#ellana closed starter;

[savingthrcw]

@solstice-muse-collective liked this for Ellana x Lysander

She had given a speech. A well received speech. She, Ellana Lavellan, former nightmare of her clan, had managed to come up with encouraging spontaneous words to say to the people of Skyhold - after recovering from the worst part of her near death from hypothermia, which she had caused by attempting to sacrifice herself. Frankly, Ellana couldn't recognize herself in any of it, but it was working and so she had to keep going that way.

But now she was exhausted, emotionally and physically, and had to sit down on her way up the stairs to catch her breath, hoping none of her advisors would walk by then and worry. Or worse, scold her for not resting enough.

[lavelllan]

@elthorn liked for a starter.

they remember him, from home. not closely - clan lavellan's keeper had always kept careful eyes on ellana, a tight leash. mostly, they remember the way that other people had spoken about him, often wrought with pity. those whispers had only exaggerated when he had disappeared, some offering more sympathy and others choosing judgment. she, admittedly, had not thought much of it at the time, more preoccupied with her own training. whatever decision had driven him away from clan lavellan, now, the inquisitor is left to wonder if it had anything to do with whatever reasons had brought him here, now, to the inquisition.

it's difficult to spot him, initially. ellana might have even walked past him before without noticing. she was set to head out in the morning, once the horses had ample opportunity to be fed and rest. a few minutes to visit curiosity would not harm anything. though the brown shade of her gaze is dark, there's a lightness in her features as she approached. "you're elthorn, aren't you?"

[ellanawong]

OPEN STARTER: @SLCHAT​  LOCATION: OUTSIDE THE ABANDONED HOUSE

Ellana eventually caught wind of the abandoned house. As much as she really could get considering there didn’t seem to be many details. Just a few whispers here and there and, of course, Ellana being who she was had to check it out. It just sounded like another mystery for her to crack. A project for her to work on in the meantime that only proved how bored Ellana had been while staying in Silver Lake. Sure, she was still doing her research but she was desperate for some exciting action. As she observed the house closely, she circled around the front of it observing its architecture and trying to find some clues before attempting to trespass.  There was a window in the front that gave a peek into the basement and so she was crouching down, peeking in to see if there was anything of interest until she heard approaching footsteps.

This probably counted as illegal activity, right? Standing up immediately, she turned around to see someone passing by on the sidewalk before deciding to start up a conversation so she wouldn’t look suspicious. “Creepy house, huh?” She commented, pointing towards the house for a brief second as she approached the other.

[lavellanshe]

It still struck Ellana as strange how dark it became throughout Skyhold the moment the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. Without it, the castle felt cold and stark until all the candles were lit. It was easier for most to retreat to their cots once night fell, but the Inquisitor struggled to find rest as early as some, attuned to the rhythm she’d had when the moon and starlight had guided her footsteps when she had still been with her clan.  Most of the hold was quiet, though the ruffle of feathers and scratching of claws from Leliana’s rookery did give her pause as she made her way down the staircase and into the atrium where Solas had taken up residence. The metal of the lantern she carried rattled softly as her silent footfalls downward finally lead her into the dimly lit room where he sat. Though she couldn’t make out his features, she could see him lounging as he poured over a text and a pang of affection tugged at her heart.  ❝ Solas? ❞ The name came easily, and she adjusted the book she had collected from the library upstairs under her arm - it was somewhat of a rouse to get him to speak with her, but she would enjoy the contents none the less - and walked carefully into the circular room. ❝ Do you mind if I join you for a while? I do find company preferable, even when reading. ❞ The image of Haven sprang to mind - of company that was decidedly quite preferable when his grip had tightened on her and drawn her in. A moment they’d yet had time to discuss due to the other half of said moment quite clearly avoiding the conversation. His lips and the kiss lingered in her mind for a long second, though she hardly waited for a response before strolling across the room to the plush couch she had taken a liking to.

closed starter for @wclfdreamt !

[ellana-lavellan-rp]

❝ Be still. You’re too wounded to move… ❞ (from SENTENCE STARTERS | FIRE EMBLEM : HEROES)

(( my poor ellana is always getting injured, the reckless woman. i love it lol. set sometime after they get to skyhold, after renovations are completed <3 ))

Ellana supposed she should be used to making foolish mistakes by now. It was a mistake that had gotten her the anchor in the first place - her cursed heart making her intervene when good sense had told her to stay put, let the human die - and it was a mistake not having Solas in her party as they hunted the Northern Hunter that had woken after they drained the lake in Crestwood.

