#He's a child soldier and he meets willow who is just starting

[icefire149]

The destiel vs huntlow poll is so funny since I'm an avid shipper of both. It's massive brain worms vs massive brain worms. I need my fellow spn fans to understand its a fun match up.

[redhatmeg]

Okay, so this is my little analysis of dreams in Restless.

Before I start I need to mention that I know that in some places it's the forshadowing of the events in the future season (little sister's coming, yada yadda) and it will be shorter than usual because I don't feel like rewatching parts of the episode to analize it scene by scene.

Anyways...

Willow's dream about going to the drama class/workshop and immediately having to perform in a play seems to indicate that she still has problems finding herself. The play is Death of a Salesman about a last day of a man who thinks he's lost in a game of life... but all the people in the play wear silly constumes and it seems like Willow's normal clothes also are a costume. Willow feels both like she's not taken seriously and like her persona is also a character she plays before everybody. Once Buffy removes her "costume", Willow looks like a sweet, shy schoolgirl she was back in S1. I think that her interrupted presentation on Narnia represents her trying to talk about things she likes and cares about (like her homosexuality and interests) but nobody listening to her.

Xander's dream is largely about being stuck, while everybody else moves on (in his dream, even Spike who becomes the Watcher under Giles's tutoring). He didn't go to college with the girls and had to work in part-time, lower-class jobs, while many people looked down on him as a loser. More importantly, there are remnents of childhood here and there - Buffy, Giles and Spike on the playground, the ice-cream truck being full of toys - and I think it simbolizes that Xander feels like he hasn't grown up yet. There is also a theme of military - both the Initiative and Apocalypse Now - and since joining a military base seemed like a viable option to Xander at some point, maybe he still considers it.

Giles's dream is about his responsiblities as a Watcher and what other Scoobies expct from him. It starts with him, Olivia and Buffy going on a fair in the middle of the cementary, but Olivia is driving a stroller and Buffy is a child - she wears children's clothes and acts like a child. This can mean both that Giles sees her as his daughter but also that she's sometimes irresponsible and treats her mission very lightly. Then we have Spike who chose a new path for himself and tells Giles to figure something out (there is also crying Olivia in the background who Giles dismisses because of his duties... twice). Finally in the Bronze he meets already attacked Willow and Xander, who expect him to figure out what's going on. They are also distracted by Anya doing a stand up comedy and when Giles is going to tell them where to look at, he's asked to sing, so he literally sings to them the solution. Everybody expects him to have answers and generally during his exposition everyone's eyes are on him. But there's more to him than that.

Finally Buffy's dream is partly about being alone, partly about things to come, and partly about the first Slayer. The most striking detail, in my opinion, is that scene where Riley is in the Initiative with unmodified Adam and tells Buffy that he just got promoted and they talked about world domination. Probably Buffy feels like he - as former Initiative's soldier - can still become a villain, since he was part of this government program for so long. But it can also mean that when she was in the Initiative she was patronized by those government people.

Sorry if it's so short. These are all the things that came to my mind.

[ofglories]

Title: To Meet Upon a Spring Eve warnings: N/A Characters: Emrys (as Ambrosius) Time Period: Pre-Camelot, prior to Ambrosius' defection from Rome

He walked through the woods, stars he had never seen before wheeling overhead through the dense branches.

The path was barely visible in the star and moonlight, a trail of bluebells and cowslip, dotted with smooth, white stones. As he walked the flowers grew denser, as did the trees themselves. Heavy and ancient oaks, wild rowans, and between them brambles and ferns. Like a forest from a dream. All the more so as his guides grew in number.

What had started with one, a willowy Fae he had recognized from aiding with a task some months prior, had swiftly grown into a practical parade. Beings the man had never seen before weaved between the various humanoid Fair Folk, all shimmering ever so slightly in the twilight shadows. A stag with coat and antlers a pure, blinding white dashed across the path before him, pausing only a moment to look at him with dark eyes filled with countless stars, before hurrying on its way. Strange butterflies flitted through the air, glowing softly like they had absorbed the gentle light of candle flames. More and more, and all the time the willowy Fae he recognized kept a gentle hand on his wrist, tugging him along through a forest that no longer felt like it belonged in the mortal plane.

Then his guide stopped at a clearing, where a stream flowed in a circle around and beneath the curtain of branches of a willow, older than anything he had seen before. They smiled at him, waving him on towards the stone path through the water, through the leaves.

And, with a deep breath, Ambrosius stepped forth.

"Well come and well met, child of the stars," a voice called out, coming from a tall, broad man with a gentle expression upon his face. Long white hair covered his head, his clothes made of both fur and seemingly leaves of an ancient design that he could not place. But upon his head, crowning him, sprouted a pair of magnificent antlers, winding and twisting together like tree branches, with ribbons and jewels hanging from them. "Come close, child, I wish to look upon thee and speak."

Another Fae?

But the air felt different within this willow canopy. Bright and alive and powerful, more than it ever had with the other Fair Folk Ambrosius had encountered so far.

Like something...from another time.

Still, he remembered the lessons his mother's stories had told, the important old tales. And, bowing his head somewhat, Ambrosius approached the man.

"I am honored to meet you, my lord, though I must admit to not knowing who I have the pleasure of addressing this evening." A warm hand, so large it could have crushed his head easily, cupped his cheek, lifting his face. To meet eyes like those of the stag's from earlier. Deep and endless, with stars and galaxies swirling in their depths. But the chill he experienced with the deer did not come this time, offset instead by the gentle, almost grandfatherly smile upon the strange man's face.

For a brief moment the endless stars seemed to clear, a soft blue in their place that reminded him of his mother's eyes. Only for a moment.

"I am," something was said, a language that sounded more like the rustling of leaves, the flowing of water over stone, than proper words. Ambrosius blinked, a small frown forming. With a snort the man shook his head slowly, tapping his free hand against his chin. "Ah, forgive me, child. I momentarily forgot myself. Age can fog even the minds of us divinities. In times past, thy ancestors called me Cernunnos. I would prefer to be called thus."

Divinity?

Cernunnos?

It made little sense, but... "Forgive me, Lord Cernunnos, but I must wonder what a presumed deity would wish with myself? I am...just a soldier." That was all Ambrosius ever was. Ever had been.

"Just a soldier, and yet thou has done much to help my children wheresoever thine paths did meet." Cernunnos chuckled, a deep rumbling noise that sounded like waves upon a distant shore. Like an oak swaying in high winds. "Modesty suits thee, but do not let it blind thine eyes to thy true worth. But the night is short, for mortal children. And mortal child thou are yet, though a star blazes in thy breast. So, unto thee I have prepared a gift. A blessing of protection, picked by my young Willow who owes a great debt."

A flower was plucked from Cernunnos' branches, soon joined by a berry and, with a squeeze of the god's hand, in their place was a small piece of familiar candied honey.

Something that seemed to amuse the divinity, if the crinkling of his eyes was anything to go on.

"That's...?"

"I learned long ago that mortals prefer such gifts to be subtle in form upon their giving. So it takes the appearance and taste of a favored treat in thy life. Now," he pressed the candy to Ambrosius' mouth before the soldier could react, eyes wide as he met the endless stars in inky depths once more, "eat this and know that it will grant thee my favor. No poison of mortal or mundane creation will bring thou to harm, and those of magical means shall not bring immediate death nor incurable harm. Thus speaks I."

The candy was pushed past his lips, melting away like snow instead of the solid sweet it felt like.

And then it all began to spin before his eyes, everything blurring as Ambrosius gasped and fell, legs suddenly weak. Before sleep fully pulled him under the soldier saw Cernunnos' lips move once more...

"Lord of Nature and God of the Fae, I, Cernunnos, grant this gift."

Then nothing.

Hours later he woke, blinking slowly, as sunlight warmed his face and the taste of honey filled his mouth. The only proof it had not been a dream.

[pzyii]

so…. Toh au

Willow and buffy and lil dawn so lore. (Wrote some of this this in another post as I was figuring it out) The council basically replaces belos and the emperors coven, and the golden guards/slayer are basically just their science experiments to get good soldiers. Buffy was one but Giles, who worked for the council but has since this quit, couldn’t stand by as another child went through that so he took baby buffy and brought her to the human realm (which he had the portal to, probably from his father) and left her there to get adopted by Joyce. Her ears are less pointy than normal witches but they just blame it on stahls ear. Also her hair is naturally brown cause even if all grimwalkers aren't often based on the same person they do tend to get similar traits. at some point buffy find the portal pretty alike luz did. Tho unlike her buffy isn’t exactly an outcast, she’s just really lonely. She meets willow and Xander there. And Giles who knows that she is the baby he took but doesn’t say anything cause of Giles reasons. since then there’s come a new golden guard(or whatever they are gonna get called in the au). This is a really young one so far. And it’s dawn. And to try and make her more powerful or something the council have used titan blood(cause she’s the key) i don’t have that much lore for willow except just at the start she’s studying oracle (to then join the emperors coven) as a way to try and gain her parents love and approval. But she more so likes illusion, healing and abomination(tho honestly she probably choses to study them all when she can)

[crypttaphophobia]

I really need to start sharing my weird ass TOH au I have

It’s a very l o o s e The Last Of Us x The Owl House AU in basics like

Emperors Coven is now a Branch off of the Fireflies with completely f’d goals (thanks belos).

Belos wants to use the Cordyceps fungus to further “human evolution” (man is committing multiple crimes in human experimentation) and has some how made it WORSE

The emperors coven is known as the “Torchlights” (creative I know right/s) And now our coven heads (+Camilla) are now Head Scientists/Doctors/Security

Camilla is part of the Torchlights because of Luz, similar to Ellie she is immune and Belos said to Camilla that he’ll let her live as long as Camilla does what she’s told. She works with any animals based subjects (since she is a vet in canon)

Luz’s story line with Eda and the others is her canon development mashed with Ellie and Joel’s. She escapes the Torchlight facility and Meets Eda and who is traveling West to the primary Torchlight facility at the invite of Raine Whispers (They are requesting her assistance to actually retrieve Luz to get Camilla and her out of there before Them, Darius and Eber enact their take down of the Torchlights, They where shocked to see that Eda had already had her with her. Saves the trip back I guess)

Lilith, Willow, Gus, and Amity are all residents in a safe zone similar to the one Tommy had going. Lilith is an ex-torch light here, cause of it her and Eda’s relationship is strained.

Eda isn’t cursed here but she was thrown into testing cause of Lilith, and she was lucky to get out unscathed. That and she may have left eda to literally die multiple times via hordes of infected.

Lilith doesn’t join the travel party till later. Willow, Gus and Amity jump at the opportunity to get out of the safe zone, having all spent their entire lives in it. Amity and Luz still have that beginning conflict, but hand to hand combat. Amity is like convinced this girl is gonna dies, she can’t fight, she can’t barely shoot. Amity wins their scuffle and it goes pretty similar to canons but it’s more of ���you’ll never make it out there. Admit it” and “I wouldn’t, but I’m still gonna try.”

Gus is a stealth master STRAIGHT UP. This man could sneak by infected no problem (and people too) he’s a melee master, shank central.

Willow has learned as much medical know how as she can, one of her dads being one of the medics for the safe zone. She uses her knowledge of nature to her advantage. She can think of 50 ways to poison you with local fauna, or she can literally surplex you cause buff willow supremacy. She knows her way around a gun when needed. She takes up Teaching Luz how to shoot with just a hand gun cause eda only has a shot gun and rifle and it wasn’t going well.

Amity.. Amity is definitely interesting in this AU. She’s definitely smart and sharp as a tack, and a skilled sharp shooter but she definitely prefers a bow and arrow. Hunting professional (Ed and Emira Taught her) despite her age she’s part of the hunting parties and stuff and is seen as a very established citizen with her family. Odalia and Edric are basically the same, they where high class before all this went down and Odalia is still trying to be. Alador is still building things, straight up an engineer. Amity and willows situation is still pretty much the same.

Hunter,, my poor boy. He’s still a clone by technicality. He’s technically Evelyn and Caleb’s kid.. but like he’s made from “genetic material” belos has frozen and uses to basically keep making these ‘kids’. Hunter is like the 12th one to happen. Is the oldest one. (Most never lived past 3 and usually their where 2 or 3 at a time. But Hunter is an only kid atm.) he’s still 16 here. A literal walking experiment, he is immune like Luz but holds a altered strain connected to one belos has placed in himself and allows him to basically fuck with his mind. (And control it if needed but it’d nearly kill hunter.) He was basically a child soldier until the Hexsquad basically snatched his ass and he had to choose between being mauled by clicker or joining this weird found family. He’s secretly a NERD.

Flapjack, Hooty and King are here as HUMANS. Hooty is this weird lanky dude that travels with eda until they get to the safe zone, he stays with Lilith until they meet back up later. Flapjack was a doctor that was close with Caleb and Evelyn! And has been keeping close tabs on hunter. Came looking for him when he went missing, becoming yet another me member of the strange group. King is a little kid Eda found and has been raising as her own!

I have so much but it’s a whole lot and I’d love to see if y’all would wanna see content of this!

[wingstobetorn]

Ooo, I'd love to know more about your roleswap au!

So,

– we have Hunter Noceda, a bad but sad boy that happens to stumble into the demon realm. he's trying to build a bad boy persona for himself, but in reality is just a big nerd with a massive heart of gold! (He keeps a lot of traits from his canon self because I don't wanna do any drastic personality changes unless it makes sense... though he's not a child soldier anymore, just an awkward, unsocial teenage boy with a lack of friends.)

He meets the wild witch, Lilith, and her weird little space kid, Collector. (Lilith has no time for a teenagers games and tries to send him off as soon as they're in the owl house, before realizing she might need someone elses' help to get someone of Collector's back.)

It's the start of the found family between a mentor (who really doesn't like this kid at first) and a student (who is impulsive and gets himself into a shit ton of danger)

And thennn we have Amity and Mattholomule! Who do a little switchy swap with Willow and Gus! Amity, similar to canon Willow, starts off in the plant track before getting in a track she's actually passionate about.

Still figuring out what to do with Matty... He's the leader of the human appreciation club (or whatever its called) and is honestly kind of a jerk (I would never remove that part of him) a more loveable jerk than he is in canon, especially to his friends (because we all bully our friends don't we?)

I'll end this off with talking about Luz; she's The Golden Guard, who also happens to be a human, who also happens to be Camila Noceda's long lost daughter that ran away (as in: found a portal to the demon realm, was found by Belos, and now can't return home unless she finds another portal; that's her main motivation for helping belos, she just wants to go home.)

Im also thinking i can really apply some sort of chosen one theme here? She's not actually the chosen one, but she believes she's the chosen one; because why else would she be the golden guard? Why else was she chosen by the emperor to be his right-hand man? Why else can't she return home?? Does this make sense.

[porta-decumana]

Febhyurary, Day 1: Intro

Name: Lillian Willows

Age: 25 years old as of the start of Endwalker

Gender: Female

Jobs/Classes: Red Mage, Botanist

Summary: Lillian Willows hails from Quarrymill, the daughter of a renown botanist and a veteran soldier from Ala Mhigo,  She grew up quite poor and thus became accustomed to working alongside her mother at a young age.  Together, the two would forage in the Black Shroud and sell goods in Gridania.  Her home life was not particularly grand with her father and mother fighting often and money always being tight.  Stressing about making ends meet was something she became used to as a child and thus Lillian could never really say she had much of a carefree childhood.  When she was not sleeping, she was working.  And that continued well into her adult years.  Too poor to move out on her own, Lillian stayed in Quarrymill and just outside the gates was where she would meet her love-- a Redbelly Bandit named Avannaut.  The two courted in secret for several years before eventually eloping, though circumstances forced the two of them to live apart.  Avannaut decided to join the Ala Mhigan military under a fake name and went missing a few moons later.  Lillian went out to find him when her letters to him went unanswered.

