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quicksilversquared · 4 years

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The Wavering Peahen: Chapter 6

When Nathalie started feeling oddly ill again, both she and Gabriel were worried that the Peacock Miraculous might somehow (impossibly) be to blame again.

So naturally, they pick someone else to be the Peacock for a bit. You know, as a test subject. Except the new Peacock… doesn’t exactly know that.

links in the reblog

Marinette was starting to think that Hawkmoth had officially gone around the bend.

For months after the Miracle Queen attack, Hawkmoth and Mayura had hammered at the superheroes, both of them plus the regular akuma and a sentimonster showing up to the battles. The superheroes had struggled to adapt, sacrificing their free time and fun activities to find and train new allies to help them as needed and doubling up on Miraculous almost as often as not to have access to more powers. They had been managing- sometimes only by the skin of their teeth- but it was taking a lot of effort.

And then, all of a sudden, Mayura vanished, and Pavona took her place next to Hawkmoth.

The change by itself would have been odd enough even if Pavona was an equally good fighter as Mayura. But Pavona was a poor fighter and even worse strategist. Her sentimonsters were easier to fight than Mayura's, and her outfit- while fancy- was a piece of cake to grab onto, either to yank her backward (or sideways) out of an attack or to fling her several blocks away, away from the fight and out of their hair for several minutes while the supervillain picked herself back up and straightened her outfit out.

(The Ladyblog had had an absolute field day with how ridiculous and ill-suited for fighting Pavona's outfit was. Marinette had worried that it would make Pavona reconsider her transformation and choose something more practical, but either the supervillain was unaware of the Ladyblog or was just so generally inept that she wasn't willing to sacrifice fashion for practicality.)

In most cases, Marinette would have assumed that Pavona had stolen the Miraculous from Mayura, and that was the reason for the change. But it was obvious that Pavona wouldn't have been able to overpower Mayura to start with, and Hawkmoth had clearly been anticipating the change. Right now, her assumption was that something had happened to Mayura- maybe she had died in an accident or something, she didn't know- and Pavona was Hawkmoth's only choice for an ally.

To be honest, Marinette was of the opinion that Hawkmoth would have been better off fighting on his own. Pavona only seemed to get in the way, and then she had to be saved before the superheroes could grab for her Miraculous. Pavona hadn't come out on the battlefield again after one particularly idiotic blunder, but considering that Mayura hadn't returned and the Peacock's sentimonsters were still showing up, it was more than likely that Pavona was just sulking in a lair somewhere for a bit before trying battlefield fighting again.

And now, after weeks- no, months- of Hawkmoth going after the superheroes with increased ferocity, the attacks had suddenly stopped. There had been nothing for the past four days.

Not that Marinette was complaining! Being able to attend school without having to dash out was really nice. It was just odd, that was all.

"Oh, Lila's looking like she might be finally getting better! I'm glad, she was looking so ill at the end of last week!"

Marinette blinked, pulling herself out of her thoughts and glancing over at Alya. "Hm?"

Alya nodded towards the front of the classroom, where Lila was straggling across the front of the classroom. "Lila caught a cold or something last week and she was so exhausted. She couldn't rest very well, since she's been pushing herself to get all of this work for her charities done before this deadline and there's been, like, so many emergencies that she's had to deal with all in a row. We've all been trying to help out so she won't get behind, but she's really been struggling. So I'm glad that she's feeling at least a little better now!"

For once, it was easy not to sigh in exasperation. Instead, Marinette frowned, glancing towards Lila as she headed for the back of the classroom.

The charities were a lie, of course. They always had been and always would be. Lila was too selfish and self-centered to even think about spending her time and money helping others. But the lie definitely got Lila a lot of (undeserved) admiration and offers for help. Mysteriously, Lila could never use the help with the charity directly- Marinette hadn't bothered to hear her excuses for that- but she could use the help when it came to things like homework. Normally, Marinette would assume that Lila had just wanted her classmates to offer to do all of her homework because she felt a little under the weather.

This time, though, Marinette had noticed that Lila seemed a bit under the weather, and it hadn't seemed faked. In fact, it had been pretty obvious once she looked a little closer that Lila had applied makeup to hide how bad she was feeling. And that was strange.

Sure, Lila seemed to have made a little bit of a recovery, but Marinette couldn't help but feel a bit curious about the whole situation. Downplaying her troubles wasn't Lila's style at all, and Marinette had to wonder what was going on. Because something had to be going on, unless Lila had gotten a personality transplant overnight.

(Considering that she was still lying about her charity work, Marinette doubted that.)

"I wonder if there's something going around," Adrien commented quietly to Marinette as Alya and Nino broke off into their own little conversation. "Nathalie was sick a couple weeks ago, and I've never seen her so drained. She's been getting better, but she still gets these little relapses sometimes." He glanced towards the back of the classroom, his brow furrowed. "Maybe Lila picked it up at one of the photoshoots or something."

"I hope it doesn't spread, then," Marinette said. She chanced a glance back at Lila, who was clearly half-heartedly engaging in conversation with a few of their classmates. "Being tired and miserable for over a week sounds miserable."

Miserable, and not very safe. Marinette had had to be Ladybug when she had a bit of a cold more than one time, with a stuffed nose and a sore throat, and that had been bad enough. It hadn't affected her fighting that much, she thought, but combine that with how being tired during late night and early-morning fights affected her...

"She probably shouldn't have been coming to school," Adrien added after a moment. "It's a bit odd that most of the time she's so eager to skip, but the one time when she actually has a legitimate excuse to stay home, she doesn't."

