#also the the whole thing with laurent's men finally able to fight together

[bluebutter-art]

A small, but underrated scene tbh.

I loved the journey that Damen went through in Prince’s Gambit– from only being known as the prince’s bed slave, to becoming a well respected leader that the men look up to and gaining the loyalty of the whole Prince’s Guard. I think I teared up during this scene 🥺

[princedamnianos]

Hi! I’m loving your deep dives into the Captive Prince. I only just discovered the books and binged them this month haha. Anyway, I watched an interview Pacat did a couple years ago where she was asked what moment Laurent fell in love with if for Damen it was the chase scene, but she wouldn’t answer. I don’t actually know if I agree with that but when do you think Laurent (and Damen) started to really fall? My guess is when Damen threw his whole ass sword into the mercenaries chest 😂

Hi, anon! I’m sorry it took me so long to get to this—it’s not something I’d really thought about before, so it took me a lot of reading and thinking to answer! Thank you for the lovely ask and the opportunity to dive into this.

Damen, I think, is relatively easy to gauge. One of my favorite things about him is how genuinely full of love he is—he just has so much of it to give. I think it’s really easy for him to fall in love, but it tends to be very fleeting and surface-level—more of an infatuation. I agree with the usual assessment that he starts falling at Nesson. He’s seen a lot of sides to Laurent before then, but they’ve all been very cultivated personas—the cold, in-control master with Damen; the witty and unattainable prince at court; the calculating leader with his men. Nesson, specifically the rooftop chase, is the first time he gets a peek at Laurent’s true self, at how vibrant he can be.

That side of Laurent is playful and vivacious, and still determined and clever. He likes the game, the thrill, the challenge. And I think Damen is drawn to both that brightness, and to the game of trying to draw it out from under all of Laurent’s defenses. That’s when he starts to fall in love, but I think for a long time he treats his love for Laurent more as an infatuation. It’s something intriguing, but with an expiration date—the moment that he sheds this persona of Damen, he thinks he’s going to shed their relationship as well.

I think that Ravenel is when he realizes this is something different. The closer he gets to freedom, the more he realizes that he cares about what he’s been building in Vere, and he cares about Laurent. And the moment that really rises up is a kingdom or this—they go through highs and lows afterwards, but once he realizes how impossible that choice feels, I don’t think there was any going back for him. He was going to stay as long as Laurent needed him.

Laurent is a little more complex. A really key moment in my understanding of his side of things is that first POV chapter we get in KR. Even after everything that went down in PG, there’s this distance when he thinks of Damen—he doesn’t even think of him by name, but just as the Akielon slave. I think he’s trying really hard not to think of him as A Person. That displays to me how carefully he has removed himself from all his feelings about Damen and Damianos.

In spite of that careful distance, though, we have all of these incredibly soft moments from PG. I am coming to know you; he would have liked you; the entirety of 19.5. A lot of his partnership with Damen can be rationalized—Damen had genuinely useful skills, and they were in a position where Laurent was confident that their interests were aligned—but I can’t explain away those specific moments. I think that throughout PG, he’s drawn to Damen, and he carefully removes himself from who Damen is to allow that. Because the thing is, as I’ve said before, Damen is unbelievably loveable.

Laurent is s o alone. He has been for a long time, and now it’s more true than ever, with his last surviving family member having graduated from just discrediting him to trying to kill him. I think that on a very human level, Laurent is tired. People aren’t designed to be so isolated for so long, especially not under such awful conditions, not even people as strong as he is. And then Damen comes along. And in spite of everything, Damen is safe. Both after the assassination attempt and at Nesson, we see Laurent commenting on how straightforward Damen is—sometimes to a fault. He’s open about his feelings and his intentions, and it’s not some front or strategy, it’s just his nature. On top of that, he’s just so steady. He’s honest, he’s brave, he’s hardworking. And once he decides to pursue an alliance with Laurent, he commits to it wholeheartedly.

Damen is the first person in so long that Laurent is able to relax around, and I think Laurent is j u s t tired enough that he can’t deny himself the bit of comfort that their relationship brings. And Damen is so genuine that he can’t find a reason to deny it. It’s not so much something he chooses as it is something he needs, and I think that allows him to maintain this separation between himself and Damen even as he is feeling this genuine fondness and trust towards him.