During her travels to find her missing husband, she stumbled across a Red Mage stone in an old ruin she had sought shelter in.  It responded to her touch, though unbeknownst to Lillian, it still contained a sizeable portion of the previous owner’s aether.  The result is that Lillian, who was blessed with the Echo, can occasionally peer into the life of the Red Mage who had last owned the job stone-- a Crimson Duelist from Ala Mhigo named Nora.  Occasionally, Lillian’s sense of self and her sense of who Nora is blends together, causing great confusion to her.  

Lillian was found by Thancred, who realized fairly quickly something was amiss with her.  Not knowing what else to do, he took her to the Scions, where she became what Tataru would call an “intern Warrior of Light”, shadowing Kaida Asagiri during the events of Endwalker.

Overall, Lillian can be described as prickly and brusque, preferring solitude over company.  She warms slowly towards others and is often called “heartless” but that could not be further from the truth.

[pageofheartdj]

Potential OT3 AU idea- Hunter and Amity swap. Hunter is the nephew and only heir to a businessman researching artificial magic. Amity is the youngest of the three Golden Guards to Empress Blight.

Ooohh that sounds interesting!

Good side: Hunter isn't a child soldier anymore. Bad side: His uncle is more controling since Hunter is his sole heir. Hunter doesn't bully people and keeps by himself, since he wasn't forced to keep contact with other high society's kids and he is too busy for that shit XD But he does want to make a friend seeing geniune friendship between Gus and Willow. But he treats it as a silly thought, he has uncle's expectations to fulfil.

I assume Blights don't want anything to do with human realm? Then no child soldiers for their kids as well. Although they will train still to fit the roles. They suppose to look how the things work from the inside so in time one of them will take over and for now they will grow in ranks and get used to high positions. Although... the twins don't look very much fitting with how mischievous they are, they do the bare minimum at keeping the order, sometimes being the one to ruin it, much to Lilith's displeasure. And Amity's. Since she is the one who'll have to fix things after them and work twice as hard to be on the same level. At this point she just wants some peace and quite.

Too bad there is a human in the town~

When Luz arrives, befriends Gus and Willow and starts going to Academy, she soon notices some upperclassmen. A mysterious loner who appears here and there. Her friends quickly fills her in, that he is a nephew of a very influential businessman, a constant top in every subject and doesn't interact with others. Luz's full of fantasies heart immediately jumped from all her favourite tropes and she was determined to learn more about this alluring stranger. After some shenanigans she quickly realised that fantasies are once again just fantasies and a mysterious stranger is just a stressed and nerdy teen who desperetaly needs friends and that's what Luz shall do. She stubbornly draggs him into her friend group ignoring his protests and even though he keeps denying that he needs friends he really does, so he sticks around trying to look as uninterested as possible. He really is and Luz is just glad to see his face softening and a small smile appearing from time to time.

Luz meets Amity in one of her adventures with Eda that once again ended with collateral damage. She didn't notice when this figure in white cape and golden mask appeared but was quickly immobilized. Apparently people talk and Amity was already aware of this weird human who constantly kept getting in trouble. She just wants her to stop. Unfortunately for her Luz isn't going to. With her final "I am Luz by the way" she escapes. And they keep their routine with Amity angrily chasing after her and Luz running away and some times accidentally dragging Amity in their adventures where she ended up helping her out. She can't deny, those missions when she deals with human are... fun. She feels less stressed after them even though there are so many reports to fill in. In one of those missions Amity ends up taking mask off and finally introducing herself.

Despite the constant teasing from her siblings Amity decided to visit Luz in the Academy under the pretext of keeping an eye on mischievous human so it won't look suspicious to her mother(good thing the twins do help from time to time, covering up for her). She didn't wear her uniform to not bring attention to herself, so she was wandering around the halls, being fascinated since she never attended Academy. She ended up in the library and decided to wait there for the end of the lesson and have some nice read. There she noticed one person who occupied the place, surrounding by towering books. She would have thought he was a slacker but considering all the books she hold her accusations. It turned out there was a test that he finished much earlier than others and was allowed to leave. Amity didn't notice how their conversation went from Basic Gathering Methods that he finished to challenging uses of Wild Magic that he was studing. Talking to Luz taught Amity a thing or two so she gladly joined a discussion and was suprised by the sudden passion in return. And that's how Luz found them, full on conversation with Hunter's wild gesticulations and Amity's suppressed snorts. Her heart warmed at the scene.

[morganas-pendragons]

Willow | Din Djarin

life is a willow and it bent right to your wind.. 

long story short | no body, no crime | song #3: willow 

this got away from me, i am not sorry 

tags: @snippy-tano​ / @mackstrut​ / @majorshiraharu​ / @sacred-things​ / @wonderlandgabby​ / @demigod-dragonrider-schoolidol​ / @roseofalderaan​ 

set during chapter 14

Din. 

His name still rolls around inside your head like the waves of a storm building over the ocean. It’s intoxicating. Overwhelming. He had bared himself, soul and all, for you to know the most intimate details of a life that no one else has had the privilege to know. 

But someone can only bend so far before they snap. 

Life is a willow and it bent right to your wind..

It should have been easy. You and Din had brought Grogu from Corvus to Tython so the baby could use the Force Conduit to call out to any of the remaining Jedi left in the galaxy. It was supposed to be a means that would further lead him to his people. 

And lead him further away from you and the man he called his father. 

  “What’s he doing on the magic rock?” Din questions skeptically.  

  “Entering a meditative state, you di’kut.” You reply, eyeing The Mandalorian who stands at your side as you both eye your child. Grogu was young in terms of his species. You knew that. Despite his limited experience with formal training during his time at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, his reach to the other remaining Jedi was remarkable. The field he’d created was impenetrable. You and Din couldn’t get through it. “It’s a conduit. A conduit that’s powerful, Din. We can’t get through it.” 

  “You can’t either?” Din asks. “You’re-You’re a Jedi too, you should be able to get through!” 

The desperation in his voice is palpable. Seeing Grogu in the midst of the act is forcing Din to realize just who his son is - how powerful he is, and how he is so far out of his depth right now - and that, eventually, he will lose him too. Just as he’s lost everyone else, and will inevitably lose you. 

  “Grogu.” 

It’s so hard not to fall in love with the man when he holds that beskar ball the baby loves to play with up between two fingers and gently calls out his name. Grogu has made it abundantly clear that he is a daddy’s boy and thus never fails to make his father laugh with the response he gives to his name. 

You’re too busy focusing on the fact that he made Din laugh to hear anything else. 

Din won’t lose you today. Not tomorrow, but someday. Men like Din Djarin don’t get happy endings, no matter how badly they want them. 

And as you sit there tucked into his side, head tilted upward towards a helmeted face that’s most likely beaming beneath the mask, you realize that this is where you’d like to spend the rest of your life. 

You and him. Him, when you had no one else. Sounds like the ideal happy ending. 

  “Until he’s done communicating to the other Jedi,” You reach down to the belt at your waist and remove one saber, then two, and ignite both blades as you peer over the side of the hill. “We have to protect the child.” 

The two of you take off down the hill. 

The more that you say, the less I know Wherever you stray, I follow

Over the treeline, Slave One lands in the clearing with Boba Fett and Fennec Shand on board. 

I’m begging for you to take my hand 

Wreck my plans 

That’s my man 

Din yanks you behind one of the largest boulders as a series of shots rings out. It’s most definitely the man who had landed the ship over the hill, and he seems interested in Din. “I’ve been tracking you, Mandalorian.” He calls out, unaware of your presence as Din clamps his hand down harder on your mouth. 

  “Are you Jedi?” 

  “Are you kidding me?” You seethe through your Bond -which is always fun because Din is never expecting it - eyes narrowing in annoyance as you tilt your head upward to see if you can glance a peek at the newcomer. “Does everyone look Jedi to you?” 

The minute Din lets go of you, the newcomer removes his hood and you are greeted with a face you’ve seen multiple times before in your dreams from when you were younger: The same face that over a million soldiers for the Grand Army of the Republic had shared. 

  “Boba Fett?” 

That definitely catches the newcomer off guard. You’d only seen him in passing - only each other’s faces, never names -  since the last time you’d been on Tatooine, well before you’d met Din, but you had failed to mention to the Mandalorian that you had been part of the reason that Boba Fett had lost his armor to begin with. 

  “You.” 

***

Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind

Head on the pillow, I could feel you sneakin' in

You’d give Boba Fett credit for his ingenuity. You had known upon meeting him that he was a talented bounty hunter, but he was lethal. You’d never in a million years anticipated him being so deadly in the face of storm troopers. 

Then again. He was a clone. 

As if you were a mythical thing Like you were a trophy or a champion ring But there was one prize I'd cheat to win

  “If you were given the option, what would you cheat to win? What would be your prize for falling in love with him?” Cara had asked you idly when the two of you had returned to Nevarro. 

  “The best one. The one I already have.” You had murmured in reply. “His heart.” 

  “Din!” You yelled. The Mandalorian’s head snapped into your direction, wild and alert, as you rolled in front of him and held your sabers in an X formation. “Sword and shield!”

Din removes the second blaster from the holster against his thigh, and together the two of you mirror one of the very movements you had perfected with your clone troopers during The Clone War. You had been young.. but you remembered. 

The more that you say, the less I know Wherever you stray, I follow I'm begging for you to take my hand

When it’s evident that Boba and Fennec have control of the valley in which the Stormtroopers are trying to overrun them on, the two of you sprint back up the hill hand in hand to try and retrieve your child. 

Grogu is still in contact. The sight of him so at ease as he reaches out to the ends of the galaxy in search of another Jedi - one that is not you, because the person acting as his other parent cannot be the one to warn him against attachments - makes your heart ache because that ease is what he should know. What he should’ve been able to live on a world where the Empire wouldn’t try to hunt him down and slaughter him for simply being alive. 

Wreck my plans, that's my man You know that my train could take you home Anywhere else is hollow I'm begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, that's my man

  “Sarad!” Din yells. “It has to be you! I-I can’t-” The tips of his boots dig into the ground as he pushes himself forward, lifting each foot as he does, because Din is simply desperate enough to fight a cosmic stone. “I can’t-hold onto-him!” 

Life is a willow and it bent right to your wind... 

They count me out time and time again

You trudge forward. It’s so difficult to fight this, but you do. You trudge forward despite the pain, despite the gnawing fear that you won't be strong enough to retrieve your son, and with a bloodcurdling scream you push your hands through the field. 

Your fingers touch his robes before you’re thrown backwards and land right on top of Din. 

Life was a willow, and it bent right to your wind

  “Sarad, please.” Din’s hands cradle your cheeks as your vision swims in and out, and your head is aching and you want to sleep but your child is in danger, the man you love is in danger, you cannot just- 

  “I’m here.” You murmur, pressing your aching forehead against that of his helmet as he slowly hoists you to his feet. “Life hasn’t broken me yet.” 

He’s so kriffing proud underneath the stupid beskar. Din only hopes you can feel it through the Force. 

Head dried with blood, you throw your hair over your shoulder and cast a look down into the valley. One saber ignites, and then two. 

Din watches your back as you both retreat back down the hill. What you both remain ignorant to is that the moment you turn around, Grogu disengages and the field dissipates. 

Your son lays his weary head to rest. 

*** 

Wait for the signal, and I'll meet you after dark Show me the places where the others gave you scars

Your heart aches for him. The minute that things seem like they’re starting to go right, a single shot rings clear from the sky and blows The Razor Crest to kingdom come. Your home. Grogu’s home. Din’s home. 

The Mandalorian doesn't say a word. He just stands there and breathes in the wake of the destruction. 

  “The kid!” 

You, Din and Fennec turn around and take off back up the hill to try and reach Grogu before whoever is coming above him. There are four of them - robotic in nature - and they are coming in fast. 

  “DIN!” 

Lungs heaving, blood pumping, heart pounding, your feet slam against the Earth as you use the Force to launch yourself in the direction of the baby-- only for him to be taken into the arms of the dark trooper as you make a less then graceful landing. 

Your knees give out beneath you as your face nearly collides with the rock beneath your hands. Gravel bites into your palms. You don’t care. 

They took your son.  

The more that you say, the less I know Wherever you stray, I follow I'm begging for you to take my hand

  “Grogu.” You whisper. Allowing your eyes to flutter shut, you wish away the overwhelming feeling of tears that pool in your eyes - you’ve gotten alot more used to heartbreak since the genocide of the Jedi - and focus on the thrumming Force signature of the baby. “Stay safe, ad’ika.” 

You don’t dare tell Din the emotions that radiate from his tiny form. It’s not fear. It’s anger. 

When all is said and done, the three of you find yourself back in the ashes of The Razor Crests remains. Din sifts through until he comes up with an object, tiny and silver in nature, and you swear your heart drops into your stomach when he pockets it. Grogu’s ball. 

  “They took your son, Jedi.” Fennec murmurs, almost as if she can feel the way you are trying so hard to keep yourself composed, and lays a hand on your shoulder. It’s not the comfort you’d take from the man you love but it is more then enough. “You are allowed to grieve.” 

Wreck my plans, that's my man You know that my train could take you home Anywhere else is hollow

As Din talks with Boba and Fennec, you disappear over the hill back in the direction of the rock and ignite your sabers. Jedi are not supposed to deal with their anger this way. You don't care. 

They took your son. 

The first one goes flying down the hill by control of your capable hand, arcing through a cluster of trees at its base until there is nothing left but smoldering limbs. 

You don’t care. 

They took your son. The son of you and Din. His son. 

I'm begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, that's my man

  “You abandoned me.” You whisper. When no one replies, you say it just a little bit louder and with alot more force- “YOU ABANDONED ME! After everything I did, after all I lost-” Images of your final days in the Jedi Temple flash before your eyes like the images of a holodrama played out frame by frame as you are forced to watch clones murder your teachers, your friends, your family..  

A hand comes up to clasp your own, stained in blood. 

A scream echoes down a empty hall. A gun fires. Clones shout orders at one another. 

A bloodied body collapses at your feet, lightsaber rolling from limp fingers. 

These images flood your mind until they dissipate like smoke and leave you in a shattered reality where you have again lost everything you care for. “You have the audacity to take him away from me?! Why?!” 

The Force hums in your ear. You see the clones who murdered your family, who killed your Master, all the clones you had been forced to kill because it was them or you. 

Just like right now, it was the child or you and din. They chose The Child. They chose the one who could barely defend himself. He was so innocent. So gentle. 

Why did the Empire have to ruin all the gentle things? 

You throw your arm as far as you are able and send the second saber in the same direction as the first one, using bloodied hands to guide the arc made between the two as they dissect the trees in half. “Have I not suffered enough?!”

I'm begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, that's my man

A small voice echoes in the wake of your anguish, “What about me?” Din asks through the vocoder and catches you so off guard that your sabers come soaring into the sky and disengage with a snap of your fingers before returning to your hands. The valley beneath you is nothing but ruin. How appropriate. “Have I not suffered enough, Sarad?” A pause before his trembling hands at his sides clench themselves into fists. Your eyes follow the defeat in his body language until your eyes are high enough that if the helmet were not on, you’d be looking directly into his own. “Have I not paid enough?” Din crosses the gap between you and lightly taps the beskar’gam. “Have I... have I not lost enough?!”  

It’s not like him to yell. Not at you. Not around you. 

Was the price not high enough? What else can they take from me?

Your lips quiver as you eye the man in front of you. Without uttering another word - and in spite of the tears that fall freely down your face - your gaze never tears away from his own as you remove his glove and link each finger, one by one, until your hands are linked. 

Then you lift them to your lips, unlike your fingers, and kiss each fingertip. 

  “You haven’t lost me.” Din wraps an arm around your waist to gently pull you into his hold, fingers curling around your hips as he peers at you through the visor. You can’t see his eyes, but you imagine there’s tears reflecting in them. 

  “I will. I lose everybody. That’s why I’m lone wolf, that’s why until I met you... I was always alone.” He laughs bitterly. “A Mandalorian and his ghosts. What a pair we make.” 

You wonder if Din’s ghosts are anything like your own, wearing the faces of the people who’d left you. Who'd sacrificed themselves for you. 

