1. Cola

So take your orchids
Elsewhere, elsewhere
I loved you to death
And now I don't really care
'Cause you're runnin' 'round over there

"Cola" by Arlo Parks

 

Her hair gleams lavender gray under the decaying yellow spotlight, a shade icier than the purple lace draped from the shoulders down her torso. Fingers armored in antique silver rings grasp the vintage microphone as her body sways to the pulse of the double bass. Instinctively, his fingers trace lines mirroring those curves into the condensation on the glass of the Old Fashioned he has barely consumed. 

 

Then, her mouth opens, and the voice of cayenne and honey that has haunted him for decades pours forth. 

 

This is how it begins again. It starts with a jolt within the ribcage, a path blooming red from the chest, tendrils climbing up the flushed neck and snaking down to the stirring groin. It starts with that sensation of deja vu, that we've been here before, perhaps not in this lifetime, but another turn of the wheel prior to this one. I do not know you, but I have known you for an eternity, does that make sense, darling?

 

What he does not know is that the moment she re-entered his life, the clock reset. Within seventy-two hours, he will die once more. 

 

 

The Id List

In other words, the buttons that were installed in me at an impressionable age and now make want me to gobble up and bang my fists like a toddler, GIMME.

• Fate/Prophecies, especially if there is a tragic or romantic bent
• X/1999 by CLAMP is full of prophecies
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Actually, Greek myths in general
   
• On a similar note, fated across lifetimes (reincarnation)
• Karou/Madrigal and Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone
   
• Masquerade/Ball scenes and Fancy Dresses
  
• Cinderella (2015) has one of my favorite entrance scenes
• All of the fancy dresses in Anastasia (1997)
• What can I say, I'm a superficial bitch who loves a glow-up entrance
   
•  On a similar note, fancy costumes in general
• Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP
• Crimson Peak (2015) - the costumes are divine
  

• Mistaken or hidden identities
• Love in the Afternoon  by Lisa Kleypas (Cyrano-esque retelling, except the heroine is penning love letters)
• Saint Tail (manga) - student by day, phantom thief by night
  
• Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce (Alanna pretending to be her brother while at knight school and then being in a secret relationship with the prince lol)
• Basara (manga) - Sarasa is the leader of the rebellion, Shuri is the ruthless Red King responsible for her brother's death. But the two fall in love without realizing the other's identity as their sworn enemy. 
  
• Again, Cinderella trope times infinity
   
• What is PINING if not denial persevering?
• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• Also, all the longing glances and pining in the TV series North & South
  
• I am not ashamed to say this Dramione fanfic has one of the best slow burns I have ever had the pleasure of reading.