Why hadn't she brought him?

She had thought they'd have no need of a healer.

Overconfidence, her Keeper had always scolded, recklessness.

Cassandra, Varric, Dorian, and her - a warrior and three ranged; she thought it would be simple, easy even, like their jaunt with the Fereldan Frostback (how her blood had soared after that victory).

Valor had sung in her hand, spirit blade of white-hot blue, and the battle had commenced. The plan had been no different to the last time; Dorian and Varric attacking from a distance, and herself and Cassandra up close.

It had all been fine... until it hadn't.

They were close to defeating it, Ellana had been able to tell; almost - one more thrust of her spirit blade upwards into its soft underbelly -

then blinding pain, everywhere, as one of it's long horns stabbed through her chest in its death thrall (why hadn't she been faster).

"Inquisitor!" She had heard Cassandra scream, and she had knew no more.

-x-

She stirred from the darkness suddenly, settling down when she heard a familiar voice soothe her.

Be still, you're too wounded to move...

"C-commander," she croaked, blue eyes cracking open to Cullen Rutherford's imposing figure across from her in the infirmary. "what-"

happened...

"Oh." She coughed briefly, throat sore, the fight returning to her quickly - chest seizing with pain. Ellana winced, looking down at the bandage that was currently wrapped around her tightly; it must have been a terrible wound to not be healed completely yet. "The others.. they're alright?"

[heartslogos]

newfragile yellows [979]

"We're al thirty something adults. We can talk about this reasonably.”

“False.” Lyna flags down a waiter to order another pitcher of cucumber lemonade. “We are thirty something adults and one of us is getting into an arranged marriage. We can be as unreasonable as we want.”

“Enough small talk, I didn't get on a fourteen hour flight to gab about how unfair life as an heiress to a dubious empire is,” Kallian passes a plate laden high with blueberry waffles drenched in glistening syrup towards Theron, who immediately passes it off to Alim as though the waffles could give him some kind of disease by proximity.

“How are you not dangerously ill?” Theron asks the other man as Alim slides two waffles onto his plate to join the small ceramic container of whipped cream and fruit, maple-bacon, extra fluffy pancakes, berry compote, and underneath all that some kind of custard and fruit filled crepe with chocolate.

Alim shrugs. “If it happens it happens.”

“Aedan Cousland,” Neria says with an air of someone wheeling out a guillotine that hasn’t been cleaned or maintained properly in decades and now has to use it in front of a crowd, “What the fuck is going on there, Ellana? I always thought you had more sense than sensibility, but clearly I was wrong.”

“There is nothing going on with Aedan Cousland. I’m not picking Aedan. Aedan doesn’t expect me to pick him. There are zero expectations and zero plans to follow through. We’re…friends. I guess.”

“You guess?” Darrian repeats, sounding like Ellana’s just told him that she’s decided to get a job as a firefighter: disappointed in her life choices and disbelieving in her ability to follow through with them, but attempting to be supportive nonetheless. “Ellana. One doesn’t just become friends with Aedan Cousland. The other Couslands? Maybe. They’re not so bad once you get past the spray tans and the unnervingly white and straight teeth. They’re all just one variation on suburban horror story. But Aedan Cousland is a whole different level of douchebag with an unlimited bank account.”

“He’s not that bad!” Ellana frowns at Darrian. “You could say that about the Trevelyans and I know for a fact that everyone at this table loves Max.”

“I do?” Mahanon asks, in the middle of pouring Kallian another mimosa. “This is news to me.”

“Oh hush you,” Lyna points her fork at him, “You can pretend to be as mean and gruff as you want. I’ve seen you give people talking smack about Maxwell Trevelyan the stink eye.”

“We are organized crime, we do not give people the stink eye,” Theron shakes his head, “Aedan’s not that bad.”

All eyes swing towards Theron.

“What.”

Ellana, sensing that things are no longer going to be about her — finally — and blood is in the water, slides her phone out underneath the table and starts texting Aedan to see if he can give her some gossip to keep the hounds off her back.