Life is a willow and it bent right to your wind... 

You try to ignore the sinking feeling in your stomach as he exhales shakily and rests his forehead against your own. Fennec and Boba are waiting for the two of you in Slave One, but they’re not in a rush. You have work to do in order to rescue your son from Moff’s Cruiser. 

As much as you hate it, the rescue of your child can wait for a moment if it means you can comfort Din. If Din can get to be human and grieve. He needs this moment so you can reassure him that no matter what The Empire - or the remnants of it - tries to take from him, you refuse to be a victim of it. You refuse to break. 

You won’t give them that satisfaction. 

  “You won’t.” You promise. “I belong to you. I am imprinted on you, Din. Heart,” You take one hand and press it against your chest, spreading his fingers over the pounding of your heart as you take your other hand to curl your fingers around the bottom of his helmet. You won’t lift it though. Not until he gives you permission. “Body, soul.” 

Those words ring in his mind as he takes his helmet off and allows it to clatter against the ground. The seeing stone looms behind him as his focus shifts away from that which has been taken from him, and that which is in front of him. 

You. 

  “We’re going to get him back.” You murmur against the shell of his ear as, for that sole moment, he allows himself a luxury he is so often denied. “We are going to bring our son home.”

Din’s face falls to your shoulder and he hides himself away from the world there. For that sole moment, he allows himself to be... human. 

What a luxury that a galaxy this one cannot afford him. What a luxury. 

Life is a willow and it bent right to your wind... 

[animezing-fandoms]

Willow

Masterlist

Relationships: Nalu

Warnings: Blood, injury, stabbing (basically there’s a fight and injuries are sustained but it’s not graphic detail) Implied/referenced lemon. Abusive parents (Jude’s a real bad parent in this AU) 

Summary: During a job with team Natsu, Lucy gets hit in the head and wakes up in a dream where she's a princess who runs away from home to be with her lover, the half-dragon half-human Count Natsu Dragneel.

A/N: So I had this wild dream one night about nalu and decided to write it as a fic. I hope it isn’t too crazy! And yes I also incorporated some lyrics from Taylor Swift’s Willow. Enjoy! 

----------------------

“I am seriously starting to regret taking this job with you guys!” Lucy wails.

She was currently on a job with Team Natsu. The job seemed simple enough on paper. They just needed to find a rare crystal in a forest. Sounds easy right? Well, the client forgot to mention that this forest has weird clearings that need to be crossed in order to get to the crystal, and giant killer eagles that attack you when you’re in the clearings! 

That’s why Lucy was currently running for her life, heading for the tree-line. She dares to look over her shoulder and instantly regrets it when she sees one of those eagles swooping down towards her. 

Before it can grab her, Natsu kicks it with his fire dragon’s claw and then scoops Lucy up in his arms bridal style and they leap into the tree-line as another eagle swoops by, just missing them. 

Natsu looks down and sees Lucy breathing heavily with her face buried in his scarf. 

“Lucy are you okay?” He asks her softly. 

At the sound of his voice Lucy turns to look at his face and blushes. 

“Y-yeah I’m fine.” She replies softly. 

As her fear began to fade a new feeling was arising. Well it wasn’t entirely new. She’d felt this before. A warm feeling in her chest and butterflies in her stomach. She felt like this whenever she was close to Natsu. And she knew what it meant, she had felt it before whenever a cute guy got close to her. But Natsu wasn’t a potential boyfriend? That ship had sailed after she got all dressed up to meet him in the park to dig for holes instead of a date.

He clearly doesn’t think about her in that way. And even if he did, she never would have known from the look on his face. 

So she shouldn’t think of him that way either. He could be really annoying sometimes. Breaking into her apartment, wrecking her plans. And yet, sometimes at night with her head on the pillow she could feel him sneaking in. 

He was like some mythical thing. And not because he was created as a demon, was taught dragon slayer magic and time traveled 400 years to be with her now. To be with her now...

As she looks at him she wishes she could know what he’s thinking. 

There’s one prize I’d cheat to win. 

“Oooo Lucy’s blushing!” Happy teases pulling Lucy from her thoughts. “I think she’s in lo-“ 

“Shut it cat!” Lucy retorts before Happy can finish. 

“I agree with Lucy. Now is not the time for jokes.” Erza says seriously as Natsu sets Lucy down. “We have one more clearing to cross before we can reach the willow tree that holds the crystal.” 

“Another one!?” Lucy exclaims. “We can’t find some other way around?” 

“Unfortunately we can’t.” Erza says. “Our only option is to run for it and fight too if need be.” 

Lucy looks past the tree-line to see the large willow tree on the other side. It would be a long, dangerous sprint. She takes in a shaky breath then exhales when she feels a warm hand slide into hers. 

She turns to see Natsu smiling at her. But not with that goofy grin he usually wore. This time, he was smiling at her softly with an endearing look on his face, as if he was looking at something precious. Her heart was pounding and she could feel a blush creeping up her cheeks.

“Don’t worry Lucy. I won’t let any of those birds hurt you.” He promises.

Lucy smiles back at him. 

“Thanks Natsu.” Lucy says. 

“Alright now let’s go fry up some chicken!” Natsu shouts and runs into the clearing.

“Natsu wait!” Wendy shouts after him.

“That idiot! We were supposed to come up with a plan together first!” Gray exclaims.

“Well it’s too late for that now!” Erza says with a frustrated sigh before drawing her sword and following him.

Lucy figures that Natsu’s plan was to draw all of the attention to himself, so that the rest of them could sneak past. And that would have been a good plan if they weren’t in an open clearing. There was nowhere to hide and now they were all spread out. And there were more birds this time too! 

What’s worse is that these birds were quicker. Lucy knows that if she slows down to summon a spirit, she’d surely get picked up and carried away! And she was definitely having a few close calls right now.

I thought Natsu said he would protect me? She thinks to herself as another bird swoops low.

Lucy was almost at the willow though. Just right through those branches and then she’d be safe! 

But she was so focused on getting there that she didn’t see the branch hanging down from one of the other trees in her path! And as soon as she made it there, she smacked her head on the branch and everything went black.

—————————

When Lucy awoke, she was laying under the willow tree all alone, her companions nowhere to be found. 

As she rose to sit up she found that her head was in no pain from getting hit, like she had never hit it in the first place. And the killer birds were nowhere to be found either.

She gently brushes the leaves off of the long purple skirts of her corseted dress as she tries to remember what she was doing out here in the woods. 

“Did you rest well Princess?” A familiar voice asks and Lucy smiles.

“Virgo!” She exclaims, happy to see her face. 

Suddenly her memories of how she wound up in this situation came flooding back to her. She, Princess Lucy Heartfilia of the kingdom of Fiore was betrothed to a man she did not love by her father who cared little for her happiness. So she ran away with the help of her most trusted maid Virgo, to a place where she knew she would be safe. The territory that was home to the man she truly loved. Thinking of him made her chest feel warm, yet she could not picture his face at the moment. Nor his name. 

“Wait for the signal and I’ll meet you after dark.” 

Those were the instructions he gave Virgo. She waited for the signal. A dragon flew over the castle, casting a dark shadow over it to give she and Virgo cover as they escaped. 

And now it was dark. She was in the place. But her man was nowhere to be found. 

“Have we made across the border to the Dragon’s Forest yet Virgo?” Lucy asks eagerly. 

“We should have, if that is the Dragon’s Roar River.” Virgo says, pointing at the rushing white-water river that was behind them. 

Lucy couldn’t begin to think of how they managed to cross it. But she wasn’t as interested in figuring that out as she was about another matter. 

“If we’re really in the forest then he should have known I’m here and come by now. Unless I was napping for a shorter time than I thought...” Lucy says.

“Hmm...well it could be the second river further up ahead?” Virgo says and looks ahead. “Perhaps we should continue to move inward onto his territory, just to be sure we’re in the right place.”

“I agree.” Lucy says and brings herself to stand, brushing the dirt off of her skirts.

Then fear grips her heart as she hears horses whinnying nearby, followed by men’s voices shouting. 

“No...” She mutters as she turns to see a carriage followed by a group of soldiers crossing a bridge over the river.

A few of the soldiers ahead of the carriage began to approach with their spears drawn. 

“There’s the princess! King Jude, we found her and the traitorous maid!” The soldiers shout as Lucy and Virgo turn to run away. 

As Lucy desperately hiked up her skirts to run away, she regrets not changing into a different outfit. These large skirts definitely weren’t made for running away from danger in the woods. But once she and Virgo had discovered what her father’s plans for her were, there was no time to change. They had to leave immediately to get to the one person Lucy knew could protect her. And as the soldiers surround her and Virgo, and her father approaches them, Lucy hopes that he’ll come soon.

“Daughter, have you gone mad!” Lucy’s father, King Jude exclaims. 

“I could ask you the same thing!” Lucy bravely retorts. 

She may be surrounded by soldiers and facing the man who had been controlling her life since she was a child. But if he was going to lock her away in the castle and force her to marry a man she didn’t love, then she won’t succumb to that fate without a fight. 

“You’re saying I’m the one at fault!” Jude exclaims. “You snuck out of the castle on the night of the ball being held to announce your engagement because you trust in the counsel of some lunatic maid over that of your own father! And now I find you here with that maid trespassing on dragon’s territory! And you think I’m the one who’s mad!” 

The anger behind his words made tears sting at the corners of Lucy’s eyes, but she wouldn’t back down from this fight. She couldn’t. There was too much at stake. 

“What kind of father would ignore the happiness of his own daughter and make such a huge decision for her without even asking her what she thinks!” Lucy exclaims. 

“Because a father knows what’s good for his daughter!” Jude replies. “And a good daughter would obey her father and do what’s best for her kingdom!”

“It’s not what’s best for the kingdom! It’s what’s best for you!” Lucy retorts. “The royal families you wish to make alliances with only care about their own wealth! They don’t care about the citizens of their own kingdoms much less ours! I could never marry someone like that!” Lucy shouts. 

“What the hell are you all doing in my forest!” A voice shouts from somewhere in the trees. 

Gasps of fear erupted amongst the soldiers while Jude’s face pales. Virgo cracks a small smile and a look of relief washes over Lucy’s features as the figure of a man drops down from the trees. 

This was no ordinary man though. Even though he wore the typical noble attire for a human man, he also had large maroon dragon wings sprouting from his back, and two matching horns pointing up from the spiky pink hair on his head. He even had matching maroon scales on the sides of his face and trailing down his neck. Most people were terrified when they looked into his bright reptilian green eyes. But Lucy felt something very different. She felt warmth, and love. 

“Natsu...” she sighs in joy and relief.

“Lucy.” Natsu replies with the same warmth in his voice.

The warmth in his voice makes warmth flood through her chest. No matter what world they were in, Natsu would always be her knight in shining armor. 

He holds out his arms for her and she moves to go to him but her father grabs her arm and yanks her back.

“Hey! Let me go!” Lucy protests and tries to yank her arm back but her father only pulls harder “Ouch!” She yelps.

Upon seeing his damsel in distress Natsu’s  soft demeanor immediately changes into something more reminiscent of the beast he resembles. 

“Get off of her!” Natsu roars.

He charges forward at an inhuman speed, right past the guards and yanks Jude’s hand off of Lucy’s arm, not caring to be gentle with him at all, causing him some pain as he takes Lucy into his arms and hugs her.

“Are you alright?” Natsu asks her softly. “Did he hurt your arm?” 

“Just a bit when he grabbed it. But I’ll be alright now that you’re here.” Lucy replies and rests her head under his chin, taking comfort in the warmth his body provided. 

Natsu holds her in his arms and gives her a light squeeze as he rests his cheek on top of her head. 

“You’re safe with me. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.” Natsu swears and presses a light kiss to her forehead.

“And yet you dare hurt me, her father?” Jude asks Natsu angrily, making him frown. “The King that your father is loyal to!”

“The Dragon King Igneel doesn’t swear loyalty to humans. He’s only loyal to his friends, and mine. And you’re no friend of his.” Natsu growls back. 

“But I made a deal with him! I let the dragons live in this forest in peace without any humans trespassing on your land and give you the noble title of Count to represent the dragons in our kingdom and in return the dragons protect us from invaders. We have an agreement, your father is loyal to me, and therefore as his son you should show me some respect!” Jude declares.

Natsu can’t help but smirk and laugh. 

“What’s so funny?” Jude asks. 

“You clearly misunderstood the purpose of the deal.” Natsu says. “The only reason my father protects your kingdom instead of burning it to the ground is because your daughter lives in it.”

Lucy smiles as Natsu gently nuzzles his face against her head before continuing.

“I’m half-dragon half-human. Igneel fell in love with a human woman and through some source of magic they found he was able to have a child with her but she died giving birth to me. So I stayed with my father’s people, the dragons. They were the only ones that accepted me. The humans all thought of me as a monster and when I was a kid they would chase me away when I would go into their towns looking for desserts and other treats I could smell from the outskirts of town. And because of the death of my mother my father is very protective of me so he’d burn down any village that treated me poorly. Then one day we came to Fiore and it was the same story as the other kingdoms. I got chased out of the markets and somehow wound up in the palace gardens to hide. Then that’s when I met Lucy. The first human I’d ever met who wasn’t afraid of me. And to this day, the only human who’s treated me with kindness. That’s why Igneel agreed to protect Fiore. Because it’s where my new best friend Lucy lived.”

“So the only reason Fiore isn’t ashes right now is because King Igneel wanted you to be able to have play dates with my daughter?” Jude asks.

“Yep.” Natsu replies. “If we burned the place down then my Princess would cry. And I can’t have that.” Natsu says.

“Your princess?” Jude asks. “You think she belongs to you?”

“She doesn’t belong to anybody she’s a person not an object!” Natsu retorts. 

“That’s where you’re wrong! I’m her father so she belongs to me!” Jude replies. 

“Not anymore!” Lucy shouts back, finding her courage now that she was with Natsu. “Count Natsu Dragneel and I are in love and he won’t let you take me away from him to marry me off to someone else!” 

“He was going to do what?!” Natsu exclaims and growls at Jude.

“He was going to sell me off like a brood mare to some horrible prince so I came here to run away with you so we can be together!” Lucy explains.

“I’ll never let my daughter marry a monster!” Jude yells. 

“Natsu’s not a monster! But you are!” Lucy retorts. 

Jude smirks and nods his head. 

Then a loud smacking noise comes from behind them and Lucy and Natsu turn around to see that one of the guards slapped Virgo in the face. 

“Virgo! No!” Lucy exclaims and turns back to her father. “Why would you hurt her?”

“Because I can’t hurt you at the moment. So your dear little treasonous maid will bear the punishment for your disobedience instead.” Jude explains. 

“You’re disgusting!” Lucy replies reflexively but then regrets it when Virgo gets hit again. 

Natsu frowns as he notices Lucy starting to cry so he turns to the soldiers with a frown.

“Virgo duck!” Natsu shouts before breathing fire at the soldiers. 

They scream as the flames hit them and Virgo gets free of them. Lucy runs over to hug her. 

“Virgo I’m so sorry!” Lucy apologizes. 

“It’s alright princess! It wasn’t your fault!”Virgo says. 

Natsu smiles as Lucy embraces her friend. Happy that she wasn’t crying anymore. Then he grimaces as he feels a shooting pain in his side. 

He turns and sees Jude holding the sword that just stabbed him. 

Virgo gasps when she opens her eyes and sees what happens. Then Lucy turns and her heart shatters. 

“Natsu! No!” She wails. 

“Don’t worry Lucy I’m fine.” Natsu says and grabs the sword in his hand and pulls it out of the wound with no pain whatsoever. 

The look on Jude’s face was priceless. 

“I’m half-dragon. You should’ve aimed for my head if you wanted me dead you moron.” Natsu says. 

Lucy giggles at the fact that Natsu called her father a moron.

Jude brings the sword up to swing at his head and Natsu just plucks it from his hands and throws it away, hitting some poor soldier in the helmet and knocking them out. 

