15 Works by Ross38
Listing Works
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He didn’t think. Not in words. It was noise. Sensation.The sting on his cheek, the hum in his jaw, the stupid ringing in one ear.
It all stacked wrong, years folding over each other until he couldn’t tell which version of himself was standing here bracing for the next hit. His chest locked the way it always did.Then the static glitched.
Pope’s hand fisted in his hoodie, “bro, no, I’m right here”; Kie’s thumb under his eye, telling him to breathe; JB tossing a blanket over him, muttering “sleep before you fall over.”
Fast. Crooked. Wrongly timed like his brain couldn’t decide which reality he belonged to.And then a drop straight through his chest that took his breath with it:
I don’t deserve that shit.
_______Four times JJ said "No More", and the one time it actually mattered.
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“Can’t believe you guys.” She laughs and it is shaky. “No secrets amongst Pogues, right? Ain't that what we always say?”
Nobody answers. Nobody meets her eyes. Pope’s still tracing circles in the grease. Sarah presses her mouth shut so hard it’s white.
Kie's eyes are watering and her voice is way too loud as she turns to JJ.
“And you -- Fuck! You always do this. I'm tired of it, Jayj! Just talk to me!”
____________The Pogues made it through hell.
They won. They’re in love, together, happy - at least that’s how it should be.
But when the clouds clear and the dust settles, they’ll learn that living isn’t as simple as surviving.Set post S3. S4 doesn't exist here.
Series
- Part 13 of Half-Truths
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Half Pints Of Love And The Fifths Of Stress by Ross38 for fictionstew
Fandoms: Outer Banks (TV)
27 Dec 2025
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It’s stupid, he tells himself it’s fine, he’s fine, it’s some dumb song, hold it together, be fuckin’ normal for once… then the scream comes, the chorus hits him full in the gut and he stops pretending.
Everything tilts three steps away from him. The warmth, the lights, the fire slide off to the edges. And his old bedroom floor rushes in.
He’s on his knees. No idea how he ended up there. The voice hits from somewhere above him, too loud. “You dumb little shit. Touch my stash again, I’ll snap your damn fingers.”
Dad's teeth grind and all JJ can think is bad… bad… get out.
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The Pogues spend Christmas together. Things are mostly fine, until they aren’t, and nobody handles it particularly well. -
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JJ smoothed the paper flat again even though it wasn’t wrinkled. He looked at the red teeth, then at Dad’s face.
“When’s she comin’ back?”
“Soon.”
“Like… Before I go to bed?”
“I said soon,” Dad said, tapping his cigarette.
“Where'd she go, daddy?”
“Wherever she damn pleases. Same as always.” The smoke came through his teeth this time.
“You gonna go get her?”
“J…” His name came out quiet. “Don’t start.”
JJs shoe kicked the dirt, and it made a swooshy sound. “I just wanna know.”
“Yeah, well, me too,” Dad said. “Go play.”______
Momma’s gone, Dad’s mad, and 6-year-old JJ only wants her to see the shark he drew. The rest of the day is a mess he never meant to make.Series
- Part 6 of Half-Truths
- Part 4 of Baby Shark
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This summer was the best summer in the whole world.
Everything was perfect. Except John B had ruined it. He’d brought a girl.
Her name was Kie and she was dumb. All girls were. She screamed at spiders, had dumb braids, lame girly sandals, and never shut up. He tried being mean so she’d leave. Told her her voice was annoying—she said he was annoying. Told her girls weren’t allowed—she came back anyway.
They were stuck with her now.
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Baby Pogues fluff with a teeny bit of angst. Written for the Tumblr Happiness Challenge.🌞Series
- Part 7 of Half-Truths
- Part 3 of Baby Shark
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He was gone, B. At Christmas. What, you had to sit here and wait?”
John B looked up. “That's not what I'm talking about. You were there right? You saw what happened.”
“No shit.” JJ was on his feet before he realized it. “Dude came in looking for a fight. It’s like… Cut 101. You don’t throw a punch unless you want one.” He shrugged, but it came out tight. “Especially not at my dad.”
“You’d know, huh?”