“Have any of you ever talked to him about…anything that wasn’t himself?” Theron bites his lip as he fiddles with a bit of toast. “He’s got some interesting opinions.”

Alim stares at Theron as though Theron’s spontaneously started speaking a dead language: with the incredible desire to crack Theron’s full open and to lovingly, carefully, methodically, take his brain apart.

“When did you ever get a chance to talk to Aedan Cousland for long enough that you got him talking about something other than himself?” Darrian asks, setting his cutlery down and sitting back in his chair to cross his arms and focus his interrogators stare at the man. “Let’s be level with each other. You, me, and Aedan are around the same age group — few years older than Mahanon, few years younger than Alim — so we got clustered together a lot. In all the years in which we’ve been forced to rub elbows with him, not once have I ever seen you talking to him for longer than the polite five minutes before fucking off to join the rest of us in recovering from his ability to talk absolute horse shit.”

Aedan, because he’s a shit starter and is now Ellana’s new best long-distance friend, has sent Ellana some pretty juicy details.

“I think Theron’s trying to be a gentleman about it,” Ellana says. She slides her phone back into her purse tucks her bag behind herself. “I mean. No one’s seen them together but clearly Theron has opinions about Aedan’s character that form after a few minutes talking with him.”

Neria’s glass shatters, spilling mint and cucumber infused water spilling over the white table cloth along with ice cubes and shards of glass. Her hand squeezes into a fist as she bores holes into Theron’s head with her eyes.

“Did you date Aedan Cousland?”

Theron blanches and squirms, “What? No! Why did you all jump immediately to that? Come on. We could have done business together. Is that so unusual? Our territories are pretty close. Lyna, back me up, we’ve had to do business with the Couslands before.”

“We have,” Lyna says slowly, gaze flat as she folds her arms and mimics Darrian’s pose. “You didn’t date Aedan Cousland.”

“I just said that.”

Lyna’s eyes narrow. “You fucked him.”

Alim and Mahanon make eye contact and silently start screaming their disgust and betrayal at each other with their eyes alone.

“I should tell my family to cut ties with you for that alone,” Darrian says, “But because we’ve been friends for so long I’m going to give you a chance to redeem yourself.”

Kallian puts a hand on Neria’s clenched fist and tries to coax it into opening again. “Glass shards, Neria. You can’t beat the life out of him if you’ve got glass shards in you.”

“Oh, can’t I?”

“He’s not that bad! And I —  I didn’t. I mean.” Theron’s eyes skip around the table, looking for some kind of escape. “This isn’t even about me. It’s all in the past. This is about the very present situation of Ellana’s arranged marriage.”

“Oh no. I wouldn’t say it was about the past,” Ellana throws some more gas onto the figurative fire, “He’s still hurting about it right now, I would imagine. Being dumped by your secret boyfriend would do that.”

Theron’s eyes meet hers and he hisses, “Did he tell you?”

Ellana smiles. Aedan had texted her that he and Theron used to be acquaintances with benefits, but then Theron had abruptly started giving Aedan the could shoulder. Though Theron still sometimes messages Aedan when drunk and morose. Now, Aedan didn’t use the word boyfriend. But like Aedan said, she and him are way too alike for each other’s comfort. It isn’t that hard to read between the lines.

“No, but you just did. No wonder poor Aedan has such a complex. He was your secret boyfriend for ages and you just dumped him cold. I imagine that would mess up anyone’s self confidence.”

“When I wring the life out of your body I want to feel it with every pore in my hands,” Neria says as she allows Kallian to help her clean up. “Aedan was tolerable for a bit. And then it was like someone grabbed the bastard nozzle on him, cranked it to max, and then snapped it off. That was your doing? Theron Mahariel, I’m going to fucking turn you into a smear on history and no one at this table is going to stop me.”

Darrian points directly at Ellana without looking away from Theron.

“Don’t think we’re done with you. After I’m done beating the shit out of Theron for creating the greatest monster this generation has ever seen I’m going to book all of us for lunch tomorrow. We are talking about you and Aedan and the Iron Bull and Edric for sure.”

[divinesleft-a]

@lavellanshe​ said: ( NECK ) kissing mine’s neck. ( we in this now yo ) seduction starters accepting!

she had been afraid that she couldn’t feel this anymore.

she had been afraid that she would never again feel the spark as warm lips pressed against the skin of her neck. afraid that her own lips would never curl with the smile of knowing the passion beginning to grow between herself and another. 

her hands reach out, cupping around the other’s waist in an effort to bring her closer, to KEEP her close. 