Virgo and Lucy get grabbed by soldiers again so Natsu breathes fire to get them free. But while he’s doing that a few more soldiers stab him in his back and stomach. 

“Shit will you guys just quit that it feels weird!” Natsu exclaims and fired up his fist to take them down and that’s when one soldier gets a lucky stab in Natsu’s chest too. 

“Princess you and Natsu need to get out of here!” Virgo urges. “He’s strong but he’s also outnumbered!” 

“I know but what about you?” Lucy asks. “My father will kill you for helping me, I can’t just leave you here!” 

“Don’t worry! I’ll be fine.” Virgo says as she picks up a sword and grins.

Lucy smiles, feeling reassured that Virgo would be able to handle herself and she runs over to Natsu. 

“Natsu!” Lucy says as she runs towards him and he takes her into his arms. “Let’s get out of here!” 

“I was thinking the same thing.” Natsu says. 

And the next thing Lucy knows she’s being lifted into the air with Natsu. 

————————

As they fly over the trees, away from the willow tree and deeper into dragon territory Natsu notices that Lucy is surprisingly unafraid.

 “I thought you were scared of heights?” Natsu asks. 

“I can’t see how high up I am if I’m only looking at you.” Lucy replies.

Natsu can’t help but kiss her. 

————————

When they finally land at the Dragon King’s den, Igneel is there to greet them. 

“Greetings great dragon.” Lucy says and curtseys for him. 

“Lucy! How lovely it is to see you again!” Igneel greets. “I had a hunch that you were the reason Natsu was out today but I had no idea he would be bringing you to our den.”

“Natsu why have you brought her he-Natsu?” Igneel asks. 

Lucy turns around and gasps. She hadn’t noticed before because it was dark but now that they were under the light of the moon…there were red stains on his clothing and he looked paler than usual. 

“Natsu your wounds! I thought you said they weren’t serious?” Lucy exclaims as she runs over to him to inspect his injuries closer.

“I lied so you wouldn’t worry over me until we were safe. If I had said something sooner then you would have panicked and it would’ve slowed us down and then we would’ve never gotten out of there.” Natsu admits and Lucy cups his cheek and Natsu leans into her touch. 

“Who did this to my son?” Igneel growls. 

“My father and his goons.” Lucy answers with gritted teeth, her rising anger matching that of the great fire dragon behind her. 

“And why would they dare do such a horrific thing to betray me?” Igneel demands. 

“Because I was protecting Lucy.” Natsu says hoarsely and groans as Lucy sets him down into a more comfortable position on the ground. “King Jude was being cruel to her, he was going to try to take her away from me and give her away to someone else so he could expand his fortune. So Lucy fled here to find me so we could be together, but the King and his soldiers caught up to us and we had to fight our way out.” 

Igneel watches with concern as Lucy tears off strips of her dress fabric to soak up the blood on Natsu’s wounds. But there were multiple wounds, and she only had two hands. 

“Then they will pay for this!” Igneel declares. “I’ll burn them all!” 

“No! Please spare Fiore!” Lucy urges. “The citizens have done nothing wrong. Please don’t let them suffer just because of their King’s wrongdoings!” Lucy begs. 

“I understand.” Igneel says. “And I agree with you. I apologize for being quick to jump to violence but after losing Natsu’s mother, all I’ve ever wanted is for my son to be safe. And when you have powers like mine that allow you to burn away anything that troubles you well, it’s easy for that to become the default response. But after Natsu met you I realized that there are other humans like his mother that don’t see dragons as monsters that need to be slain.” 

“I’ve never seen your son as a monster. I met him after my mother died from illness and he brought such joy into my life by being my friend. And now he’s grown into the man I love. When I’m with him, I know I’m home. Anywhere else is hollow. And so with your permission I’d like to take his hand, wreck my father’s plans, and make Natsu my man.” Lucy says and smiles at him and Natsu smiles back. 

A look of pure joy spread over the dragon’s features and he looks at the lovers before him. 

“Oh Lucy I know how much my son cares for you. He’s already told me of his intentions to make you his mate so yes of course I approve!” Igneel says. “But first we should really treat Natsu’s wounds.” 

Lucy gasps. She was so caught up in the euphoria of being able to marry the man of her dreams that she completely forgot he was bleeding internally. 

“Oh my goodness! I completely forgot! Natsu I’m so sorry you must be in so much pain right now!” Lucy rambles and Natsu can’t help but smile at how cute she looks when she was worried over him. 

“It’s not that bad actually. I’ve had worse.” Natsu says with a shrug. 

“In this tower over here is where Natsu lives.” Igneel says and gestures his head towards an old stone tower on the edge of the clearing. “You’ll find some medicine in there that the dragon Grandeeney made to heal any wounds that a dragon or half-dragon might sustain.”

“Thank you. I’ll take care of him right away.” Lucy says and puts his arm around her shoulder and leads him inside. 

————————— 

As Lucy and Natsu sat on his bed together, Lucy takes note of how amazing this healing dragon’s powers must be. This medicine was a miracle. His wounds had stopped bleeding the instant she put the bandage with the magic salve over them. 

But other thoughts were crossing her mind. As she dresses his wounds in the dark room lit only by candle light, Lucy can’t help but feel a bit aroused. He was shirtless and her hands were all over his muscular torso, and she couldn’t help but take note of the strength those muscles conveyed. She wonders if he feels anything either. 

The silence starts to feel deafening so Lucy decided to ask a question that’s been on her mind for awhile.

“Natsu, now that we’re betrothed I think I should ask you, how do dragons get married?” Lucy asks. 

“They don’t.” Natsu says simply. 

“Oh...” Lucy asks unsure of how to respond. “But I thought you told me once that dragons mate for life.” 

“They do. Just not in the way humans do. Dragons don’t really have an official ceremony or anything like humans do.” Natsu explains. “When two of them decide they want to become a couple they just…mate.” 

“I see.” Lucy says as she dresses the gash on his left pectoral. 

The tension that was already starting to build between them had now fully crept it’s way into Lucy’s mind as Natsu mentioned mating. She had been thinking about doing this with Natsu for a long time. She does want to marry him after all, so she already found him attractive. But now, she had run away from her home, and the rules that came with it. She and Natsu had already promised themselves to each other with words, why not follow through with actions as well? 

“Well, weddings take a long time to plan.” Lucy begins to explain as she gently lets her fingers trail down his torso after setting the dressing. “And even if we were to have a wedding, it would probably be just your father’s clan anyway, since my father would sooner plot your murder than hand me over to you as a bride. He may even be plotting something to steal me away from you sooner rather than later. So instead of waiting for a wedding…” Lucy says, moving her gaze up to look into his eyes. “I think that we should just get married now. The dragon way.”

Natsu takes in a deep breath when he realizes what she’s asking. What she’s offering him. And Lucy could tell by the tent forming in his pants and his breaths becoming heavier that his primal instincts were starting to awaken. But Natsu kept himself in check. Sure he’s had these thoughts about Lucy before but only when he was alone, leaving him to deal with those urges on his own. But now she was right here and moving closer to him, with dilated pupils and his brain was screaming at him to just tear off her dress and claim her now. But he holds back. Because this wasn’t just some fantasy, this was real. This was Lucy, the love of his life and before he accepts her offer he has to be sure it’s what she wants. 

“Lucy are you sure that’s what you want?” He asks.

“Yes I’m sure.” Lucy says “We are in dragon’s land after all. And I’ll be living with your father and his clan. So I want to do things their way.” 

Natsu’s arousal builds even more as she takes his hand and places it at the top of the corset that was keeping her ample chest confined while her other hand slowly trails down his abdomen. 

“I love you Natsu. And I want you to claim me, if you want me too.” Lucy says. 

Natsu searches her face for any sign of unease or reluctance, but he only finds the same emotions he was feeling for her. Lust and love. And as she places her hand over the bulge in his pants, all doubt leaves his mind and he lets his primal urges take over as he cups her cheek to speak to her.

“Lucy my love you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. Of course I want to claim you as my mate.” Natsu declares before tugging at the bow on her corset.

Lucy gasps as she feels the garment loosen before Natsu seals his mouth to hers in a passionate kiss as she unbuckles his belt and they proceed to undress each other, and make love not long after.

——————————

That morning when Lucy woke up she was still naked in bed. She follows the sunlight streaming in from the balcony, and sees her clothes scattered on the floor. 

Lucy felt goosebumps form on her skin as she remembered the warmth of Natsu’s touch from the night before. His hands hands were strong and felt rough against her soft skin, just like the parts of his body that had scales, and the contrast felt divine. He caressed every part of her body with his hands, and then re-traced his path with his mouth which had only aroused her more and encouraged her to explore his body as well, wanting to know him as intimately as he knew her as they consummated their love and became one. 

Her father couldn’t marry her off to anyone now. Natsu had claimed her for himself last night, and she loved every minute of it. She was his, and he was hers. Mates. And Count and Countess to the human kingdom, and prince and princess among the dragons. 

And right now her Prince was standing on the balcony, still naked as well. They were deep in the woods after all, it’s not like any passers by would see them. But then he turns around when he hears her stirring in bed. 

“Good morning my princess.” Natsu says and smiles. 

“Good morning my prince.” Lucy says and smiles warmly back at him. 

He comes over to her and leans down to place a gentle kiss to her lips. 

“Did you sleep well?” Natsu asks. 

“Yeah. I slept great.” Lucy says. “The bed was so warm with you in it.” 

“Well duh, fire dragon.” Natsu reminds her and Lucy giggles and kisses him again. 

Then Natsu’s expression turns serious. 

“Before you woke up, my father talked with me. He still wants revenge for what your father attempted to do to me, and what he attempted to do to you too.” Natsu says. 

“Oh…” Lucy says. 

She looks down at the blanket in-between them as she tries to think. On one hand she certainly agreed that something needed to be done about her father. But on the other hand, he was her father. 

“What does he want to do?” Lucy asks. 

“He wants to remove your dad from power.” Natsu starts. “And let you take his place.” 

Lucy perks up and looks at Natsu who was smiling with pride. 

“So I’d be Queen of Fiore?” Lucy asks. 

“Yep. And we don’t have to kill your dad. We can just lock him up in the dungeon or something.” Natsu explains. 

“Then you’d be my King?” Lucy asks. 

“King Consort, since you’re the one with the power but yeah.” Natsu says with a shrug. 

“That sounds great.” Lucy says. “Except…You and your father like to travel sometimes, go to other lands to train together…If I’m Queen then I won’t be able to come with you.” 

Lucy looks away sadly but then Natsu cups her chin in his fingers and tilts her head towards him. 

“You’ll never be alone again.” Natsu says and gently cups her cheek. “You’re the love of my life, and I promise we’ll always be together Lucy.” 

He leans forward and kisses her.

Lucy closes her eyes and melts into the kiss. 

——————————

When her eyes flutter open she sees Natsu’s face and smiles warmly. 

“Oh Natsu…” she sighs dreamily. 

Natsu frowns at her. 

“Uh, Luce you’re looking at me funny. Are you okay?” He asks her with a frown. 

“Hmm…” Lucy hums in confusion. “Of course I am! I’m with you my…” She explains until she notices his horns are missing, and that there are no scales on his body either. 

She reaches forward and feels the blankets and realizes she’s no longer naked in the expensive large bed she was in before, but wearing her pajamas while in a bed at the infirmary in Magnolia! 

“My…what?” Natsu asks, wanting her to finish her sentence. 

“My…idiot!” Lucy shouts and kicks him in the stomach with her foot. 

“Ouch!” Natsu yelps and doubles over in pain. 

“Yep! She’s fine!” Happy says cheerfully from the other side of Lucy’s bed. “You really had us going there for a second Lucy, I was worried that that bump on your head might have made you go crazy!” 

Lucy reaches up and feels that there are bandages wrapped around her forehead. And she winces slightly in pain as she touches the injured spot and remembers reality. She must have hit her head pretty hard in order to have envisioned Natsu as some sort of romantic Prince. 

“Honestly, I’m not too sure I’m entirely sane.” Lucy says. 

“That would explain why you kicked me.” Natsu grumbles. 

“Want me to do it again?” Lucy growls and Natsu yelps in fear. 

“Nope! I learned my lesson, please don’t hurt me again!” Natsu pleads. 

“Maybe I should still go get Porlyusica?” Happy suggests. “I mean, she’s mad at you now, but when she woke up she was looking at you like she was in love.” Happy teases. 

Lucy frowns at Happy but at the same time can’t help but blush as she remembers how she felt about the Natsu she met in her dream. I mean there were obviously some differences between the two of them. But now that she thought about it...there were a lot of similarities too. The Natsu from her dream may have been more obviously romantic but most of what he was saying to her and the way he was looking at her...the real Natsu did all of that too. And she loved him for it. 

And then it hit her...did she love Natsu?

“I’m sorry Lucy.” Natsu says softly and looks into his lap. “I said I’d protect you and you got hurt.”

“Well, you said you wouldn’t let the birds hurt me. And I got hit by a willow branch. So you didn’t break your promise. You’ve never broken any promise to me.” Lucy assures him.

Ever since they met in Hargeon, he had been the major catalyst for the events in her life. Both good and bad. And this job was no different.

Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind. 

“I know but still, you got hurt because I was so busy keeping those birds away from you that I didn’t notice that damn branch.” Natsu pouts. 

“It’s not your fault. I should have been watching where I was going.” Lucy says.

“If I was with you you wouldn’t have had to worry about that. I shouldn’t have left you alone. I know that ever since Tartaros you get upset when I do that.” Natsu says and Lucy’s heart skips a beat.

So he really did notice how his year long absence had affected her...Who would have known? Certainly not Lucy. He really paid attention to her feelings like that? 

“And I don’t like it when you’re sad. It makes me feel weird, like I want to fix it and make you happy again as soon as I can. It’s easy when I can just punch whatever’s bothering you until it goes away. But it’s different when I’m the one that hurt you. It makes me feel worse because I never want to be the cause of your pain. I want to be the one that takes it away, or even better prevents you from getting hurt in the first place. All I want is to keep you safe and make you happy. But I failed...” 

The more that you say, the less I know. 

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Only the lovers in the books she reads say things like this. Maybe he wasn’t as dense as she thought? Did he know what love was? Did he love her?

“Instead of fighting for you I should have just been with you. I made a mistake and you got hurt. But I won’t make it again. I’ll be more mindful of you the next time we’re on a job.” Natsu says. “I swear I‘ll protect you next time.” 

“Natsu...we’ve been doing jobs together for years. Nothing ever goes the way it’s supposed to.” Lucy says and holds out her hand for Natsu. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” 

Wherever you stray, I follow.

Natsu smiles and it warms Lucy’s heart as he takes her hand. 

“Promise that tomorrow you’ll wreck my plans again by taking me on some wild adventure?” Lucy asks.

“You bet!” Natsu says and flashes her his signature goofy grin.

That’s my man.

[toysoldiers-rwby]

First Meeting. Take one.

Characters: Klein, Willow, Winter, May Rating: Everyone Word Count: 1k Tags: comfort, pre-canon, implied child abuse, nonbinary character, pre-transition trans character, light sexism, light dysphoria

Summary: Klein is a nice man. His personalities may not agree, but they need this job.

A/N: Prequel to First Meeting. Take Three and Two! This is probably one of the most important events in my Toy Soldiers Series.

“Deep breath in. Okay good. Deep breath out.” Mrs. Schnee said gently. When Klein made a face at her she only laughed softly. “I’m sorry but you looked ready to pass out.”

Klein almost felt like it. This was far worse than any interview he’s done. This was a trial run. Mrs. Schnee and Jacques weren’t the judge.

It was her 8-year-old, Winter Schnee.

He could feel is semblance anxiously bubbling in his chest. Emotions shifting and twisting but he held on. He… didn’t lie during the interview. His semblance did change with his temperament so he could resolve and adapt to a multitude of situations. Situations that a kid could spontaneously create without warning and reason, a temperament that could switch with the child’s need.

Just… not on command.

