Disambiguation: 'verses

This applies to this journal and letsdropin; the Pogue relevant is lieutenantwitch and Chase is broken_circles. Tyler is their_babyboy. Ginny is lilginnygirl.

Girls YAY (This name is subject to change): Currently default 'verse. Pogue and Kate split up around spring break of their senior year in high school; Caleb and Sarah's relationship persevered. Chase and Ginny had both meetings, dating during high school senior year, and later towards the end of junior year at Brown, the additional meeting during which Ginny gets pregnant. Isabel is born. Reid goes to medical school; meets Alya there. A year later, Chase goes to the same medical school, and they end up roommates. Pogue, in Ipswich, opens up his garage; Irene (shecan_fix_that) starts working there; eventually they date. Tyler goes to a graduate degree in something literary, then returns to teach at Spenser. Dates a guy for about three years; then that guy just... leaves. After that, Beatrice (Bea) reappears in his life.
Who with whom? Well, in this 'verse, Caleb and Pogue never have sex. Reid and Pogue do; as well as (unless playing with another Tyler) Reid and Tyler.

As in all 'verses, when any of the boys are dating (and/or married), the rest of the boys, no touchee. Chase being occasionally an exception to that, until he gets the hang of it.

Divergence: This is a branch from the above 'verse. When Isabel is born, Chse does something incredibly stupid (to himself) in front of Ginny and Caleb; in the aftershock (and watch), Caleb does something also stupid, together with Chase. Then he was even more of an idiot about it. In the end, even though there were no repeat offenses, Sarah decides that there were things that not even Caleb Danvers is worth putting up with, and ends it. Caleb takes months to recover from that, in the meanwhile the boys making acquaintance with Dee (ihasataser), who slowly develops a crush on him that'll last years. Caleb, on the other hand, decides to act on the other love he betrayed with Chase; however, Pogue is at the time (first semester of senior year at Harvard) very settled in being single and not up to being in a relationship. That alone freaks Caleb out, and then the second blow of being rejected, washes over him, the backlash upsetting Pogue in turn. For a while, the boys are upset enough to almost seem to be falling apart (Chase blaming himself for it, too, oops); however, they do pull together, by degrees starting to cope with the upset and owing to Tyler's idea for a get-away. Then the events follow the ones in girls YAY 'verse, minus Sarah, until about a month after Pogue and Irene hook up. There's weird kissing and pot, and in the end, out of one couple and two singles, Pogue, Irene, Caleb, and Dee emerge as a more-or-less foursome.
And the world doesn't even end.

Pile o' puppies: Pogue and Kate split up around spring break of their senior year in high school. Caleb and Sarah break up sometime during freshman year at Harvard. Somewhat later, when they're back at home, Caleb walks in on Reid and Pogue; shortly after that, Pogue-and-Caleb begins. Reid and Tyler fool around the way they often do. Reid and Caleb figure out their differences, mostly by Reid crawling into Caleb's lap and kissing him, a bit out of the blue for the older boy. Second semester of senior year at Harvard, Tyler walks in on them kissing a lot and kind of runs away; Pogue decides it's the perfect time to return the walking-in on Caleb. Foursome ensues. Later, Caleb and Pogue are more and more couply; Tyler and Reid go to grad school together/very close. Eventually steadying - but not as a couple, but a threesome with a girl. Which proves surprisingly stable.

Cliffs of Insanity: Pogue and Kate split up around spring break of their senior year in high school. Caleb and Sarah break up sometime during freshman year at Harvard. Caleb and Pogue hook up. ... and then Kate changes her mind, about their junior year at Harvard. Grows up, comes back to Pogue. Caleb steps back, after about two years together with Pogue. Not very happy. They graduate; Pogue and Kate return to Ipswich; Caleb, Reid, and Tyler scatter around grad schools (kind of; Reid and Tyler actually go to the same one). ... Caleb running into Chase. No, they don't have a smack-down trying to kill each other; Chase has had his first run-in with Ginny and is changed, somewhat. Caleb's free-falling, in a way. Things go through getting stoned together and ... more. Until they're basically dating. Oops. The rocky relationship evens out some when they adopt one of Chase's patients, Mary; or maybe it's also due to the fact that Caleb is Caleb and he doesn't commit halfway.
Things are always on the edge, in this 'verse. There can be, and is, happiness, but the danger of things tipping over the cliff and spinning away into destruction or insanity is always there.

justprompts: Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. -Aristotle

This is relevant to the 'verse 'Pile o' puppies'. Pogue is lieutenantwitch.

If he showed up at the garage, somebody would inevitably alert Pogue about his arrival, so if he wanted to watch his man just work, it had to be at home. Well, in the garage that hosted whatever wheels they had between them at the moment.

It happened once really by chance. Caleb was cooking, and he'd come out to call Pogue in, so he could wash up and all, comfortable, easy. Except the blond was so focused in what he was doing, he didn't hear him coming - and, Caleb had to admit to himself, he seemed to be having way too much fun to be interrupted just yet. So Caleb leaned against the door's frame and just... drank in the sight.

Sunlight catching on the blond strands peeking out from under the bandana. Caressing the muscled arms making precise, controlled motions. His whole body, his whole being seemed concentrated on what he was doing - once upon a time, Caleb might have called it fiddling, but... no longer. And especially not now, watching the expressions play on the familiar, beautiful face. Concentration. A little frown, there, if that didn't straighten out in a moment, he might bite his lip-- no, it worked, and the features smoothed, shifted into a small, satisfied smile. Then on to the next thing.

One had to be blind to miss the tremendous pleasure Pogue took in what he was doing. Yes, it was what he would do day in and day out for work (well, plus paperwork and actual contact with customers and planning and people management, but those were details that were taken in stride to get to the good part), and yet, even after this time, he'd still honestly enjoy it when he got to work it at home as well. Amazing, and not in the bad way, at all. Enthusiasm and commitment and joy... yeah.

And Caleb wasn't blind, and he hoped he wouldn't, ever, be anything like where Pogue was concerned. No, the dinner didn't burn, either. The blond finished the row of items he was examining and tuning, and looked up. The smile changed - not in magnitude... just because - different. In that way which made the slightly older man warm up on the inside. "Hey, babe."

"Hey yourself. Came out to call you in for dinner..."

"Oh... now?"

"Finish what you're doing, it'll keep."

"Mmm. Almost done." Looking down, and reaching again, before the hazel eyes rose again, crinkling with amusement. "You like watching?"

"I'm finding out I really, really do." A bit, then a bright smile flashing in return. "Always."

Pogue ducked his head with that little not-blush thing he was doing, then shot him another not-really-apologetic look and leaned down to finish his work.

Other times, Caleb didn't even look for an excuse to go watch the quiet happiness, bask a little in it. And, he knew, that was one of the reasons Pogue was so successful in his work. He loved it, and what he loved, Pogue always did perfectly.

Which was how it should be, too.