“are there not DUTIES you should be attending?” but her words are tangled in a gentle laugh, and her hands remain clasped, even if ellana were called to the side of the empress, leliana would be reluctant to let her go. 

[selfmedicatingmayor]

@ellanasha-lavellan

“Mmm, most things…” replied Ellana lightly, flicking her braid over her shoulder. It was approximately half a lie. She understood a great many things; the movements of animals through the forest, the way the phases of the moons affected the world, ancient Elven poetry, classic literature, linguistics, basic magical theory if not its practice, the most efficient way to fletch an arrow, how to make milk come out of Sera’s nose, how to tame an angry, rampaging hart…

While she was actually quite smart, her impulsive and curious nature and youthful appearance often left people with the impression of an air-headed childish young woman. If it meant that she was frequently underestimated by her foes, it suited her just fine.

“But specifically, how you’re able to keep this town protected from slavers and human merchants. Most clans are forced to move around to avoid trouble, and yet you’ve managed to keep everyone here safe…”

“Ah, that is the question.” Hancock started with a light chuckle. How many times had he been asked exactly that question over the years? How many people had he met who were surprised by the fact a Dalish elf could maintain a permanent settlement? Particularly one so close to Wycome. Somehow, it grew tiresome and never got old, all at once.

“The human-sounding name helps keep humans from causing too much ruckus, for starters, but also, this isn’t exactly a clan. Most of the people here are elves, yes, but very few are Dalish, most are either city elves, tired of being confined to slums or they’re escaped slaves, starting a new life. This town takes in anyone, regardless of race, so long as they’re willing to treat each other well–– or at the very least, tolerate each other, heh. The humans do a good job of deterring any would-be troublemakers from picking on any of the more vulnerable elves, and the few Qunari who’ve taken up residence are, honestly amazing at intimidating most potential threats. Then there’s also my reputation, which I’ve heard grows and changes every time someone explains how I took this town from the bandits and slavers who owned it before. It’s always entertaining to hear what rumors people come up with.”

[ellanasha-lavellan-blog]

"Krem" Surprise

Starter as requested by @aclassilieutenant _________________________________ As anyone knows, a good relationship involves equal amounts of give and take, or as close to equal as one can manage. Every since she and Cremisius had started seeing each other, Ellana's singular sorrow was that he gave her so much, and yet could only comfortably allow her to return very little. She finally felt as though they'd reached a point where she could begin to change that. She invited the lieutenant up to her bedroom with the promise of a light dinner and some wine, a little dining table set for them near the balcony. The real treat, of course, was saved for dessert. "Come over here a moment, would you Krem?" She asked with an innocent smile as she stood from her chair after their meal. She walked over to the foot of her bed and stood leaning against one of the tall posters with a casual air.

[lavelllan]

@lastburden liked for a starter.

they have both gotten in more than their fair share of fights out here, but fighting a troll was undeniably more testing than some of their other enemies. all of them had pulled through in mostly okay condition, but ellana had seen tristan take a hard blow - she doesn't know how he does it sometimes, managing being a mage at a melee range. beyond when it came to closing rifts, the inquisitor was typically best kept at a range from their enemies. the fight and timing of dusk had been a good excuse for them to set up camp for the night, tents up and fire going to add a little extra light with the dimming sun. once everything is in good order, they sit down near him.

"you doing alright? that blow you hit i think would've set me out a couple days." though their tone keeps it a bit light, not wanting to come off as overly worried... ellana was, undeniably, worried. some guilt always came with asking her companions to come along, knowing that their choices may very well put them in danger. they all knew the consequences, of course, it was not avoidable. still, the feeling lingers in her chest regardless.

[lavellanshe]

The Fade had been where she felt most at ease since she was a child. Ellana couldn’t pinpoint when it had first become her place of solace and comfort, but it was long enough in the past that it was before her memories began. The soft greens and dulled hues as magic seemed to swirl around every corner made her feel alive and as if she belonged. 