Mrs. Schnee smiled gently, a hand on his shoulder. Klein tried not to stiffen. Aristocrats weren’t known for public affection but her father wasn’t an aristocrat. He was from the mines. She wasn’t born into wealth but she was so young when it happened, was there a difference? Klein relaxed, or tried to as he breathed out again.

“Winter will love you.”

Or one of them.

Klein was praying Grumpy would stay asleep.

Mrs. Schnee lead him down tall hallways that hurt his neck to look at. A guilty part of him was glad his task was to attend to the Schnee’s needs and not to clean the ridiculously build manor.

Klein heard the violin first. Soothing and slow, notes melting into each other. Then a cello, low and humming. Neither instrument overpowered the other, not quiet sharing the spotlight and elegantly trading the lead. Until a screeching note came from the cello-

Then sharp whip cracked against wood.

“Mr. Azalea!” Mrs. Schnee yelled. Klein had to run to catch up to the women. She was definitely not an aristocrat. Damn women was far too athletic- and strong. Mrs. Schnee shoved a man nearly a foot taller than her steps back. “What have I told you about…” Her words died, soft regret on her face as she noticed another child besides her daughter. Blue hair, scared yellow eyes. A Marigold. There were two, one older and one younger but he forgets their names. “What are you doing here?”

“Practicing,” The instructor sneered at Mrs. Schnee. Something flared across her eyes. Frustration crackling as the instructor continued to speak, “Mr. Schnee and Mr. Marigold will be hosting a business event tonight. Not that he would have informed you,” The instructor’s nose was so high it blocked the Glyph glowing in Mrs. Schnee’s palm. Not an aristocrat. Klein slowly made his way to the children. “My employers called me to ensure that Winter and- Agh!”

The man was sent flying backwards, Glyph still pulsing where he once stood until the deep anger in Mrs. Schnee’s face settled. “Whoops,” Mrs. Schnee drawled. She turned towards her daughter and winked, “Seems I’m out of practice.”

Winter tried to stifle a laugh while the Marigold outwardly sneered… through tears. Klein leaned down, handing a handkerchief from his pocket.

The young one was about to take it but jerked back. “I’m not crying,” the young Marigold’s voice cracked. "Boy’s aren’t suppose to cry…"

Anger surged through Klein, red engulfing their vision as thoughts shuffled and scrambled. Finally one settled and escaped their lips in a Grumpy whisper, “Fuckin’ aristocrats.”

Winter and the young Marigold gasped, eyes wide in delighted shock. Grumpy winced clearing their throat and praying they didn’t screw things up for the others. Klein needed this job. They shoved the damn cloth into the lil brat’s hand and stood up. Hands behind their back felt right but something bout the posture was off… stiff? Nah, the bloody rich love stiff rodes, preferably up their arse. Grumpy shuffled their legs, slowly inching them together. That felt a little better.

“Mrs. Schnee! You and that dwarf will-”

That cunt needed more than boot, and I have two. One up the arse and another knocking his cunt faced-

“That is enough Mr. Azalea,” Mrs. Schnee said with a sharp smile. “My husband isn’t the only one with a tight schedule.” The instructor laughed. Mrs. Schnee responded with a snap of her fingers. A… a creature of Aura stepping out a Glyph. Grimm face snarling as it prowled and tower over the instructor. The little brats shuffled a little closer to Grumpy but never left their seats. “I think it’s time make some adjustments to your contract.” The instructor tried to stand his ground. But against a Beringel he was force to follow Mrs. Schnee or be carried like a toy.

“Ready or not, those kids will preform tonight.” The instructor hissed. From the corners of their vision, they could see the lil brats wince. The Marigold a lot more scared than Winter. Mrs. Schnee looked gave Klein a hopeful look but left.

With no instruction on what to do.

Grumpy took a deep breath. Trying to wake up one of the others. Doc or Bashful would know what to do. Happy would coddle the lil brats too much and get their arse fired. When no one answered on the exhale, Grumpy opened their eyes and peered down the lil brats.

“Our name’s Klein Sieben,” They said, voice starting smooth but graveling down into Grumpy. They sighed, at least Mrs. Schnee wasn’t here. While she might not be the judge, she was still a parent. “You, brat,” They looked at the Marigold- who flinched. Grumpy rubbed their temples, trying to channel Doc or Happy.

A man just whipped the table. A women just summoned a monster. Be nice. Be Gentle. Be not Grumpy.

“Sorry, ya?”

“You’re not very good at this…” Winter said. The Marigold chuckled, between blowing out snot.

“But at least I’m tryin! Alright!” Klein said. Winter blinked. She picked up her instrument, holding the violin to her chin. For a child… she was far too calm for what happened. Anger steered around in their chest, keep their semblance awake.

“So is the Marigold…” Winter mumbled.

“It’s not my fault the cello is big!” The lil brat yelled. “I don’t know why I needed to switch from the violin…”

“The cello’s easy. You just suck.”

Lil cunts. Grumpy flicked both their foreheads with a finger before they started yelling. “Why don’cha switch?”

The Marigold glared at the ground, like a wilting flower, “Because father thinks the violin is a girl’s instrument. I don’t know why that’s a problem…”

Oh. Oh. So that’s why the others didn’t wake up.

They looked at Winter, “Does ya family have spare violins?” Winter nodded. Grumpy took the cello from the young flower’s hand and threw it across the room. The wood splintered and cracked, strings snapping. With a grin he looked at the stunned lil brats. “Whoops. Seems like you have no choice to play the violin tonight.”

Grumpy knew from the beaming smile that they just secured the job. Good thing the lil miss was their judge. Jacques would have done more than fire them.

“And between us, none of that Mr. Sieben stuff. Just Klein, ya?”

[agentrouka-blog]

Arya and Weasel - sending your inner child off into the woods

Weasel is an orphaned, traumatized girl of around two years of age whose story is absolutely heartbreaking. We meet her in A Clash of Kings and she accompanies us for the span of three Arya chapters, which takes place over just about a month, most of which takes place off page. 

We meet her at the end of Arya III, she has her first interaction with Arya in Arya IV and then tags along with Arya, Lommy, Hot Pie and Gendry in the woods until she runs off into the unknown at the end of Arya V.

I’ll follow the story and try to give some sense of time and location to justify my time estimates, simply because GRRM chooses to be so vague. 

Gods, Arya’s chapters in ACOK are among the very finest in the entire book series. 

Warning: Long. As always, excessive use of quotes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACOK, Arya III (chapter 9)

Yoren and his gang have been traveling the Kingsroad since King’s Landing. She beat Hot Pie bloody in Arya I and they had a tense encounter with goldcloaks looking for Gendry in Arya II. Now they change course westward of the Kingsroad close to the beginning of the chapter.

“We’re not far from Gods Eye,” the black brother said one morning. “The kingsroad won’t be safe till we’re across the Trident. So we’ll come up around the lake along the western shore, they’re not like to look for us there.” At the next spot where two ruts cut cross each other, he turned the wagons west. 

Here farmland gave way to forest, the villages and holdfasts were smaller and farther apart, the hills higher and the valleys deeper. Food grew harder to come by.

They spend an unspecified amount of time, likely about two weeks, traveling and living off the land. Enough for two days delay to still matter but long enough to form habits, see landscapes change, have hunting adventures.

Outside a holdfast called Briarwhite, some fieldhands surrounded them in a cornfield, demanding coin for the ears they’d taken. (…)

The next day Koss came racing back to warn Yoren of a camp ahead. (…) “Might be one side, might be t’other. If they’re hurt that bad, likely they’d take our mounts no matter who they are. Might be they’d take more than that. I believe we’ll go wide around them.” It took them miles out of their way, and cost them two days at the least, but the old man said it was cheap at the price. (…) 

Arya saw men guarding the fields more and more when they turned north again. (…) At one place, she spotted a man perched up in a dead tree, with a bow in his hand and a quiver hanging from the branch beside him. (…) 

A day later Dobber spied a red glow against the evening sky. “Either this road went and turned again, or that sun’s setting in the north.”

Weasel’s tragedy begins when her village is put to the torch. The blaze is enough to light up the night sky from half a day’s travel away. Judging from what we see in Arya IV, the violence was likely unspeakable.

By dawn the fire had burned itself out, but none of them slept very well that night. It was midday when they arrived at the place where the village had been.

It’s butchery and desolation. Yoren goes to investigate the destroyed holdfast. 

When they finally returned, Yoren had a little girl in his arms, and Murch and Cutjack were carrying a woman in a sling made of an old torn quilt. The girl was no older than two and she cried all the time, a whimpery sound, like something was caught in her throat. Either she couldn’t talk yet or she had forgotten how. The woman’s right arm ended in a bloody stump at her elbow, and her eyes didn’t seem to see anything, even when she was looking right at it.

I knee-jerk assumed the woman to be Weasel’s mother, but that is never explicitly stated in the text. For all we know, they aren’t related at all. They are not shown to interact, and even if the woman was Weasel’s mother, she is too far gone from her severe injury to be coherent, let alone care for the child. 

 She talked, but she only said one thing. “Please,” she cried, over and over. “Please. Please.” Rorge thought that was funny. He laughed through the hole in his face where his nose had been, and Biter started laughing too, until Murch cursed them and told them to shut up. Yoren had them fix the woman a place in the back of a wagon. “And be quick about it,” he said. “Come dark, there’ll be wolves here, and worse.” “I’m scared,” Hot Pie murmured when he saw the one-armed woman thrashing in the wagon. “Me too,” Arya confessed. He squeezed her shoulder. “I never truly kicked no boy to death, Arry. I just sold my mommy’s pies, is all.” Arya rode as far ahead of the wagons as she dared, so she wouldn’t have to hear the little girl crying or listen to the woman whisper, “Please.” She remembered a story Old Nan had told once, about a man imprisoned in a dark castle by evil giants. He was very brave and smart and he tricked the giants and escaped . . . but no sooner was he outside the castle than the Others took him, and drank his hot red blood. Now she knew how he must have felt. The one-armed woman died at evenfall. Gendry and Cutjack dug her grave on a hillside beneath a weeping willow. When the wind blew, Arya thought she could hear the long trailing branches whispering, “Please. Please. Please.” The little hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she almost ran from the graveside.

I almost inserted a long paragraph about the textual parallels to Lyanna and Sansa here. But I refrained because this is merely meant to document Weasel. 

The woman and the child (and the murdered men I didn’t include in my quotes) are Arya’s first direct confrontation with the vicious of this war. She and Hot Pie are so humbled in the face of it, they forget their original enmity, their posturing. They become children again. They admit their bone-deep fear. 

The human suffering is an unbearable horror and Arya, understandably, tries to block it out and get away from it. 

So this tiny little girl Weasel has just watched every person she has ever known being murdered by scary, angry strangers and then spent that night and half a day among the charred ruins and the bodies. Hungry, thirsty, scared. No one shows up to comfort her until another stranger picks her up and carries her away. 

It goes on:

“No fire tonight,” Yoren told them. Supper was a handful of wild radishes Koss found, a cup of dry beans, water from a nearby brook. The water had a funny taste to it, and Lommy told them it was the taste of bodies, rotting someplace upstream. Hot Pie would have hit him if old Reysen hadn’t pulled them apart.

We’ll return to this lovely image.

Arya encounters wolves as she relieves herself in the woods at night. They do not harm her, but she is clearly shaken by everything that has happened. 

The crying girl travelling alonside her and the wolves prowling the woods. Two sides of Arya.

She tells Yoren she doesn’t care. She just wants to go home. The chapter ends on:

“Go to sleep, boy. Hear me?”

She did try. Yet as she lay under her thin blanket, she could hear the wolves howling . . . and another sound, fainter, no more than a whisper on the wind, that might have been screams.

Followed by a lovely thematic transition at the beginning of Davos I.

The morning air was dark with the smoke of burning gods. They were all afire now, Maid and Mother, Warrior and Smith, the Crone with her Pearl eyes and the Father with his gilded beard; even the Stranger, carved to look more animal than human. The old dry wood and countless layers of paint and varnish blazed with a fierce hungry light. Heat rose shimmering through the chill air; behind, the gargoyles and stone dragons on the castle walls seemed blurred, as if Davos were seeing them through a veil of tears. Or as if the beasts were trembling, stirring . . .

Arya is about to enter the warzone for real.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACOK, Arya IV (chapter 14)

We open not too far from where we left Yoren’s merry band. They have reached the river flowing straight south from the Gods Eye. 

It seemed a peaceful place . . . until Koss spotted the dead man. “There, in the reeds.” He pointed, and Arya saw it. The body of a soldier, shapeless and swollen. His sodden green cloak had hung up on a rotted log, and a school of tiny silver fishes were nibbling at his face. “I told you there was bodies,” Lommy announced. “I could taste them in that water.”

He tasted them in the brook, this is a river. Usually brooks flow into rivers, not the other way around. But not too much travel time can have passed for Lommy to make that remark. A day? Two days?

We get a location.

It was midday when the others returned. Woth reported a wooden bridge half a mile downstream, but someone had burned it up. Yoren peeled a sourleaf off the bale. “Might be we could swim the horses over, maybe the donkeys, but there’s no way we’ll get those wagons across. And there’s smoke to the north and west, more fires, could be this side o’ the river’s the place we want to be.” He picked up a long stick and drew a circle in the mud, a line trailing down from it. “That’s Gods Eye, with the river flowing south. We’re here.” He poked a hole beside the line of the river, under the circle. “We can’t go round west of the lake, like I thought. East takes us back to the kingsroad.” He moved the stick up to where the line and circle met. “Near as I recall, there’s a town here. The holdfast’s stone, and there’s a lordling got his seat there too, just a towerhouse, but he’ll have a guard, might be a knight or two. We follow the river north, should be there before dark. They’ll have boats, so I mean to sell all we got and hire us one.” He drew the stick up through the circle of the lake, from bottom to top. “Gods be good, we’ll find a wind and sail across the Gods Eye to Harrentown.”

We don’t know what hour the sun sets but it’s early autumn in Westeros and I’m guessing they’re about 7 to 8 hours from the south shore of the God’s Eye, at wagon and donkey travel-speed.

We have our first mention of Weasel among a heartbreaking instance of Arya’s remaining faith in humanity.

Hot Pie was being silly; it wouldn’t be ghosts at Harrenhal, it would be knights. Arya could reveal herself to Lady Whent, and the knights would escort her home and keep her safe. That was what knights did; they kept you safe, especially women. Maybe Lady Whent would even help the crying girl.

Sadly, we don’t hear who has been taking care of the little girl since her mother died. Arya makes no mention of it.

They reach the deserted town.

The black brother left ten to guard the wagons and the whimpery little girl, and split the rest of them into four groups of five to search the town.

There are no boats, they decide to spend the night at the holdfast. Lots of descriptions of the holdfast and the town. No mention of the little girl. Seriously, who is minding this little toddler? 

When the food was ready, Arya ate a chicken leg and a bit of onion. No one talked much, not even Lommy. Gendry went off by himself afterward, polishing his helm with a look on his face like he wasn’t even there. The crying girl whimpered and wept, but when Hot Pie offered her a bit of goose she gobbled it down and looked for more.

Ah, at least someone is feeding her. Thank you, Hot Pie. Weasel is hungry, she wants to live.

Hot Pie went off and let her alone and Arya curled up on her pallet. She could hear the crying girl from the far side of the haven. I wish she’d just be quiet. Why does she have to cry all the time?

Getting some sister parallels in here.

Jeyne Poole had been confined with her, but Jeyne was useless. Her face was puffy from all her crying, and she could not seem to stop sobbing about her father.

"I'm certain your father is well," Sansa told her when she had finally gotten the dress buttoned right. "I'll ask the queen to let you see him." She thought that kindness might lift Jeyne's spirits, but the other girl just looked at her with red, swollen eyes and began to cry all the harder. She was such a child. (AGOT, Sansa IV)

Don’t like others crying around you when you’re scared, Stark Sisters, do you? There’s a Robb parallel, too.