The second it slipped, JB froze, like he wanted to grab it back, but JJ didn’t give him the chance. He stopped cold. Hands curled.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
__________JJ lives by unspoken rules: don’t mix the Pogues with your family, don’t cry, hit first, and for fuck’s sake never, ever piss Luke off.
Breaking one was all it took, and the rest went with it.
Now John B hates him, home is off-limits, and he’s stuck half-frozen on Kie’s bedroom floor trying to figure out where it all went to shit.Series
- Part 11 of Half-Truths
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It worked. For a second, it worked.
JJ reached for the coil, trying to think ahead.
Scrub the porch. Dry the steps. Put the drill away. Stay out of the way.His chest felt tight. Everything was tight. He was doing all of it now and it still wasn’t enough.
He jerked the hose again and it snagged. Then it slipped. A thought, nothing more. Not meant to be said out loud.
“You could do it your damn self for once.”
At first, he didn’t even realize it had left his mouth.
The porch was too quiet.
It couldn't have carried, could it? The spigot was still hissing and water was dripping off the rail.Bootsteps stopped. Then:
“What’d you just say to me?”
__________
JJ’s twelve, and nothing he does is ever enough. Things blow up fast, and this time, someone gets him out. Peace never sticks, though – he already knows that much.Series
- Part 8 of Half-Truths
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Baby Shark and Other Natural Disasters by Ross38 for PrincessOfNothingCharming
Fandoms: Outer Banks (TV)
19 Aug 2025
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Summary
He groaned into the pillow, face still half buried. “If I hear that song one more time, I swear...”
“That’s not the dance!” came JJ’s voice, scandalized. “You gotta do the fin! The fin, Momma!”
“I’m doin’ the damn fins, J!” Anna yelled back, cackling like a maniac, “Doo doo doo doo doo doo…” Something glass hit the floor. JJ howled with laughter.
“Doo doo doo doo doo doo’” he bellowed from the hallway then, thumping past “Daddy shark! Grrr!”
“Fuckin’ hell,” Luke muttered, but he was grinning.
__________________The story of how JJ got his shark necklace.
Series
- Part 5 of Half-Truths
- Part 1 of Baby Shark
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JJ didn’t cry or yell or try to cover up. His face was all twisted up, teeth bared like he might bite someone. It didn’t look like him at all.
It scared her a little. None of it felt like school. None of it felt normal.
Pope must’ve felt it too – he was still sitting at the table, gripping the edge with his face all pale.
When teachers pulled Sam off, JJ didn’t say anything or look at anybody. Just let them drag him out. And he hadn’t been back after. She figured he was suspended, maybe also grounded. Hopefully his dad wasn’t too mad.
The sound of the hit kept coming back to her. His lip had split. He hadn’t said a word.
Nobody had even asked if he was okay.
A lot can happen in a week.
When the Pogues are twelve, there’s a fight, a party, a project, a festival -- and a few things their parents make sure they remember.
Some lessons they push back on. Others stick.
And not the ones you’d hope.Series
- Part 8 of Half-Truths
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One touch, then both palms framing his jaw like he had to see him before he said it. “Didn’t even ask, man. Not once. Didn’t ask what happened. What he did. I just needed you to be okay so I could keep going.”
The thoughts were tripping over each other. The guilt. That old, familiar feeling he’d lived with for years – of being helpless, stuck in a loop so delicate it felt like the wrong breath could bring it all down. And the anger. Not at JJ. Not even at Luke. At himself. For needing him whole and pretending that made it true. For how easy it had been to look past the hurt just because he couldn’t afford to lose the rest of him.
Blue eyes stared back at his, wide, a touch too bright. “I was okay.”
“You weren’t.”
“Well, you weren’t either,” JJ said then tried to move his face away
_____________Both times, it starts with a dog. At thirteen, JJ tried to help and paid for it. At twenty-three, he steps in again - and this time, he wins. But it brings everything back. One long night on the porch follows, full of too much booze, too many ghosts, and the things he and John B never said when it mattered.