There was a solid piece of her memories of the Fade missing, Ellana could tell, as the natural way she moved throughout the place that so many Mages and Templars feared felt like a secret she ought not share with the world. Here she needed no staff, no focuser to direct and guide her magics. Here she was powerful and wild and free.  Blonde curls fluttered in an almost imperceptible breeze and she grazed fingers over a crystal formation of lyrium in its purest form, feeling the swell of magic and turning to glance over her shoulder as instinct told her she was no longer alone. Softening at the sight of her friend, Ellana smiled delicately at Solas as she knelt amongst the twisted stalks and strange locale. ❝ I ought to have known you’d be able to find me here, Solas. ❞

closed verse starter ; for @wclfdreamt 

[ellanawong]

closed starter: @valehq​​ location: five by night

Ellana walked into the bar, enjoying this one in particular. Maybe it was because of the board games they had to offer. Not maybe, that was the reason why. Looking at the bar, she spotted a familiar figure. The same person who seemed to have gotten in a bar-fight of some sorts a few days ago was there. Ellana loved nothing more than to stick her nose where it didn’t belong and that’s exactly what she did. Making her way over to Vale, she took a seat next to her and ordered herself an IPA beer. “Hey.” She greeted as she turned her attention to her. “You know, that fight you got in the other day at the bar... what was that about?” What was the point in being discreet? It was only a waste of time. Ellana wasted no time to get to the point. Sure, maybe it was invasive, but who cares? Ellana preferred being upfront, it felt less shady.

[lavellanshe]

suggestive starters ; @divinesleft​

"Kiss the hell out of me. Please."

You needn’t ask Ellana a second time when Leliana looked at her with the intense stare that implied more. She pressed herself into the curve of her lover’s body and slipped her right hand up and into her hair. The left found the spymaster’s hip and she pressed her close, mouthing at the exposed flesh of Leliana’s neck and working her way up to the spot beneath her ear. ❝ You never said where I ought to kiss you, darling. ❞

[lavellanshe]

suggestive starters ; @ilianchant​

“Is there a mirror in your pocket? Because I look great- wait, I said that wrong.”

She waited, amused by Ashara’s stumble and taking a step nearer. Ellana reached up to brush a strand of hair away from the other woman’s face, ❝ I don’t need in a mirror in my pocket to imagine you under my clothes. ❞ She replied simply, shrugging her shoulder and letting her lip twitch upward. ❝ I can see you naked whenever I just close my eyes. ❞

[heartslogos]

newfragile yellows [848]

“You're going to be so mad at me.”

“Hold the thought.”

Bull has to pull his phone away from his ear, close his eyes, count to thirty, and then count backwards from thirty in order to get himself under control.

This is the worst vacation he’s ever been on and he’s been actively hunted by assassins on other vacations so this is saying something. Bull would prefer the assassins to the current situation, honestly.

Ellana left to get groceries from the nearest town about three hours ago — and Bull wasn’t worried about that time gap because the nearest anything that would have a grocery store is about an hour to two hours away. She would’ve just gotten there with this weather.

No, Bull’s annoyed because he’s been snowed the fuck into their rented cabin. Lucky they’ve got Inquisition phones because these things have some serious reach. He’s been texting Josephine and Krem status updates. Josephine is appropriately sympathetic to his complaints. Aclassi’s being a total shit heel and telling him he deserves it. Bull has been mentally plotting ways to get back at the man. It’s one of the only things keeping him sane. The cabin itself isn’t exactly entertaining.

He brings the phone back to his ear. “What did you do?”

“You assume I did something,” Ellana sounds offended. “Why do you assume that I was the active party in the current situation?”

“Why would I be mad at you if you didn’t do something?”

“It’s less of what I did more and of what I’ve found myself involved in.”

“Babe, we are in the middle of fuck all nowhere, population five hundred,” Bull says. “How did you find something? Anything? You can’t even get liquor over five percent here. That’s how boring this place is.”

“Not anymore it isn’t,” Ellana replies. “I found a baby.”

“You what?”

“So I get to the supermarket. Market, really. Nothing super here. And it’s empty. Doors open. Lights are on. But the entire building is empty. No employees, no other patrons. And can I tell you? The lot? The parking lot? Not empty. The only other living creature I’ve been able to find so far is this baby that was in a shopping cart in the canned goods section.”

“Shit.”

“I know. I’m going to try and find out if they have any security footage. I’ve only seen one camera by the cash register, but from the look of the thing I might end up handling VHS. Seriously. Wood paneling on everything. This place is old.”