"Rickon needs you," Robb said sharply. "He's only three, he doesn't understand what's happening. He thinks everyone has deserted him, so he follows me around all day, clutching my leg and crying. I don't know what to do with him." He paused a moment, chewing on his lower lip the way he'd done when he was little. "Mother, I need you too. I'm trying but I can't … I can't do it all by myself." His voice broke with sudden emotion, and Catelyn remembered that he was only fourteen. She wanted to get up and go to him, but Bran was still holding her hand and she could not move. (AGOT, Catelyn III)

They tend to have other characters reflect their inner emotions. That crying, overwhelmed child that they are trying to ingore: themselves. 

Arya, likely through warg power, wakes up to warn the others of the imminent attack. Amory Lorch’s riders are putting the town to the torch. Arya is watching from the holdfast parapets.

Something bumped against her leg, and she glanced down to discover the crying girl clutching her. “Get away!” She wrenched her leg free. “What are you doing up here? Run and hide someplace, you stupid.” She shoved the girl away.

No room for soft feelings when you have to function to survive.

Lorch is not inclined to spare Yoren on account of being with the NW. They attack and throw torches, the barn has a secret tunnel and Yoren orders them to escape. But the barn is already on fire.

As they were running toward the barn, Arya spied the crying girl sitting in the middle of the chaos, surrounded by smoke and slaughter. She grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to her feet as the others raced ahead. The girl wouldn’t walk, even when slapped. Arya dragged her with her right hand while she held Needle in the left. Ahead, the night was a sullen red. The barn’s on fire, she thought. Flames were licking up its sides from where a torch had fallen on straw, and she could hear the screaming of the animals trapped within. Hot Pie stepped out of the barn. “Arry, come on! Lommy’s gone, leave her if she won’t come!” Stubbornly, Arya dragged all the harder, pulling the crying girl along. Hot Pie scuttled back inside, abandoning them . . . but Gendry came back, the fire shining so bright on his polished helm that the horns seemed to glow orange. He ran to them, and hoisted the crying girl up over his shoulder. “Run!”  

In this moment of absolute mortal danger, Arya decides to take charge of the traumatized toddler to ensure her survival, stubbornly, violently even. Just like Yoren did with her. Hot Pie would have left her. Ouch. Gendry soon takes over, luckily. 

The open trap was only a few feet ahead, but the fire was spreading fast, consuming the old wood and dry straw faster than she would have believed. Arya remembered the Hound’s horrible burned face. “Tunnel’s narrow,” Gendry shouted. “How do we get her through?” “Pull her,” Arya said. “Push her.” “Good boys, kind boys,” called Jaqen H’ghar, coughing. “Get these fucking chains off!” Rorge screamed. Gendry ignored them. “You go first, then her, then me. Hurry, it’s a long way.” “When you split the firewood,” Arya remembered, “where did you leave the axe?” “Out by the haven.” He spared a glance for the chained men. “I’d save the donkeys first. There’s no time.” “You take her!” she yelled. “You get her out! You do it!” The fire beat at her back with hot red wings as she fled the burning barn.

Even having grabbed the little girl and knowing there is a path to escaping, Arya cannot simply flee. She hands over the charge of Weasel to Gendry and proceeds to save the lives of the three captives from the black cells. Because Arya doesn’t just let people die. Not unless she wants them dead herself. A force of nature.

She gets the axe from outside in the battlezone, walks back into the blazing barn, throws the axe into the wagon and dives down to safety. The chapter ends thus:

Arya rolled headfirst into the tunnel and dropped five feet. She got dirt in her mouth but she didn’t care, the taste was fine, the taste was mud and water and worms and life. Under the earth the air was cool and dark. Above was nothing but blood and roaring red and choking smoke and the screams of dying horses. She moved her belt around so Needle would not be in her way, and began to crawl. A dozen feet down the tunnel she heard the sound, like the roar of some monstrous beast, and a cloud of hot smoke and black dust came billowing up behind her, smelling of hell. Arya held her breath and kissed the mud on the floor of the tunnel and cried. For whom, she could not say.

So that went from dire to catastrophic.

I love how this chapter was structured. It starts out quiet, the unease builds in the empty town, they create a moment of respite eating dinner in the perceived safety of the holdfast, but even there they have doomed themselves by lighting the cookfire. Then it escalates, the howling of the wolves, the phony negotiations, the blaze they saw in the distance the chapter before now comes to them, and everything sinks into cacophony, until the last second of dubious escape. Arya’s helpless tears are such a well-earned release of panic and tension. There is no safety, only momentary escape, only confusion. It’s monstrous.

She cries, like Weasel cried.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACOK, Arya V (chapter 19)  

We open to Arya high up on a tree observing a village on the Western lakeshore. 

Someone’s there. Arya chewed her lip. All the other places they’d come upon had been empty and desolate. Farms, villages, castles, septs, barns, it made no matter. If it could burn, the Lannisters had burned it; if it could die, they’d killed it. 

They have been traveling in the woods a while since the night of the blaze. Arya remembers them returning the next night, burying Yoren and joining up with three survivors. The route is North along the Western lakeshore.

Cutjack opened the door at Gendry’s shout, and when Kurz said they’d be better pressing on north than going back, Arya had clung to the hope that she still might reach Winterfell. (…)

To the east, Gods Eye was a sheet of sunhammered blue that filled half the world. Some days, as they made their slow way up the muddy shore (Gendry wanted no part of any roads, and even Hot Pie and Lommy saw the sense in that), Arya felt as though the lake were calling her. (…)

North along the shore, past a number of deserted rural settlings. 

At the end of the day she would often sit on a rock and dangle her feet in the cool water. She had finally thrown away her cracked and rotted shoes. Walking barefoot was hard at first, but the blisters had finally broken, the cuts had healed, and her soles had turned to leather. The mud was nice between her toes, and she liked to feel the earth underfoot when she walked. 

This process will have taken some time. A few weeks.

From up here, she could see a small wooded island off to the northeast.

While the Isle of Faces is not truly small, there is no mention of other wooded islands on the lake. This would place Arya less than halfway up the western shore of the lake. This would match the wagon travel speed of a few weeks from the kingsroad to the holdfast on the south shore. They are slow because they avoid roads, trudge through vegetation and mud, and because they are encumbered by injury and a toddler.

The food situation is not great.

She had broken her fast on some acorn paste and a handful of bugs. Bugs weren’t so bad when you got used to them. Worms were worse, but still not as bad as the pain in your belly after days without food. Finding bugs was easy, all you had to do was kick over a rock. Arya had eaten a bug once when she was little, just to make Sansa screech, so she hadn’t been afraid to eat another. Weasel wasn’t either, but Hot Pie retched up the beetle he tried to swallow, and Lommy and Gendry wouldn’t even try. Yesterday Gendry had caught a frog and shared it with Lommy, and, a few days before, Hot Pie had found blackberries and stripped the bush bare, but mostly they had been living on water and acorns.

The kids are on their own. Kurz the poacher was kind to them and gave them some survival training. But he died four days after they set off from an infected wound. The other two adults abandoned them directly after. Echoes of Dany with Drogo and the khalasar. Up and gone when he died, leaving behind the weak and the slaves.

Maybe Tarber and Cutjack figured they would stand a better chance without a gaggle of orphan boys to herd along. They probably would too, but that didn’t stop her hating them for leaving.

This is horrific. Four children between 14 and 9 years old, plus a little toddler. Sneakily abandoned by the two remaining adults. The Hansel and Gretel vibes are strong. Like Hansel and Gretel, they will be captured looking for food. Like Gretel, Arya will free them using cooking as a weapon, eventually. But that’s for later.

Very much of Arya’s chapters echoes Dany, actually. All from opposite sides. The violence, the abandonment, the eventual enslavement, the starving. The comparison to sheep. It all shows the bottom side of Dany’s war at Drogo’s side, and her travels through the desert with the baby dragons. Even Vaes Tolorro mirrors the Gods Eye town. Food and rest, and visitors that will lead them to another large settlement, eventually. But back to the kids in the woods.

Arya rejoins the others and we see Weasel again. 

At the sound of her voice, Weasel came creeping out from the bushes. Lommy had named her that. He said she looked like a weasel, which wasn’t true, but they couldn’t keep on calling her the crying girl after she finally stopped crying. Her mouth was filthy. Arya hoped she hadn’t been eating mud again.

“Did you see people?” asked Gendry. “Mostly just roofs,” Arya admitted, “but some chimneys were smoking, and I heard a horse.” The Weasel put her arms around her leg, clutching tight. Sometimes she did that now.

So Weasel is all cried out. It’s been a month or so since she lost her family after her village was set ablaze, followed soon after by another such violent, fiery attack. She went from a stationary life in a vilage with her family, meal time, bed time, cuddles and playing, to a life of being scared, confused, hungry, dirty and constantly on the move. 

Like Arya, Weasel stopped crying, like Arya, Weasel doesn’t mind mud in her mouth.

“If it’s a fishing village, they’d sell us fish, I bet,” said Hot Pie. The lake teemed with fresh fish, but they had nothing to catch them with. Arya had tried to use her hands, the way she’d seen Koss do, but fish were quicker than pigeons and the water played tricks on her eyes. “I don’t know about fish.” Arya tugged at the Weasel’s matted hair, thinking it might be best to hack it off. “There’s crows down by the water. Something’s dead there.” “Fish, washed up on shore,” Hot Pie said. “If the crows eat it, I bet we could.” “We should catch some crows, we could eat them,” said Lommy. “We could make a fire and roast them like chickens.”

I love these kids. They are hungry and grumpy and irritated and listless, in their way. They have no clue what to do and injured Lommy is the most anxious of them all. His leg was wounded and infection is setting in. He is the most helpless, and it makes him the most annoying of them. Yield, he says. Yield.

Like Yoren did to her, Arya contemplates hacking off Weasel’s hair. Matted, tangled. Like a bird’s nest, perchance? 

A lovely parallel highlighting the role of privilege, with another taumatized orphan cared for by a Stark daughter:

Alayne smoothed his hair. Lady Lysa had never let the servants touch it, and after she had died Robert had suffered terrible shaking fits whenever anyone came near him with a blade, so it had been allowed to grow until it tumbled over his round shoulders and halfway down his flabby white chest. He does have pretty hair. If the gods are good and he lives long enough to wed, his wife will admire his hair, surely. That much she will love about him. (TWOW, Alayne I)

Arya is trying to care for this child, for her inner child, but she does it listlessly, no practice, no plan. She doesn’t talk to Weasel, at all. Numb.

“Whoever it is, you should yield to them,” Lommy whined. “I need some potion for my leg, it hurts bad.” “If we see any leg potion, we’ll bring it,” Gendry said. “Arry, let’s go, I want to get near before the sun is down. Hot Pie, you keep Weasel here, I don’t want her following.” “Last time she kicked me.” “I’ll kick you if you don’t keep her here.” Without waiting for an answer,  Gendry donned his steel helm and walked off.  Arya had to scamper to keep up. Gendry was five years older and a foot taller than she was, and long of leg as well. For a while he said nothing, just plowed on through the trees with an angry look on his face, making too much noise. But finally he stopped and said, “I think Lommy’s going to die.”

Ah. 

Gendry is the “adult” in the group and he’s definitely going through his own “Rickon in tugging on my leg” phase, and presenting Arya with a variant of an offer Dany gets from Xaro in Meereen later: Abandon this doomed, starving lot and take your chances elsewhere. Unlike Dany, Arya is not actually responsible for any of these children, not even little Weasel. Unlike Dany, she is not even close to tempted.

“I’m sick of carrying him, and I’m sick of all his talk about yielding too. If he could stand up, I’d knock his teeth in. Lommy’s no use to anyone. That crying girl’s no use either.” “You leave Weasel alone, she’s just scared and hungry is all.” Arya glanced back, but the girl was not following for once. Hot Pie must have grabbed her, like Gendry had told him. “She’s no use,” Gendry repeated stubbornly. “Her and Hot Pie and Lommy, they’re slowing us down, and they’re going to get us killed. You’re the only one of the bunch who’s good for anything. Even if you are a girl.”

I am cutting out the following super hilarious exchange around revealing her identity, along with the horrible description of the village with the gibbet and the “SS rounds up the villagers for questioning and deportation” imagery.

Gendry gets himself captured and hauled into the warehouse with the other prisoners. Arya will leave no one behind. Arya will defend her pack. 

Lommy and Hot Pie almost shit themselves when she stepped out of the trees behind them. “Quiet,” she told them, putting an arm around Weasel when the little girl came running up.

Hot Pie stared at her with big eyes. “We thought you left us.” He had his shortsword in hand, the one Yoren had taken off the gold cloak. “I was scared you was a wolf.”

She has her arms around Weasel, trying to comfort the child, keeping in touch with the last of her innocence. It’s her final interaction with Weasel. They thought she was a wolf. She will be. 

Hot Pie glanced at Lommy, at Arya, at Lommy again. “I’ll come,” he said reluctantly. “Lommy, you keep Weasel here.” He grabbed the little girl by the hand and pulled her close. “What if the wolves come?” “Yield,” Arya suggested.

Iconic, badass quote. Heartbreaking context. Their rescue mission is unsurprisingly doomed before it truly gets going. Hot Pie “yields” at the first instance and Arya receives a terrible blow to the head. They take Needle. They are made to lead guards to Lommy and Weasel. 

The man with the torch searched around under the trees. “Are you the last? Baker Boy said there was a girl.” “She ran off when she heard you coming,” Lommy said. “You made a lot of noise.” And Arya thought, Run, Weasel, run as far as you can, run and hide and never come back.

Hide, inner child. Run and hide, like Nymeria. Like the wolf.

So that is the last we see of little Weasel. 

Realistically, she will be dead within days. Exposure, poisoning, injury, starvation unless she has absorbed enough from the others to gather enough bugs for herself. Or eaten by wolves. Plus the fear, the feeling of abandonment. It’s a grim picture. It becomes unbearable when you try and picture any toddler you know in the place of Weasel.

I am going to headcanon hardcore that Baby Weasel is going to be found by loving people and taken away to safety, wrapped up warm and fed and gently raised. Alternatively, she is kindly raised by the giant wolf pack. And somehow not freezing to death. *hands over ears* Lalalalaalalalalaalalala!

We end the chapter with one more death, one that we will see avenged four books later:

“Can you walk?” He sounded concerned. “No,” said Lommy. “You got to carry me.” “Think so?” The man lifted his spear casually and drove the point through the boy’s soft throat. Lommy never even had time to yield again. He jerked once, and that was all. When the man pulled his spear loose, blood sprayed out in a dark fountain. “Carry him, he says,” he muttered, chuckling.

The echoes are beautifully done.

"Well," she said, "I don't know how you'll get there, then." "You'll need to carry me." See? thought Mercy. You know your line, and so do I. "Think so?" asked Arya, sweetly. Raff the Sweetling looked up sharply as the long thin blade came sliding from her sleeve. She slipped it through his throat beneath the chin, twisted, and ripped it back out sideways with a single smooth slash. A fine red rain followed, and in his eyes the light went out. "Valar morghulis," Arya whispered, but Raff was dead and did not hear. 

(TWOW, Mercy)

On the one hand, it’s poetic justice. On the other, it screams out that Arya is basically a child concentration camp survivor but the war is not over. She has had no peace, only ever more hiding, no play, only ever more working, no recovery, only ever more killing. She is in exile, still. But she will return home. And she will one day recover. But she will never ever forget.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Arya VI, she chooses a new name herself for the first time. The concentration camp vibes are strong. Just read the chapter.

“Some farmer’s whelp, are you? Well, never you mind, girl, you have a chance to win a higher place in this world if you work hard. If you won’t work hard, you’ll be beaten. And what do they call you?” Arya dared not say her true name, but Arry was no good either, it was a boy’s name and they could see she was no boy. “Weasel,” she said, naming the first girl she could think of. “Lommy called me Weasel.”

Lommy and Weasel. Injured and young. No use. Dead and gone but not forgotten.

