open water iii.

[deadwine]

If there has to be one song that has defined my 2022, it is Safar. Not in a metaphorically way where it relates to my own life...even if I would like it to, but in the sense that I have been obsessed with no end in sight. It's always on my On Repeat, I've translated sections of it, I recommend it to people all the time and I'm going to be surprised if isn't in the top 5 of my spotifywrapped.

What can I say about this song that actually manages to encapsulate it? That I can't name another song that conveys both the yearning for a home AND the love of the journey as an end, in and of itself? That Irshad Kamil wrote his career-best lyrics here (other than for Nadaan Parinde, which is a whole other conversation, by the way)? That it's a positive and hopeful sounding song but it till breaks my heart every time I listen to it?

I had to restrict myself to just one roadtrip fic but you should know they would all fit here. But if it had to just be one, the kurodai--for the line I have quoted below. The Raven Cycle fic is my current fixation and I'm still undecided on whether it truly fits this list or not. The DAY6 one is an all-time favourite, I go back to it so very often.

Safar - Arijit Singh

"That one home that I had--

That old fear of mine

But now I don't belong to my own home,

I had belonged to the journey and

Continue to belong to it."

i. back to the wind by dicaeopolis

Fandoms: Haikyuu!!

Pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi

Rating: T, 5.9k

Summary: Post-college roadtrip au. Dialogue-heavy, funny, just quintessential kurodaism.

Favourite Line: Daichi gestures out the windshield. The highway has narrowed into a two-lane road, with pavement that’s barely past gravel and lines faded to little more than discolorations on the road. “We ran out of highway.”

ii. in bloom by ameliepoulain

Fandoms: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater

Pairing: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish

Rating: T, 5.3k

Summary: Post The Raven King but doesn't take the Dreamer trilogy into account. Adam is a lawyer, Ronan is Ronan. LDR-specific longing, domesticity, and of course, dreams.

Favourite Line: Ronan and him had gotten better at talking over the years, but never about the one thing that’s eclipsed them – that Ronan has always known where his home was, while Adam is perennially drifting towards the golden horizon, unmoored.

iii. out of the blue by carolee_sea

Fandoms: Day6 (Band)

Pairing: Kang Younghyun | Young K & Kim Wonpil

Rating: G, 2.4k

Summary: Atmospheric seaside stroll. All the what and where and who is home metaphors.

Favourite Line: wonpil taps at the firm sand with his feet, grains of sand moving around in his shoe. “i’m going to sit here until the tide reaches me.”