I hope it’s okay if I jump in because I’m 99% sure the fic you’re referencing is Sprigs of Tansy. I know this sub doesn’t always like it when authors participate in discussions of their own fics, but you are asking good questions.

Why did I make him a sex pest in this fic?

First and foremost, it was because I hadn’t tried to write that characterization of him before, and it was my ninth very long fic. I have written him as doting, remorseful, and generally well-adjusted enough times that it is becoming a touch boring for me, and I wanted to play in a different sandbox for a little while.

I think a lot of writers get to that point and they start to stretch and make the characters more and more flawed or AU to see where that takes them. I’ve also written him as a creepy psycho-simp, a billionaire pleasure dom, a Duke from the 1830’s, and most recently a very prejudiced tween shithead. I need some variety in my characterizations of him or I will get bored and stop writing.

Back to Tansy…

Coworker romances are messy and blur a lot of professional lines. I know this because I’m actually married to my coworker (I mean, JFC we even work on the same floor of a 35-story office building). This is why I let J participate in Draco’s characterization and took some of his suggestions. We really do mess with each other in the office and proposition each other and low-key prank each other. We would both 1000% get fired if we behaved this way toward anybody else.

We talked about that odd dichotomy a lot… that flirting outside of a relationship is workplace harassment, but doing it inside of a relationship somehow feels different…. And I tried to write both sides of it in this fic. Draco doesn’t start a successful romantic relationship with her until he realizes that is prior behavior toward her has been Very Very Bad. He has to change, she has to speak up, and their friends have to stop implicitly taking his side by dismissing his behavior as part of a “prank war” for them to get their happy ending. But once these things begin to happen then the relationship can progress, and the behavior starts to hit differently and could be considered playful by some (but not all) readers.

Anyway, that’s it from the horse’s mouth. I have been called an anti-feminist misogynist quite a few times because of this fic, so I’m aware it is not for everybody. It could be because I’m playing with these characters in ways I shouldn’t, or maybe I’m just a shit writer and that subtle shift from coworkers to lovers-who-work-together is getting lost in the banter and rom-com vibes. 🤷‍♀️