#it's actually a filipino word lmao but pretend it's faerie

[ventique18]

You don't remember when it started, but for some reason Malleus has grown tired of calling you 'Child of Man'. And when you were just getting used to and appreciating him calling you by your first name, he suddenly switched to calling you... something else.

"As you wish, Sinta," "Sinta, would you like to go on a stroll with me?"

You asked him what it meant. He just laughed. One of his twinkling, mischievous laughs-- the kind that revealed he was hiding something. "It is you, but in Faerie. Sinta."

"So it's my name? Are you sure?"

"If you ever prove that I lie, then I shall grant you a wish, no matter how light or heavy it may be, for as long as it is within moral reason."

"If you're pranking me and it actually means 'Stinky Pants' or something and you and Lilia and Sebek are laughing behind my back, Hornton I swear--"

He laughed again, but his earnest smile at the trail end of it as the word rolled off his tongue again so affectionately, so smoothly, like a cat's purr... convinced you to believe him against all doubts.

But when you came to glimpse upon Lilia's memories, when you saw a dream of Malleus' mother and father and how they called out to each other so fondly...

Sinta.

And your heart skipped a dozen beats in a single moment. It couldn't be, it couldn't be. Right? Because who were you to assume? Princess Maleanor was a pretty intense woman; what if she was calling her husband "Mr. Piss His Pants" on the daily? It wouldn't be unbelievable.

"Hey," You approached him the evening after he started calling you that word in public and earned a scandalous reaction from Sebek, "I know that Faerie word isn't my name. So give me that wish now: tell me what it means, exactly."

A sly smirk played on his lips, "How dare you ask a boon of me," He stooped down, peering at you teasingly through his thick lashes. He was close. So close. "When I did not breathe a single lie?"

Within a slow, agonizing heartbeat, he leaned even closer to you; cheek electrifyingly close to cheek, warm breath caressing your ear, "I didn't say it was your name. It is you,

"Sinta."

And he needn't utter more. Because your own treacherous tongue did it for you.

"Love."

He was calling you love, for a long time now.