Series
- Part 12 of Half-Truths
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A few hours ago, he’d been curled up on the floor of the Chateau’s bathroom, dry-heaving like a loser. His throat burned, his head was pounding, and his brain wouldn’t shut up about everything he’d screwed up. Stealing from his dad, running, being a piece of shit, the fact that he’d be fucking murdered as soon as he stepped foot at his house—it had all hit him at once.
He’d shaken. He’d cried. He’d felt every bit the damn waste of space his dad always said he was.
And then he’d stopped.
Gotten up. Washed his face. Fixed his shit.
Cause JJ Maybank didn’t stay down. He didn’t sit around whining and waiting for a rescue.
He’d done it because his friends needed him. Because John B needed him. And if stealing the damn pump meant the Pogue ran again, then that was just how it had to be.
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Spring on the Outer Banks means two things: trouble and the Pogues finding it. JJ is fighting to keep it together at home, while John B is barely holding on after his father’s disappearance. Pope and Kie do their best to keep the group steady, but even the strongest friendships are tested when real life hits hard.Series
- Part 1 of Half-Truths
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He'd hand him a screwdriver or make some smart-ass crack and Luke would see it. His boy, with his mama’s grin and his old man’s hands. He’d take JJ out fishing, even let him drive the truck down the road. Watch him ramble about surfing or some busted plan with the Pogues, and let it ride. He'd feel something settle then. Like maybe they could be okay.
But then the high wore off, or the beer ran out, or JJ broke something or mouthed off or slammed a door too hard, and it started again. Same heat behind the ribs, same fire up the neck. And Luke would snap. Because once the fuse lit, there was no stopping it. Just boom.
______
Luke raised his boy best he could – kept him fed, taught him to swing, made sure he didn’t take shit from anyone. Some days they almost felt like a team. Other days... well, he don’t like thinking about those.A look at JJ and Luke’s relationship through the years.
Series
- Part 3 of Half-Truths
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But after… it stuck. Sat wrong under his skin, itching from the inside. Jaw tight, legs jittery, couldn’t sit still, couldn’t stop moving.
He’d swipe dumb shit off a counter just to feel the rush. Other times he’d grab his board and go straight for the nastiest break he could find, the kind that chewed you up and spit you out cold and gasping, more alive than ever. Some days he’d push into someone’s space, mouth runnin', beggin' for it. Go on. Swing. Just so he could swing back.
It lived there, just under the surface. Pushed and burned until he let it out. And when it did... then he could breathe. Only then did the world feel right again. For a little while.
For JJ, violence was never a choice. It was just how things are.
Series
- Part 2 of Half-Truths
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"You’re not bad, Js.”
JJ didn’t move.
He tried to speak but the words almost choked him. “They’re just... messed up, man.They suck.” His voice cracked. “You didn’t do anything. You didn’t—” He shook his head.
“You’re like the best person I know.“
JJ let out another sob. John B pressed his forehead to his temple. “I got you,” he mumbled. “Okay? You’re not alone. You’re not.“
The crying just kept going—small, broken sounds that made John B want to punch a wall. He grabbed the back of JJ’s head and made him look.
“I love you, man,” he said, quiet and serious, "I mean it.”
His throat clenched. “So don’t say nobody wants you. I do.”
________________________That time in 8th grade when JJ took Luke's pills and scared the shit out of John B.
Series
- Part 10 of Half-Truths
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She lifted her head, the room tilting a little as she scowled at him, “You don’t get to act all high and mighty about this, Luke. I was just tryin’ to do the right thing!”
He didn't even look at her.
His eyes stayed on JJ, hands hovering, checking and rechecking, like touching him might somehow fix it.
His breathing got heavier and heavier, like he couldn’t get enough air in. Then he moved.
His fingers closed around the bottle. He ripped it off the table and sent it flying. Glass exploded against the wall. Whiskey streaked down in uneven trails
Anna blinked at the mess.“Oh, look at you,” she drawled, “So fuckin’ dramatic.”
_______________Just a little story about baby JJ and his parents. They aren't exactly cut out for this parenting thing.
Series
- Part 4 of Half-Truths
- Part 2 of Baby Shark