I think a significant part of why Laurent allows it is also that he, like Damen, attaches an expiration date to their relationship. Even after he realizes that Damen loves him—which, in my opinion, is what happens in the sword-throwing incident—he doesn’t believe that Damen would give up his throne for a crush on a foreign prince. He doesn’t expect that he’ll ever have to actually deal with the reality of who Damen is. He just wants to soak up whatever strength he can from Damen in the time that they have together. He wants to give into these handful of moments where he can show his true self, and rely on someone else, and not have to be so On and constrained all the time.

(And someday, I’m going to write a post about how strongly Damen reminds him of Auguste and how comforting that must be in the moments where he allows himself to forget who Damen is)

That is, of course, why he’s so awful at the start of KR. He’s punishing himself for falling in love with Damen in spite of who he is, and punishing Damen for being so easy to fall in love with. Most of the start of KR is him waiting for Damianos, this monster he expected him to be, to emerge; and instead he’s forced to realize that the monster never did exist—there has only ever been this one Damen, this good and honorable man that he fell in love with. So I don’t think there was necessarily one moment where he fell in love with Damen. It was something that grew slowly, quietly inside him, , until the moment in KR that he finally makes the conscious choice to commit to it.

I think that moment comes at Karthas. We have just been through this slow burn of Damen proving, unintentionally, over and over, how truly good and worthy he is. The sword fight, the tent scene, after the griva. There are so many moments where Damen could respond with anger and cruelty, where he could take advantage of Laurent or hurt him, could prove Laurent’s judgements correct, and he never does. He definitely pushes back when Laurent is particularly terrible, but even when he thinks there is no chance Laurent will love him, even when a harsher reaction would be fully justified, he treats him with honour and respect. And then they get to Karthas, this first moment where Damen is vulnerable, when he needs Laurent instead of the other way around, and Laurent finally falls. Finally makes the choice to love him.

And once he makes that choice, he never backs down.

One final point about Laurent—I think that over years of trauma and abuse, he’s built up this level of disconnect between his mind, his emotions, and his body. I think that’s part of what we see him trying to heal, especially when he is in bed with Damen and in those few openly emotional moments late in KR. In addition, I have always headcanoned him as demiromantic, though I’m not sure to what extent that is something he was born with and to what extent it was born of trauma. Either way, I’m not convinced that Laurent himself realized how strong his feelings were in PG. It’s not until later KR, when Damen starts really pushing him to recognize who he is, that Laurent was able to realize or understand or acknowledge what it was he’d been feeling towards Damen all along.

[teefa85]

And, here’s the first of a two part fic series I wrote.  This one is from Riesz’s perspective, in a party where she’s in but not Hawkeye...notably my Girls’ Team run.  The second will be Hawkeye’s perspective when he’s on the team but not Riesz.  Featuring some cute blushing Riesz moments, along with Hawkeye being a smooth player and Angela being a teasing wingwoman!

---

           “Thank you, Your Highness!  Oh man, I could kiss you!”

           Before Riesz knew what was happening, the Nevarlan thief cupped her right cheek in his hand, then placed a tiny peck on her left one!  She could feel her entire face growing hotter in the moment as confusion for his actions set in.  And that playful look on his face…it only made it worse!

           “Wh-What have you done!?” she cried out.  “What are you doing!?”

           At that moment, Hawkeye’s satisfied smirk left his face, replaced with a genuine smile.  “Ut-oh, I got carried away.  Honestly, I’m sorry.”

           While his words did little to cool the young woman’s burning face, she found herself able to get some semblance of her voice back.  Riesz promised to do what she could to save Hawkeye’s friend, Jessica, though still sounding a bit more timid than usual.  For his part, the thief decided to go and try to see what he could do on his own, heading through the doors in front of them.

           Once he had left, Riesz stood there for several more seconds, hands over her cheeks in a futile attempt to cool herself down.  Oh, how could he have gotten her so off kilter like that?  He might have left Nevarl as he claimed, but that didn’t change that she’d just let a thief steal her first kiss!  Which sounded quite funny in her mind, not that the thought made her calm down any…

           “Riesz, are you okay?” asked Angela as she put a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder.

           That helped to snap Riesz back to normal.  “…What?  I—Yes! I am fine!  We should move on.  We cannot delay!”

           Angela stated, “Not the best way to impress a lady, but at least the guy was cute!”

           Despite the feeling of embarrassment that wouldn’t fully leave, Riesz had to agree with her!

* * *

           Hearing Niccolo’s story chilled the three girls to the bone.  Belladonna knew how to summon monsters?  It was bad enough that she could use magic to control a powerful clan of ninjas, skilled at stealth tactics.  But that she practically had infinite soldiers if she could keep calling forth beasts to fight off her enemies…

           “Have you evew heawd of this, Angewa?” Charlotte inquired.