“Only you,” Bull says with a touch of fondness, “Only you could find trouble in a region that boasts zero crime because there’s no one to do crime here.”

“Yeah, yeah. How are things back at the cabin? No random stranger mysteriously knocking or unrecognizable shadows lingering in the distance?”

“Oh, yeah. Buy a shit ton of salt and some shovels,” Bull says. “I’ve been snowed in.”

“It was not snowing that heavy when I left.”

“No it wasn’t. But about an hour after you left a freak storm came in. I mean. Obviously it’s not too bad because the phones and our Inquisition gear still works. I’ve got the laptop up and running and I’ve been texting on the phone. See if you can send me a picture of the baby, I’ll send it in to Leliana and see if she can find any birth records.”

“Based on a picture?” Ellana sounds skeptical, but he can hear her switch to speaker as she goes to take the picture anyway.

“We’ve given Leliana less to work with before,” Bull points out. “Maybe there’s a missing person’s out for the kid. She once found a guy based only on a vague description of his body spray.”

Ellana snickers. “The look on the guy’s face when she told him only one type of person in the world would use that expensive piss to appear fancy when they really aren’t. Ha! Classic. Anything else I should get since…well. Looks like our enforced vacation is turning into one star, negative rating horror movie plot?”

“If I’ve learned anything from being forced to watch b movies from Skinner, it’s that we’re going to need a lot of rope, a lot of fuel, tons of ignition starters, and cheap vodka. I don’t think we’ll be finding the last one though. So I’ll settle for a bit of the rest.”

“You got it,” Ellana says. “How are food stores looking? Picture sent. ”

“If this is a terrible movie who knows? Better double down on that shit too.” Bull switches his phone to speaker to check his texts so he can forward the picture to Leliana and Josephine. Actually he’s just gonna throw it into group chat and see what happens.

“Right. And how am I going to handle all of this and a baby?”

“You’re Ellana Lavellan, I’m sure you’ll figure something out. See if you can find an extra generator or something like that.”

“Alright, anything else? Should I haul over a new gas range while I’m at it?”

“Maybe you should, considering we’re working with a wood burning stove,” Bull teases. “Be careful. If it looks like you can’t pass turn around and go back. I’ll be fine.”

“Right, turn around and go back to the creepy deserted grocery store. I should probably check the other buildings, but honestly I’m spooked. Just a wee bit spooked.”

“You want me to stay on the line with you?”

“Handle a baby, a back up generator, several grocery items, and have you on the phone at once? Come on, Bull, this is supposed to be a vacation not some kind of horrible training exercise. Make sure the cabin is secure and work with the rest of the Inquisition to figure out what’s going on. Make sure to tell everyone it’s not our baby. Evelyn’d have kittens if she thought we had some kind of spontaneous love baby. For someone so smart she can come up with some truly dumb conclusions when thrown a curve ball.”

[heartslogos]

newfragile yellows [680]

For as long as Bull has been a foster parent, and then later a long-term parent with kids who weren’t going to be taken back by anyone ever and were going to stay with him under his roof and be his responsibility and his on paper and in law and in everything else that really matters, birthdays have been important.

Birthdays were another year survived, another year lived, another year where his kids made it through something difficult and came out — if not stronger for it, then still a winner because they made it. Birthdays are an event where kids deserve to be spoiled because them being alive is a fucking amazing thing even if the circumstances around their birth and origins aren’t exactly as spectacular in a good way.

Even for the kids who have a more complicated, in the sense that it wasn’t all bad, relationship with their beginnings, it’s still important.

Bull’s always done his best to make birthdays a time when his kids could put aside whatever hurt them for a at least a few hours, and could enjoy something else. Whether that’s grilled cheese with pickles or being pushed on a tire swing for a few hours or going to the zoo.

He thinks his kids know how hard he tries, and his kids are usually a bit more conscious of certain things than most, because they’ve always asked him for the doable and he’s always made sure he can live up to that medium set bar. Sometimes he wishes his kids would ask for something harder, but he’s grateful that they ask for something at all.

Bull also thinks that his kids have absorbed the importance of birthdays because for every new kid that comes into their lives they make sure to indoctrinate them in the highest honor of being the birthday celebrant.