Ramsey names his dogs for the girls he killed. Sansa and Jon each want to name her future children for the family they lost. Arya names herself for the women and girls she cared about. Weasel. Cat. Nymeria, Nan. Even little Beth Cassel. Her kill list is one part of her. But the list of names that truly matters is another. She takes up their cause not in a hope for a peaceful future with personal happiness like Jon and Sansa but in the here and now, within the broiling whirlwind of injustices. But the very first name is for the little girl, for herself, essentially. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In conclusion:

Little Weasel is, to me, a personification of Arya’s inner child, as she struggles with her loss of innocence and the abandonment by adults. Because she shows up when they encounter their first hardcore warcrime scene. Arya tries to ignore her wailing and pays little attention to her, but attaches her to her hopes for help from Lady Whent and her Knights. She doesn’t take charge of Weasel until their adult caretakers, such as they are, become unavailable by way of being horribly murdered in battle. She is not really equipped to care for her, but she tries and she is determined not to abandon her. When she has disappeared, Arya doesn’t despair, she wishes her well, she has some remnant of faith and she attaches it to Weasel. Off into the wild, to escape certain death, perchance to survive, like she sent off Nymeria. 

It is no accident that Arya names herself Weasel when she enters the concentration camp hell that is Harrenhal, and it is a truly briliant stroke that her only direct memory of Weasel after that is when Arya enters service in the House of Black and White in AFFC, Arya II, which seems more empowering but draws up many comparisons in her mind to Harrenhal. The inner child has run off, but her spirit remains hovering over Arya, never quite fading. 

[cormorantgospel]

We’ll never be those kids again

Canon-divergent AU of Harry’s fifth, sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts. In fifth year, some of Harry’s self-destructive behaviour is channelled into hooking up with Malfoy, and this is enough to tip the scales and make Draco accept Dumbledore’s offer and desert the Death Eaters. Part 1, Part 2

-

This is how the last year of the second wizarding war passes: before the summer has ended, the Ministry falls to the Death Eaters, and in the same breath, so does Hogwarts. There are puppets put in place; the school and the government keep running under the thinnest veneer of normalcy, but it takes more effort to pretend now. Pretending is a luxury reserved for those who do not feel the looming closeness of September and mandatory Hogwarts attendance as a death sentence. Those who do not have to decide between trying to flee abroad and going underground. Those who do not have to wonder which of their friends they can still trust if they reach out.

-

It’s the last year of the war and Ginny is the only Weasley who returns to Hogwarts. By the time she boards the train, she has not heard from Harry, Ron or Hermione since the wedding, where they disappeared. She keeps quiet when people speculate about their disappearance. People still ask her about Harry. She was popular before, but this year her popularity is different. The younger students all know her name for some reason. She notices the way people glance her way during quiet common room conversations, when the names of the muggleborn students who haven’t returned are mentioned, when people dare to complain about Snape or the Carrows. For a while she thinks it’s because they want her to be Harry. If he had been here, they would all be looking to him, not her. It’s just that some of his infamy has rubbed off on her.

It’s Luna who tells her otherwise, in the greenhouses, during Herbology.

“You don’t look scared,” she says. “Everyone can tell.”

“That’s bullshit,” she says. “Of course I’m scared.”

Luna just hums.

“But not of the Carrows. Not of Snape.”

Ginny shrugs.

“They’re just bullies.”

“Most people are scared of bullies.”

The first part of the school year they spend their free time in the seventh-year boys’ dormitories. You never know who’s listening in the common room or the library. They’re a mixed group, some sixth-years, some seventh-years. Of course, it’s bothersome because they can’t invite their friends from other houses. Really, that’s all the conversation is at first – all of them wondering aloud if there would be a better place to hang out. It’s Dean who brings up the Room of Requirement. It’s Neville who mentions Dumbledore’s Army, who brings out the galleon as if he’s embarrassed to still have it.

“Other people might have kept theirs too,” he says with a shrug.

That’s all it is at first. A small group of Gryffindors who activate the galleons, just to see if Hermione’s protean charm still works. Who wait in silence in the Room of Requirement to see if anyone will show up. That’s all it is at first, but it quickly becomes something more.

Outside the walls of the castle, a war is raging. Inside, everything is the same. There is the sorting and house points and quidditch games. In so many ways, Voldemort is still the scared, abandoned child who found a home there, just as Harry did, and he cradles the traditions of the old school, guards them out of reverence and nostalgia, having forgotten long ago that these traditions are not the things that made Hogwarts a home.

There is a war outside the walls of the castle, and one inside it too. There may be classes and homework and feasts, but there is no safety there. It is not a home. The children learn magic, but mostly they learn to hide, to become invisible, to cast silencing charms on their beds and cry only when no one is there to see. It is, once again, a place where detentions leave scars. Where Luna squeezes Ginny’s hand under the table when Amycus Carrow’s vicious eyes fall on her and she is called to the front of the class. A girl in red and gold and a girl in silver and green face each other in front of their classmates, but only one raises her wand. She hesitates, but only for a moment. Ginny waits, and she is quiet and she is brave, and she might not be afraid of bullies, but she is afraid of the pain, because it is not the first time she has done this. They have Dark Arts once a week. The Carrows have favourite targets, and she has made sure she is one of them. She can feel her heart like a panicked bird in her chest. She wants to run. She wants to raise her wand to defend herself. She doesn’t.

There are more members of Dumbledore’s army than just Luna in this class. They all sit quietly and watch as Ginny drops to the floor. Their war is a quiet one. There is nothing stoic about the way she writhes on the floor or the way she screams. The Slytherin girl lowers her wand quick. She is praised by her teacher. Ginny slowly gets to her feet and both students take their seats. Another pair is called on.

Luna puts her arm around Ginny’s waist when they leave class. The Slytherin girl locks herself in a bathroom stall and waits for her hands to stop shaking.

-

There is a small group of students who meet in the Room of Requirement, and as the year goes on, it grows bigger. Luna leaves stacks of the Quibbler in there. Neville talks quietly with the younger students, though Ginny can’t imagine what he tells them. He brings murtlap essence and willow bark for the ones who get hurt. Ginny sometimes teaches hexes, or shield spells, but less and less often as the year goes on. You can’t fight Death Eaters with bat bogey hexes, or at least, you can’t when they’re running your school and your government. She doesn’t want anyone to get hurt because they tried to fight when they should have complied.

“We’re not exactly a defence club this time,” she tells Neville the first time they stay in the room overnight.

It’s late, but neither of them can sleep. Neville looks at the hammocks that appeared as soon as they needed them, for the students who can’t go back to their common rooms anymore.

“No, I guess not,” he says.

“We’re barely even a resistance movement. And we’re definitely not an army.”

“Does that bother you?”

She hesitates. She’s so tired her bones ache.

“I don’t know,” she says finally. “I just hate that we can’t do anything.”

“We are doing something.”

And they are, she supposes. Refusing to participate in the brutality of Dark Arts lessons. Smuggling as many copies of the Quibbler into the school as possible. Showing the younger students the secret passages to get around the castle unseen. They’ve made a safe place in the Room of Requirement for the ones who need to hide for a while. They disrupt the daily life at Hogwarts as much as possible, sabotaging hallways and classrooms whenever and however they can. They have managed to start fires during three “muggle studies” lessons so far. It just feels so small. She sighs. “I know,” she says. “But I want to fight. I want to… I want to fucking kill them.”

Neville nods solemnly.

“Yeah”, he says. “Me too.”

-

There’s always at least one of them staying in the Room of Requirement overnight. When it’s just her alone, she lies awake until the early hours, listening to the breathing and the restless sleep of their refugees and their soldiers. When Luna is there, she crawls into Ginny’s bed without asking and puts her stick-thin arms around her. She seems so fragile, with her odd, airy speech, her easy smiles and her wide eyes, but she isn’t. Ginny used to put herself between Luna and her bullies, tell them to piss off when Luna couldn’t. She has never been scared of bullies, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t scared. And she probably wouldn’t be able to explain it to anyone if they asked, but she knows that somehow, this, Luna climbing into her bed and holding her until they both fall asleep, is the same thing. A way of letting someone else borrow your strength.

It’s not like people don’t know. It’s not like they don’t see the way her and Luna touch each other’s hands and hair and shoulders. She waits for one of them to bring up Harry, all her angry arguments lined up in her throat, but no one ever does. She almost wants them to, just so she would get to make her case out loud.

She does feel bad. She misses him so much. She is so scared for him. That doesn’t mean she isn’t angry with him too. For breaking up with her. For leaving her behind. For taking Ron and Hermione with him, but not her. For the way he was watching Draco Malfoy over the summer.

-

This is how the last year of the wizarding war passes for the kids who have to end it: They spend the year roaming around the English countryside in an old, ratty tent, following up on vague clues, chasing gut feelings. They fight too much and bicker when they aren’t fighting, and none of it feels very heroic.

Harry lies awake too many nights, trying to sleep and giving up on sleeping, staring into the dark instead, trying to make himself believe that this is going to work. And sometimes he’ll pull out the marauder’s map and look at Ginny’s dot in the girls’ dormitory, or feel his heart beat fast and hard in his chest when she walks the hallways long after dark. Sometimes, more and more often as the weeks go on, her dot disappears, even at night. He knows that means she’s in the Room of Requirement, but it still leaves him feeling sick with nerves. And it’s so fucking unfair that Ron thinks Harry doesn’t have anyone to worry about.

Sometimes his mind slips, and he realizes he’s been watching the wrong common room, following the winding corridors of the dungeons instead of the towers, looking for a name that he knows isn’t there. Old habits die hard and all that. When he catches himself at it, he tucks the map away and feels guilty.

-

(The rest of this story will be uploaded to AO3, with updates every Sunday.)

[secretsofthedarkestkind-arch]

Part three of the episode 1 ramble. Triggers are marked from what I know. We’re about half way through the episode. 

Part One

Part Two

word count: 1,820

@storieswrittcn​

A/N: I know in the history class scene Stefan saves Elena from Will ‘Jackass’ Tanner but for the purpose of where this verse is going and how Lee’s character is it needed to be Lee. 

Lee was laid back against the headboard of her bed, school books spread out in front of her with a pen between her teeth. She had changed out of her clothes once they’d gotten home from the Grill. She was lounging in a pair black sweatpants, a black tank top putting her tiger half sleeve tattoo on display, and socks. Her hair up in as much of a bun as she could get it. The vampire flipped through a few pages of a textbook that was in her lap. She had not missed high school. Not even a little bit. Lee glanced at her cell phone that laid silent beside her; she wasn’t sure if Katherine’s radio silence was a good or bad omen. 

“You promised.” Lee looked up as her hearing picked up Zach’s not so happy voice. She took the book off her lap, tossed the pen, down and made her way toward Stefan’s room. Curiosity gets the better of her. The brunette leaned in his doorway, eyes landing on the newspaper in their distant nephew’s hand. He didn’t know she was there but Stefan did. 

Stefan took the paper from his hands, reading over it quickly. “This was an animal attack,” Stefan shakes his head looking back at Zach. 

“Don’t give me that. I know the game.” Zach stands his ground, defensive. “You tear them up enough, they always suspect an animal attack.” He’s not wrong. “You said she had it under control.” Stefan’s eyes meet her’s briefly over the man’s shoulder. Lee pushed off the door-frame and entered the room more, tongue brushing over her bottom teeth. Stupid, stupid human. “You said, you drink animal blood.”

“He does.” Lee comments, leaning in toward Zach, the words ghosting over his ear. He only jumps slightly but his heart pounds roughly against his ribs. Good. She doesn’t stop, coming to stand beside Stefan.

“And she does,” Stefan defends her. She had more control than one would ever suspect, it something done out of necessity. Lee couldn’t make a damn mess on the run or leave a trail. Neither bring up the fact it could be Damon. That’d just cause more panic from the man.

“If it’d been me, there wouldn’t have been a body to find. I can promise you that.” She dares their nephew to argue with her. Zach swallows roughly, looking away from her to Stefan--the safer of the two in his mind. Stefan turns away from him, doing what he had been doing before Zach charged into his room.

“Please, Uncle Stefan. Mystic Falls is a different place now.” He nearly begs, it’s pathetic to her. Stefan glances at Lee before turning his head to look at Zach once more, “It’s been quiet for years, but there are people who still remember.” Those words sound like a threat to Lee, but she knows what he’s talking about. Those people are the reason Lee was worried about Damon leaving the trail of bodies. But what does Zach know about all this? She’s going to have to do some digging later. “And you being here, both of you, it’s just going to stir things up.”

Lee gives Stefan a meaningful look that screams I told you so. Stefan shakes his head, at both of them. “It’s not my intention.”

Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions, is the first thing to come to Lee’s mind. The second, The road to hell is paved with good intentions. She doesn’t voice either of these quotes.

“Then what is?” Zach asks. “Why did you come back? After all this time, why now?” How is Stefan going to explain this one? Oh I just want to get to know the girl who looks identical to the vampire psychopath I fell in love with in 1864. Lee snickers but swallows it down as much as she can. That’d go over well.

“I don’t have to explain myself.” Stefan contends. 

Zach glances at Lee, “Then what about you?”

“I’m here because Stefan asked me to be.” Lee shrugs. That’s all their nephew is getting out of her. Then again that’s not even the true reason she’s here. 

Zach sighs and looks between the two, “I know you can’t change what you are. But neither of you belong here anymore.” That Lee can agree on. This isn’t her home, isn’t where her heart lies. She has avoided Mystic Falls as much as she could for the last century and a half. She’d been given the world and hadn’t looked back. 

Stefan actually looked hurt by the man’s words, “Then where do I belong?” For a nanosecond, Lee remembers Stefan hadn’t had the guidance she had when she’d woken up in transition...hadn’t had a partner to go through their new extended life with who already had so much experience. For an instant, Lee feels like a child again and feels for her lost older brother. But then it’s over. Lee remembers every cruel word or look, every time he brushed her aside or pretended she didn’t exist. Being alone had been part of the punishment for his treatment of her, a promise her lover had made good on.

“I can’t tell you what to do. But coming back here, was a mistake.” Zach turns to leave, tossing the paper down on the small ottoman of Stefan’s chair. 

“Stef…” Lee starts, willing to play the feeling sister.

“Don’t. Just don’t, okay?” Stefan doesn’t look at her, instead looking where Zach had just been.

“Okay,” She says softly, she squeezes his shoulder before following Zach’s lead and leaving him alone. If only she’d stayed or hidden in the shadows instead of going to her room, she’d have seen Stefan go to the cabinet that held all his old journals to pull the one from 1864 out. She would have seen him open it to a picture of Katherine.

-----

Text [To My Heart:] What do you know about Zach’s connections to the counsel? He just made a veiled threat that Stefan didn’t catch.

----- 

Lee’s pen moved across the notebook paper in front of her, she wasn’t usually one to doodle. But she figured a normal none attention seeking teenager shouldn’t be able to sketch/draw as well as she could. So here she was, ignoring the infuriating man who was her history teacher as she doodled. The Battle of Willow Creek, easy enough.

She could pass this class with her eyes closed. Her eyes did snap up as Mr.Tanner made a comment that got under skin. “Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms.Bennett.” She could see the embarrassment on Bonnie’s face. Lee felt her eyes narrow, a snarl tug at the corner of her lips. Wouldn’t be making comments like that if you didn’t have your tongue or if I ripped your throat out, would you Mr.Tanner?

“Mr.Donovan. Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?” He gibed. What was this guy’s problem? Maybe Stefan would put aside his saintly act and help her hide the body.

“It’s okay, Mr.Tanner, I’m cool with it.” Matt didn’t even let the man’s words phase him. Good for him. A few students chuckled and a forced hmph left the teachers lips.

“Hmm. Elena?” Lee waited for it. What gibe would he send the brunette’s way. She glanced over at her brother. “Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town’s most significant historical events?” Lee bit the inside of her lower lip. His tone was demeaning, like he knew she would fail.

She tried to think of the answer, the vampire could see the wheels turning. Elena shook her head, “I’m sorry, I--I don’t know.”