           The princess shook her head.  “No, I haven’t.  And I’ve scoured the castle library in the past to try and find some sort of magic I could do!”

           Turning to their leader, the young cleric asked, “How about you, Wiesz?”

           But she didn’t reply, her eyes glued at the entryway where Hawkeye and Niccolo had just left through.  In that moment after opening the door, Hawkeye had turned back and given her a tiny wink, making Riesz’s body grow hot once more.  Did he think this funny?  What was he getting out of seeing her blush?  And did he stay long enough to see her reaction this time…?

           “Wiesz?” Charlotte asked again.

           Angela shook her head and walked up to Riesz.  “So…still thinking about that dashing rogue who managed to steal your heart?”

           “H-He did not!” she exclaimed.  “All he’s managed to do is make me upset!  For a proud Amazon warrior to be kissed without her permission…”

           “Eh, your face says a very different story,” was Angela’s reply.

           Riesz quickly shook her head, insisting she didn’t!  That it was just because she was not used to having a man pay her such attention!  The men in Laurent wouldn’t have even dared try with someone not only their princess, but who could also eviscerate them in a single spear strike!

           But why did this little voice in the back of her head tell her she was wrong…?

* * *

           The three girls walked through the gates to Diin after their trip to Fiery Gorge. Sure, they had found Salamando, and were another Spirit closer to reaching the Sanctuary of Mana.  But Belladonna had released the power of the Fire Stone. Time was running out, and if they didn’t awaken the Goddess of Mana, the Benevodons would be released!

           Angela was all for heading onward, of getting out of the hot, dry, and very disgusting desert!  But Riesz insisted that it was getting late and they should spend the night at the oasis. They would be much less effective in combat if they weren’t well rested, after all, something she knew well!  The number of times Alma had given her a stern talking to for training way too hard when she was younger…

           “Oh, is it that?” inquired the young magician.  “Or…is it that you want to go check on that young man to make sure he got back here safely…?”

           “Why would I need to check up on him!?” questioned Riesz.

           Angela put an arm around her friend.  “Well, because he was carrying an unconscious woman through such dangerous environments.  Of course he might have had some problems going forward.  It’s only natural that you worry about him…”

           Riesz stated, “I’d think that, considering he was able to get into Citadel Laurent without any trickery or trouble, he is perfectly able to take care of himself!”

           She quickened her steps and entered the Inn.  They needed to book their rooms, first and foremost.  Though Angela did note that Riesz was also looking around the room to see if anyone else was already using the beds.

           ‘She’s an easy book to read!  But…maybe Riesz needs a bit of a push to get her going…’

* * *

           A THUMP woke Angela up late that night.  She rubbed her eyes, noticing Riesz’s bed was empty.  The princess of Altena threw on her robe and quietly slid off the bed into her slippers.  It was important to make sure their leader was okay, though she didn’t want to wake Charlotte in the process.  The kid did need a lot more sleep than her older companions, after all!

           The air was cool, a far cry from how hot and irritating the desert had been when they crossed it earlier that day!  Not that Angela minded…although it didn’t get rid of the coarse annoying sand! Still, she could tolerate it for just a little bit if it meant helping her friend…

           “Riesz?  Where are you?” she called out.

           Just then, a voice called back, “I’m over by the oasis!”

           Angela looked in the direction the voice had come from, noticing her friend sitting at the end of a long dock.  Riesz was holding her knees against her body, looking out over the water. The moonlight shone down upon the still waters, looking like an expertly painted picture.  But it seemed the beauty of the setting did little to cheer Riesz up.

           “Why…why can’t I stop worrying about him?” whispered Riesz as Angela sat beside her. “I mean, maybe she woke up as they were escaping, and they decided to go to Sirhtan instead.  Yet I can’t sleep without having dreams of him being attacked by monsters…”

           A devious smirk crossed Angela’s face.  “Simple!  It means you have a little crush on him!”

           “Wh-What!?  Why would you think that!?” Riesz cried out, her face growing redder.

           Angela stated, “There’s that, for starters.  Every time you think about him, or he comes up in conversation, or you two meet, you end up blushing and stuttering.  He’s on your mind, even when you say otherwise.  Besides…not like he isn’t eye candy.”

           “Even if I had feelings for him, which I do not, he obviously loves that girl, Jessica,” Riesz reminded her.  “I would never think to try and get in their way.”