The only thing is, is that there are about a million kids that Bull calls his.

There are only twelve months in a year. Some kids happen to have birthdays pretty close to each other.

Bull still makes sure to do something special just for each kid on their day, but he’s had to condense some of the kids into one weekend per month to save on time and money. The kids understand.

Now that Ellana and Mahanon have joined the fold, the time is split even further, but Ellana has enough money to throw at making each birthday extra special for all that they sometimes get crammed together and Bull jokes that he’s with her for her checkbook and her line of credit. Ellana jokes that the trick’s on him because she’s with him for his body and their is a relationship of convenience.

All of the kids roll their eyes whenever these jokes are played out and make some variation on the comment of ugh, grown ups.

“So, what do you want for your birthday this year?” Bull asks Grim as they’re setting the table for dinner. It’s a long process for a long table.

Grim signs that he wants a ring.

Bull had been expecting something along the lines of a terrarium, a hermit crab, or maybe even some new camping gear. He was not expecting that answer. Bull glances at Ellana over the bobbing of several children’s heads as they bustle like worker ants around the kitchen to get dinner on the table and all the sooner into their black hole pits of stomachs.

Ellana looks just as dumbfounded as he does.

“What kind of ring?” Ellana asks.

A ring for a girl, Grim answers, and then pokes Dalish as she passes. Ask Dalish what kind. She knows.

Bull and Ellana pin their attention on Dalish.

“Dalish, are you extorting your brother’s birthday to get something? You only have to wait one more month,” Ellana says.

“I would never do that,” Dalish replies, sounding as affronted as a fourteen year old can be. “That goes against the sanctity of the birthday.”

From the kids present, there is a resounding murmur of agreement.

“What kind of ring for a girl?” Bull asks. Man, he thought he had a bit more time with Grim. Grim seemed like a slow starter kind of guy. He’s only twelve. Bull always knew Grim would be a lady’s man, he already gets a million PTA moms and random strangers coming up to Bull to compliment him on his handsome and charming boy. They grow up so damn fast, fuck.

“A diamond one,” Dalish announces.

Bull feels his eyebrows raise and Ellana is just staring holes into the back of their daughter’s head.

“Gold band, with a princess cut,” Dalish elaborates.

“Princess cut?” Ellana mouths at him. “Where’s she learning this from?”

Bull just stares back at her. Like Bull would know where Dalish learns anything?

“That’s…a little much, love,” Ellana says haltingly while she and Bull exchange a silent back and forth with just the panic in their eyes. “I don’t think little girls need that kind of thing.”

“It’s not for a little girl,” Bull didn’t know it was possible for a fourteen year old to sound so — well. No. He did know it’s possible for teenagers to sound that patronizing. It’s what makes them teenagers. He feels so fucking old.

And then Dalish tags on, “It’s for you.”

And Bull swears he’s having a stroke. He sits down immediately.

“It’s a wedding ring,” Dalish continues. “For Grim’s birthday he wants you to get married.”

“To who?” Ellana boggles.

All of the kids turn to look at her at once, all of them wearing the same exact face of consternation and absolute disappointment in Ellana’s apparent stupidity at asking that question.

Then they all point their grubby little fingers at Bull.

“Dad,” they all says in various levels of duh, mom, obviously voices. “For Grim’s birthday we all want you to get married to dad.”

Bull’s glad that he’s already sitting. Ellana, having been manning the stovetop, does not have that luxury. Instead she staggers against the counter, leaning heavily on it.

“Hoo boy,” Ellana says weakly, “You know there’s usually a part in the middle where the people getting married…you know. Talk about getting married. Usually one of them gets asked if they want to get married.”

“Yes, it’s called a proposal. It involves a ring.”

“I think your mom’s trying to say that the people involved usually talk about if marriage is something they want first,” Bull explains, “Before the ring comes into play.”

All of the kids look at him, still confused about why the grown ups in the room aren’t getting it.

“But…don’t you want to?” Mahanon asks, brow furrowed, “What else is there to talk about?”

Bull looks at Ellana. Ellana looks at Bull.

“Adult stuff,” Ellana says when Bull fails to come up with something to cut off this line of questioning from going further. “That your dad and I will talk about later. Come on. Dinner’s only going to get burned if we keep talking about other stuff. One of you get your brothers and sister from upstairs.”