“I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena,” The pen in Lee’s hand snaps. Thankfully it was so low on ink it didn’t get all over her or her desk. Oh, I’m snapping this guy’s neck. Fuck whether or not Stefan helps me hide the body. “But the personal excuses ended with the summer break.” The hurt on her face, the waves of it were rolling off of her. 

“There were 346 casualties, unless you’re counting local civilians.” Lee states, a smug smirk on her lips as she leans back into the chair. Eyes daring him to question her. She feels the eyes of her brother and Elena on her, but doesn’t look away from the poor excuse of a man in front of her.

“That’s correct,” His eyes travel between Lee and Elena before settling on Lee. The vampire can see he isn’t pleased. If it’s because someone actually knew the answer or if it’s because she answered out of turn, Lee didn’t know or rightfully give a damn. “Miss…”

“Salvatore. Lee Salvatore.” Lee tilts her head a little. There’s a modest smile tugging at the corners of Elena’s lips, almost as a thank you. 

“Salvatore.” Elena’s eyes go back to the asshole in front of the room. “Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?” Lee really should have seen that one coming.

“Possibly. If they are, it's very distant.” She answers vaguely. Last thing they need is someone to find pictures from 1864.

“Well, very good. Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle.” Is he really trying to save face? A low dangerous laugh brushes past her lips softly.

“Lee,” Stefan warns, his eyes begging her not to do what he knows is coming.

Lee raises the hand from her side slightly to stop her brother. If Stefan is going to just sit there, that’s on him. Way to protect your girl, big brother. “Seriously?” She looks at the man in front of her in disbelief. “Where exactly did you get your degree?”

“Excuse me?” Mr.Tanner asks, his voice laced with anger.

“Lee!” Stefan says louder this time.

“Hush, Stefan.” Lee grounds out, her eyes never leaving their teacher. “Actually, there were. Twenty-seven to be exact. Confederate soldiers fired on the church, Fell’s church. They believed it was housing weapons. They were wrong.” Lee shuts her notebook that’s on her desk, knowing after this she’s either going to be thrown out into the hall until the period ends or she’s going to be sitting in the principal's office. This man is too petty to let this go. “It was a night of great loss. The founder’s archives are stored in civil hall if you’d like to brush up on your facts, Mr.Tanner.” The look on Elena’s face is priceless--it’s almost one she recognizes. Bonnie is trying her best to hide her amusement but failing. Stefan looks like he could throttle her. There are a few students chuckling. “I’ll just see myself out.”

“Mm-hmm.” 

Lee grabs her satchel from the floor as she moves toward the front of the room and out into the hallway. At least he hadn’t told her to head toward the office.

[ms-march]

Luck be a Lady: Spoilers & Drabbles

Based off of this prompt request!!

So yeah, here we go, spoilers for future LBL are below the cut!  If you liked this half as much as I do please give it a like, reblog, or both!

It was late May in Virginia, and Belvior was bursting with beauty.  The sun shone brightly in the sky, and the breeze that blew over the hills was light and warm.  The day was perfect.  So perfect that Adrienne found herself walking out from the manor with a light brown wicker basket in hand, on her way to meet Colonel Kosciuszko for a picnic.  

As she walked across the peaceful grounds of her childhood home, Adrienne hummed a tune to herself, one she remembers her mother singing to her as a child.  That was where she was headed.  Adrienne and Thaddeus would be able to hide away all afternoon together under the willow tree where Lawrence proposed to Anna, where her father would whisk her mother away after he returned from the assembly in Williamsburg.  Now, it’s where Adrienne and Thaddeus would spend the one perfect afternoon for the rest of their lives alone with the soft songs of the cardinals and the sweet smell of honeysuckle on the breeze.

Approaching the spot where the tree sat rested a figure in blue sitting on the grass, head resting against its trunk.  The sunlight hit the man’s face from an angle, and Adrienne stopped in her path to admire the beauty of the dark-haired man.  He was so relaxed now, so peaceful she wondered if he had already fallen asleep where he sat.  A smile found its way to her lips, spreading across her fair-toned face, and she continued on, her white floral dress dragging behind her.

Thaddeus opened his eyes as a shadow shaded his face from the sun.  There she stood, in a way he had yet to see her.  The gown Adrienne wore was, frankly, as simple as could be.  The short train of the jacket covered the grass behind her.  The plain white dress had a pattern of flowers scattered across it, and they were the same color as the blue petticoat she was wearing.  To anyone else, this sight would be an odd one, the simple cotton fichu accompanying the gown contrasting all common beliefs about her modesty.  But to Thaddeus, this was his Adrienne, not the fanciful gowns she wore at camp or to social events, but rather the simple cotton dress and wicker basket.  She was beautiful, more beautiful than ever before, exactly as she was.  He started at her, wishing to forever preserve the memory of her like this.

Thaddeus was snapped out of his trance when Adrienne took a seat on the blanket he had brought and began to unpack the basket. “Good afternoon, my dear, I hope I didn’t wake you,” as she spoke, Adrienne was pouring two cups of lemonade out of a corkable glass pitcher, and as she finished, she handed him one.

The glass sat securely in Thaddeus’ right hand as his left hand reached out to Adrienne, caressing her cheek, “Oh, now my sweet, as long as it is you, I would never mind be awoken.” He smiled as her laughter filled the air around them.  That laughter was sweeter than any choir could ever hope to be.  

“You are staring again.”

“Of course, my apologies, madam.”

Thaddeus was staring at Adrienne with that adoring smile across his face again, eyes squinted to block out some of the sun as he continued to stare.  He cradled the glass of lemonade in his hands but shifted to only one as she extended a hand out to him.  Adrienne had intended on pulling his head into her lap, but he had the same idea and twice her strength.  She caved into his pull, resting her head in Thaddeus’ lap so that she was looking up at him from an angle.

His hands instantly went to her hair, fiddling with the rolled curls. “Why must you do this?” he asked, seemingly out of nowhere, emphasizing his claims as he pulled lightly on one of the curls atop her head.  

“You mean my hair?” He hummed in agreement, and she shook her head slightly, “Well, that’s an easy fix, my dear.” She reached up with a hand and removed the pins holding her curly gold locks in place, letting the hair fan out around her.  

“Amazing,” he breathed, “Truly divine, my love.” Adrienne swears that the childish grin on her face hasn’t left since the moment she arrived, but he was far from done with his flattery, “Greater than any angel in heaven, like a goddess divine.” 

“Careful there would hate for our afternoon to be ruined by the wrath of some aggravated ancient deities,” she giggled and reached up to undo the blue velvet ribbon that held together his queue.  As the ribbon came untied, his curls fanned forward into his eyes, causing the two of them to laugh. “There we are, now we match.  My soldier and I.”

“Like Ares and Aphrodite, my Lady and I.”

“Because we are lovers in secret, behind the back of my husband?”

“Because we are passionate lovers, so destined to be together that not even a marriage can keep us apart.”

She hummed happily in agreement, tangling her fingers in his hair, rolling his curls around her fingers.  Even as she remained intent, with her gaze focused on his face, his eyes were far away from Adrienne, even as they looked right at her. “You are thinking again.”

“Well, it is unfortunately not something a person can cease in doing, my sweet.”

“Of course they can, Colonel Hamilton does it all the time.  For whole weeks even.”  

Thaddeus snorted, “I’m sure you don’t mean that.”

“Oh, I do.”

Sighing, he smiled sadly down at her, “I was just thinking about how I wish it could stay like this forever.” He ran his hands through her hair as he continued, “No John, no secrets, just us, here together like we should be.  I want that.  I want that with you, Addy.”  

She frowned up at him, her brow creasing slightly with concern, “Well, that’s an awfully glum thing to think about.  I would like to think that my presence isn’t so horrible you must result to thinking such things.”

“No, madame, it is the delightful presence of yours that calls me towards such desire,” he sighed, “I never wish to leave it.” 

“Then don’t.”

“Addy-”

“For all we know, today is all we have.  For all we know, today is forever.  So spend it with me.” He hummed, agreeing with her statement.  She tugged on his coat, drawing his attention, “Will you just hold me?” She closed her eyes, the warm sun on her face, “Just right here, in the moment, for today.”

Thaddeus said nothing but shed his officer’s jacket and draped it over her like a blanket.  He then moved her head from his lap and laid down next to her.  Adrienne, who waited till he was settled before resting her head on his waistcoat, smiled with her eyes still closed when Thaddeus wrapped his arms around her.

And that was how Ona found them.  Adrienne with her face in his chest and his jacket around her shoulders, and Thaddeus in his waistcoat, an arm wrapped around her, and another underneath his head as a pillow.  And Ona thought to herself as she walked back to the manor, ‘They look just like Lord and Lady Fairfax.’

When they did awake, it was Thaddeus whose eyes opened first.  The unusual weight on his chest drawing his attention.  There was Adrienne, sound asleep on his chest, her hair fanned out across her back, atop the continental uniform jacket she used as a blanket.  She was beautiful like this, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe, and it wasn’t because of her head on his chest.  She was more beautiful than any woman he had ever seen, more beautiful than the mythical Helen of Troy, and he loved her.  Oh God, he loved her.  He loved her, and she loved him, and this love made them divine.  Aphrodite and Ares, caught in a dance of love and secrecy.  Passion on the basis of deceit and love so strong that it will fix the universe’s wrongs.

[omgrachwrites]

The Taste of Dreams (Harrison Osterfield)

Pairing: Harrison Osterfield x Reader

Summary: You soon come to realise that no matter how beautiful, summer dreams can never last forever

Warnings: fluff, angst

Word count: 1478

A/N: So this idea just came to me and I had to write it, and I’m totally in Harrison’s lane atm so I thought why not! There will be a part two! I hope you guys enjoy and please let me know what you think, I love you all! xxx

August 1939

You giggled like you were a little girl all over again as the sharp summer breeze whipped and played through your hair as the beautiful English countryside sped past you. You were miles away from home – your mother thought that you were at a friend’s house – and you wished that you could just keep going through flower filled valleys and lush green forests and never look back. But you couldn’t and neither could he.

Grinning, you looked from where you were sitting on the handlebars of the bike and gazed at the beautiful curly haired boy whose grey eyes were fixed on the dirt track in front of you.

“Harrison,” you murmured, grabbing his attention, at your call of his name he arched an eyebrow as he made eye contact with you, a dimpled smirk playing on his lips.

You tried to be subtle when you sucked in a breath as his gorgeous blue grey eyes searched your face, you felt your face flush as his smirk widened. Swallowing, you turned back around so you were facing away from him again, “go faster,” you said.

After a split second you thought that your words had gotten lost within the wind, finally you heard him chuckle – that same damned sound that had made you fall in love with him in the first place – and he pedalled so fast that it felt like you were flying. Harrison rode the bike a couple more miles before you came to a secluded field with a free trees and lots of summer flowers. As he stopped the bike he caught you around the waist so that you wouldn’t topple off the bike. Goosebumps erupted on the exposed skin between your skirt and blouse, you smiled at him gratefully as you slid off the bike.

“What are we doing here?” you asked as you narrowed your eyes suspiciously at the smiling boy as he got off the bike and took his satchel bag off of the handlebars.

“Well,” he started as he held out his hand for you to take and like a proper gentleman he helped you over the high wooden fence, “I go back to London soon, to university and I wanted to make the most of this warm weather, it’ll probably be the last of it. With you,” he added as a light flush spread out upon his high cheekbones and you could only guess that you looked the same way.

Harrison coughed somewhat awkwardly as he began pulling Tupperware boxes from his satchel, “fancy a picnic?” he asked, almost shyly. You giggled as you nodded and ruffled his already curly hair as you took a seat underneath the huge weeping willow.

A gorgeous day was spent underneath that weeping willow as both you and Haz positively stuffed your faces with the delicious snacks that Harrison had made. Things were going just fine until you bit into a chocolate covered strawberry and the juice burst from the small fruit and the juice ran down your chin, making you giggle and blush at your clumsiness. Harrison suddenly halted in his words and his beautiful eyes dropped down to your lips and you felt your cheeks flame.

“What?” you whispered.

Wordlessly, Harrison leaned in and wiped away the juice with his thumb, you expected him to pull away straight away but he didn’t, he stayed that way with his thumb at the corner of your mouth.

“You’ve been kissed before right?” he asked and you blushed furiously at his words and you really wanted to tell him that it was none of his business but all you could do was nod.

With a blinding smile he leaned in and kissed you, it wasn’t a particularly deep kiss but it was more passion than you’d ever felt with any other boy. He tasted of chocolate and vanilla. He tasted like never-ending summer dreams. After a beat he pulled away and grinned.

“You taste like summer, I want to know what you taste like in the autumn, winter and the spring, is that okay with you?”

“That’s just fine with me,” you blushed and pulled him in for another kiss, against that tree trunk.

The rest of the afternoon passed on by just the same as before, though with a couple of stolen kisses and whispers of sweet nothings and he managed to get you home before darkness fell, “so, on Friday can I meet you under the aqueduct as usual, about half four? My mum said that you could come round for dinner.”

“I’d love to Haz,” you grinned and kissed his cheek, though at the back of your mind you realised that you would have to lie about where you were to your parents. Again. They liked Harrison but they were very strict and more than likely wouldn’t allow a relationship between the two of you. It was so embarrassing that they still insisted on treating you like a child.

Friday came and went and you waited beneath the aqueduct long after half four but still Harrison didn’t turn up; you ended up going home with your heart hurting. Though, you were sure that he’d send you a letter or a telegram the following day apologising or explaining what was going on. No such telegram or letter arrived at the weekend and by Monday you had to know what was going on so you decided to call at Harrison’s house yourself which was a very uncharacteristic and bold move for you.

When Harrison’s mother opened the door you could see the sadness in her eyes though she smiled at you kindly and greeted you cheerfully, “Y/N! What a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you?” she asked and you chewed your lip nervously as you fiddled with the ends of your hair.

“I, I was just wondering whether I could speak to Harrison?” at the mention of her son’s name her smile faltered for just a second and her eyes grew misty before she nodded.

“Of course sweetheart, he’s out in the garden, he’s been longing to see you,” you smiled weakly and thanked her before you walked through the cool house and back out again into the warm garden.

As soon as you stepped out into the warm sunlight you could tell straight away that something was wrong, Harrison was sitting on the wooden fence, looking out at the view – you could see the mountains from the garden on a clear day. He didn’t turn his head as you walked and hopped onto the fence to join him but you could tell from the red rims under his eyes that he’d been crying. You didn’t want to press him so you merely waited with him until he was ready to talk, you took his hand comfortingly and as soon as you did, words began spilling from his mouth.

“I’m sorry about Friday, I didn’t want to stand you up, there were unforeseen circumstances,” he apologised, his voice cracking a little.

“That’s not really the most important thing right now, what’s wrong Harrison? You know that you can tell me anything.”

At your words Harrison sighed and lifted your hand to his mouth to kiss it gently and sweetly, “a sergeant from the army came by a few days past, to recruit me to join the fighting. The conflict is getting worse. There may be war or that’s what they told me.”

Your stomach lurched at the mention of war and you didn’t want him to go, you wanted him to stay here with you, “but you’re a scholar! Not a soldier!”

“It doesn’t matter to them,” Harrison murmured, “they said they need as many men as possible, any man who can shoot a gun and I meet their requirements. I’m going next week. Look, I know it’s not my place to say, but while I’m away, promise me that you’ll be happy?”

You would attempt it, it would be the hardest thing but you’d try. For Harrison. “I’ll wait for you.”

At your words Harrison finally looked up at you, his eyes blown wide, “what? No, I can’t ask that of you!”

“You’re not asking,” you said simply before you pulled him in for a deep kiss, you kissed him like you’d never kissed anyone before and he kissed you back just as desperately, his shaking hands threading through your hair. You were completely aware that when he came back he’d be a different man but you’d love him all the same.

The day he left you moped about the house all day, hoping he’d be alright, he told you that he’d write as often as possible. Your greatest fear was if the letters stopped coming. You had had a beautiful summer full of dreams but with the coming of autumn they had turned to ash in your hands.

----------------------------------------

@theonelittleone @void-imaginations