           There wasn’t much Angela could say to that.  Love was…a complicated thing.  Else her parents would be together, and Angela would have known who her father was!  At least, that’s what she always told herself…considering her limited interaction with her mother while the retainers always seemed to avoid the subject when she tried to bring it up.

           At that moment, the sound of a door opening reached their ears.  Followed shortly after by footsteps on the wooden docks. They stopped a few moments later, as the shadow of a lean man fell over the pair of princesses.

           “You ladies decided to stop here for the night?” a familiar voice questioned.

           Both Riesz and Angela turned, noticing Hawkeye standing behind them. Angela took note of the relieved expression now covering Riesz’s face.  She smirked, before standing up and beginning to walk back to the Inn.

           “Riesz here was kind of worried about you,” she stated.  “But we didn’t see you in the Inn and decided to take a rest instead of setting out while exhausted.”

           Angela picked up her pace and was back inside before Riesz could even respond. That left the embarrassed princess sitting and staring at the handsome figure before her.  She shook her head…trying to remind herself not to think in that way.  It wasn’t like he was available, even if she was interested.  Now that she knew he was okay, she should just go back to the Inn…

           Hawkeye sat down where Angela had been and smiled at her.  “You were worried?  That’s fairly sweet of you to think of a rogue like me!”

           “I…well…you were carrying an unconscious girl the whole way,” she brought up.

           He told her, “I’m a master thief!  Of course I know how to move without being seen.  We’re holed up in the Item Store’s basement, that way I can easily run to get medicine if needed.”

           That made sense, at least.  And Riesz felt silly being so worried!  Though she had to admit the smile he was giving her made her feel so calm and peaceful. Was…was her willingness to show concern that important to him?  It was nothing new for her, being her job as Captain and Princess to worry about her subordinates and citizens.

           They sat there for several moments as words failed her.  Until finally, Hawkeye spoke up.  “I wish I could go and give Belladonna what’s for!  She murdered my best friend, someone I considered a brother, then turned my home into her own personal plaything!  But with Jessica in this state, I can’t leave her alone. And there’s no going back to Nevarl until Belladonna is kicked out.”

           “Do not worry,” responded Riesz.  “My friends and I will make sure that witch pays for her crimes.  There’s still my father to avenge, and the suffering of my people.  I hope that will ease your mind.”

           “Thanks, Princess,” said Hawkeye, placing a hand on her shoulder.

           Riesz reached across and laid her own hand on his shoulder as well.  The pair just sat there for a minute or two, staring into each other’s eyes.  She had no idea how to read him, the emotions beyond that gaze.  Nor could she understand why this felt so…right to her! Angela was wrong…she didn’t have feelings like that for him!  All she was thinking about was how both of their suffering was caused by the same woman and whomever it was she served!

           ‘And yet, I wish I could just stay here, if only for a little longer…’

           But despite that voice, Riesz got up, noting that Hawkeye followed her to his feet.  “I really must get back to the Inn.  We have to get going as soon as we are rested.”

           “A tiny suggestion,” he told her.  “The desert is colder at night, as you have seen.  If you travel early in the morning, it won’t be as bad as going at the height of the afternoon.”

           Riesz thanked him for his advice and headed back to the Inn.  Maybe she didn’t quite understand what was going on in her head at the moment.  However, finding the Elementals and reaching the Sanctuary came first.  Once the Mana Sword was hers and peace had returned, then Riesz could work at figuring it out.  Though, that meant she’d have to meet with Hawkeye again…a thought that sent the most pleasant shivers down her spine.

           And when she returned to the Inn, Riesz found her dreams of worry replaced by ones of her and Hawkeye looking out over the vast Laurentian mountains, their arms intertwined.

[josselinkohl]

ok, so I am starting a new Nikandros pov fic. I have one word. but I was like, I think I wrote this before? So I dug through my unfinished drafts which are all unhelpfully named things like “fic” or “fic1″ or “thing” or “draft” (GET A BETTER SYSTEM, SELF) and I apparently have a whole Nikandros thing already, so uh. Here’s a thing!

Nikandros’s father had always told him that one of the things that made Akielos a better country than Vere was that a man who was born to nothing could still make a place for himself in the world.

Nikandros’s father had always told him that one of the things that made Akielos a better country than Vere was that a man who was born to nothing could still make a place for himself in the world.

In Vere, those who were born to wealth grew up in mansions dripping with jewels. When they went to war they placed peasants on the front line and stood behind them in armor that was sometimes equally dripping with jewels.

In Akielos, those who were born to wealth were still expected to prove themselves on the battlefield. And those who were born with nothing had an opportunity to distinguish themselves next to those who had been born with everything.

