t here to erase a single word of it. Or even change ‘cock’ to ‘dick’ because there’s only so many times one should use a word in a paragraph.

Liz writes a story about an alien instead, trying to find their way home.

.

Allie doesn’t come back to the west coast after their junior year.

Liz tells herself that she knew this would happen eventually, that it was to be expected really. But it still hurts, and she puts on her loudest headphones, writing the most out of character Sherlock adventure porn she can think up.

On a drunk whim, she sends it to Allie weeks later. Allie sends her a horrified selfie eleven minutes after that, clearly still at her internship, pencil skirt and all.

The next day, there’s a fic in her email. Or the first few paragraphs of one, Allie saying, next round’s on u?

Liz laughs, writes a bit about how very distracting and tight the antagonist’s pants are, and sends it back. They write one massive epic that way, hundreds of thousands of words, and zero cohesive plot. Whenever they get bored of a character, they get the ax and a previously minor character steps in.

It’s rather fun, but Liz can’t help but hope Allie will come back. That this isn’t the new normal.

.

Allie’s graduation is first, and she comes home for Liz’s, sits in the crowd with her Dad and Aaron. After, she hands her a gift, and Liz is flustered, feels like a terrible friend.

“I didn’t, um shit, I didn’t know we were doing presents?”

Allie smiles, “It’s fine, just read it and let me know what you think.”

Liz grins wide, has always enjoyed Allie’s writing. “Can’t wait.”

.

“Holy fuck.”

Liz rereads the entire story, disbelieving. The prose is gorgeous of course, the characterizations spot on. Between the two of them, Allie’s the one more into Marvel, but even she can tell how perfectly this is written. There’s even smut! It’s very tasteful, and there’s a fade to black, but still- there’s kissing and arousal and anticipation, and she’s so wet right now.

Which would probably be weird if it wasn’t for the subject matter: a spiderman fanfic, featuring MJ and Liz.

.

Liz is waiting in the park with a bouquet of wildflowers, feeling like a romcom cliché. Maybe she’s being self-centered about it? It could be a coincidence? And Allie just happened to print the story on a nice rose stationary rather than email it, and it only smells like her perfume because it was on her desk for a while.

Liz is halfway to convincing herself that this is all a giant mistake when Allie runs into the park, face bright red and curls bouncing behind her.

“Sorry! Sorry, late-” she starts, breathless, and Liz pats her shoulder.

“Hey take a sec, no need to go swooning on me already.”

Her eyebrow pops up, a mischievous smile lighting up her face. “Oh? There’s gonna be swooning involved?”

“Uh huh. It’s gonna be just like Romeo and Juliet up here. Only with less death and misfortune.”

Allie laughs, and Liz hands her the flowers.

“You look really-” “I do hope it wasn’t-”

They both start at once, and then stop together, giggling at the awkwardness, inching closer.

“Can I kiss you?” Liz asks, voice soft.

“No cheesy pick up line for me?” Allie teases.

Liz grins, “Why don’t we take this friction out of the fiction?”

Allie’s eyes go wide, a deep blush blooming on her cheeks. “Oh.”

“Too much?”

She shakes her head rapidly, “No. It’s- it’s really happening.”

“Yeah.”

And Liz leans in the last bit, kisses the wonder off her lips.