Nikandros’s father had made a name for himself that way. His father—Nikandros’s grandfather—had died of a fever in his youth, and when Nikandros’s father had come of age he’d caught the attention of one of the kyros’s generals by distinguishing himself in a sword fighting match. He’d joined the kyros's troop and risen through the ranks to become a general himself.

When he had finally saved enough money to swear to Nikandros’s mother that he could keep her in the style to which she’d been accustomed as the daughter of a minor lord in Isthima, he started a family. Nikandros and his sisters had grown up in Ios while his father trained new troops for King Theomedes. When his father had the opportunity, he trained Nikandros, as well, and Nikandros tried to impress his father.

There had been another boy almost his age also training hard and trying to impress his father, and that was how the grandson of a woodcutter grew up next to the future king.

Nikandros’s father hadn’t lived to see Nikandros made the kyros of Delpha after it’s reclamation, so the proudest he had ever been of his son had been when Nikandros had been selected to serve at the Kingsmeet. It was the greatest honor for a young soldier to be selected—only the worthiest were chosen. Damen had been jealous, when Nikandros had been selected, and swore that he was going to follow Nikandros a year later when he was old enough. Damen had been an impressive enough fighter that he would have been able to earn a place in the trials, but he had not come. Nikandros had heard later that King Theomedes had forbidden it.

Damen had treated Nikandros as a brother. He had trained with him, and played with him, and helped him when he was sick and shared the favors and privileges of being a prince with Nikandros without ever mentioning it. When Nikandros’s sister had been sick, Damen had sent the palace physician to go and tend to her. Nikandros suspected that when King Theomedes had awarded him the position as kyros of Delpha after its capture that Damen’s advocacy had something to do with the honor. It was clear even by that point that he was Damen’s man, and that he would be one of the future king’s advisors. It was better for a king’s advisor to have his own land, Nikandros had heard the echo of his father’s voice as Theomedes gave him the pin. It meant that the advisors had reasons to prize the well being of the land aside from their love of it’s king.

But Nikandros had loved Damen anyway. And Damen had the same companionable ease and competitiveness with Nikandros that he had had with his actual brother Kastor.

Yet Nikandros had never forgotten their positions. He wasn’t a prince; he wasn’t actually Damen’s brother. He suspected that Kastor had never forgotten it either, and he had tried to tell as much to Damen.

Damen hadn’t listened. Damen had never been especially good at listening, though Nikandros had to credit the Veretian prince for having made Damen at least slightly more attentive to the counsel of others.

They were walking again in the orchards. The apricots were in season again and Nikandros’s thoughts naturally wandered to the past.

Damen’s thoughts seemed to be on the future.

“I would ask you for a favor, old friend.”

“Yes,” said Nikandros. He supposed that a prudent man would ask what the favor was before agreeing, but he had already proven he would give Damen anything.

“Stand next to me at my wedding?”

Nikandros was surprised, and stopped walking for a moment. Damen turned from a few steps ahead of him, and waited while Nikandros began strolling again and caught up to his position.

It was traditional for a man’s family to stand with him at his wedding. Men with large families would pack them all together to crowd them to the joining. Even cousins or more distant relations wanted to clap the groom on the shoulder and wish him good luck in his partnership.

So it wasn’t an honor that even an ambitious man such as Nikandros might have imagined for himself. If he had ever pictured a royal wedding, he supposed Theomedes and Kastor would have seen Damen off.

“But—it’s an honor for family,” said Nikandros.

Damen smiled. “You are my brother. I would be honored if you would stand with me.”

“Of course,” said Nikandros, inclining his head.

“Thank you,” said Damen, slinging an arm over Nikandros’s shoulders.

“Did you think I wouldn’t agree?”

“Well, you haven’t seen what Laurent expects us to wear, yet,” said Damen, chuckling.

Nikandros sighed. “Can you add some sort of embarrassing Akielon tradition to the ceremony, at least?”

“Oh, the Veretians have the edge on us in embarrassing traditions,” said Damen. “They—“

Nikandros looked over at him curiously, it almost sounded like he was blushing. Nikandros had heard far too many stories from Damen over the years, so it was hard to imagine what he would find that surprising.

“They expect royalty to consummate the marriage in front of the council,” said Damen, refusing to make eye contact.

Nikandros laughed, shocked. It was too crude to imagine. The idea of the king —with the whole council watching? Though the idea of that as a Veretian tradition did put something else that had puzzled him into context: “Is this why he asked me to join the council last week?”