Marinette nodded, glancing backwards again. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."

The lack of akumas continued for the rest of the week, and Marinette got to get caught up with- well, everything- for the first time in ages. She worried that Hawkmoth was planning something, of course, but there wasn't really much that she and Chat Noir could do about it besides patrolling every evening in search of trouble.

Well, patrolling and going over what little information they had about the Miraculous powers and potions, comparing notes about what Master Fu had taught them. Thankfully she had gotten copies of pretty much all of Master Fu's translations before he was caught, but she hadn't had the chance to go through all of them and truly figure out the extent of the information at her fingertips. She and Chat Noir had been finding hidden crannies- ones where they wouldn't get spotted and where they couldn't be overheard or snuck up on- and going over the notes, puzzling over cryptic clues and tossing ideas for interpretations back and forth. Maybe it was a nice change of pace from battling akumas (and it was definitely something that they had to do anyway), but it was also difficult and frustrating and slow-going. Things had to be interpreted and then sorted into some semblance of order so that they would be able to find the notes again when they needed them.

So by the time Saturday rolled around, marking a full week without the barest whisper of an akuma, Marinette was more than happy to set her schoolwork and the Miraculous notes aside (the latter locked up in a box that was both secure and hidden), bake a batch of cookies, and package them up with some rejected pastries from the bakery to bring to their class picnic at the park. It sounded like a great opportunity to relax and focus on something else for a change.

Their classmates trickled in, coming in pairs and trios, laden with food. Thankfully it looked like people had brought dishes instead of just treats this time, so they would have a proper meal instead of just sugar, sugar, and more sugar. It was a far cry from their first class picnic, where almost all of them ended up feeling a bit ill from the number of sweets that they had eaten.

Rose, bless her, had even brought salad. She had put in a fair amount of work, clearly, tossing in more veggies and croutons and bringing a container of homemade dressing to make it more interesting.

Everyone milled around, talking and relaxing in the warm sun. Marinette wandered between her classmates, chatting with pretty much everyone before gradually circling back around to hang with Alya, Nino, and Adrien again. Maybe she got to hang out with them most often, just by virtue of where they sat in class, but they were also her best friends. They could talk for forever about nothing in particular, and it was nice to have that.

Ten minutes after the bulk of their class had arrived, Lila finally showed up. And in typical Lila fashion, of course she had to make her entrance loud.

"Oh my god, you guys, you'll never guess what my mom did for me! It was so sweet of her!"

"Oh, what now?" Marinette grumbled as people started to flock towards Lila as though they were being drawn by a magnet. "Can't we go one day without her making up some ridiculous story to tell?"

"I'll go listen in," Adrien volunteered, placing one hand on her shoulder. "Just to see what she's up to. If you want to, uh..."

"I'll go organize things on the picnic table so that I don't have to listen to her," Marinette offered, picking up what he was going to say. It was obvious to anyone with eyes (and critical thinking skills) that listening to Lila blather on made Marinette's blood pressure rocket up. "And then, uh, do some cloud-watching?"

Adrien snorted. "Honestly, that sounds way more appealing than listening to Lila. Anything is, really, but..." He glanced towards the growing group around Lila. "I'd rather not have to hear about what Lila was saying and showing off secondhand, not when everyone believes everything she says."

Before Marinette could agree, Adrien had darted off, lingering on the edges of the group. He blended in pretty naturally, clearly going for a 'just-here-because-Nino-is' look and succeeding fairly well. Before anyone could notice that she wasn't joining the rest of the group, Marinette wandered off to rearrange the table and make it not quite so chaotic. Since Lila seemed to be settling in for a long story-telling session, Marinette took her sweet time in surveying everything that people had brought (Lila, she couldn't help but notice, had opted not to contribute) and figuring out the best way to arrange them. Shapes of containers had to be taken into consideration, of course, and then similar things- the salads, the chips- could be put together.

It made the table much neater and meant that nothing was in danger of falling off anymore.

Lila was still going strong with her stories, so Marinette turned her attention skyward for all of a minute (cloud-watching, it turned out, was not particularly interesting for an extended period of time) and then down to her phone. Finally, finally, Lila stopped talking and everyone broke up into their little friend groups. Marinette headed over to Adrien's side at once, something that was made much easier by the fact that Alya and Nino were still talking to Lila.

"So what's the latest nonsense?"

Adrien startled for a moment, then relaxed once he realized that it was Marinette next to him. "Oh, gosh. I don't know how, but Lila's come up with pictures to go along with her stories. She has selfies with Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Prince Ali, Ladybug..."

"She- what?" For once, Marinette was caught completely off guard. "She has photos? But none of those stories are true!"

"My guess is Photoshop. That, or she wanted to go low-tech, posters and life-sized print-outs." Adrien made a face, glancing around as he did to make sure that they weren't being overheard. "I don't know why she went all-in like that all of a sudden. Like, it didn't seem as though people were believing her any less than they were when she first showed up."

"Maybe she just wanted to head off that possibility before anyone caught on." Which was annoying, really. Marinette had just been about ready to try for another round of pointing out inconsistencies in Lila's stories to Alya, abet a more subtle round, and now that Lila had "evidence" to back up her claims...

Well, that made things a lot more difficult. She would have to abandon subtlety altogether and do something much more direct, like calling up Jagged Stone and having him come in or somehow approaching Lila as Ladybug when Alya was nearby and calling her out for the Photoshop.

She really should have just nipped the entire problem in the bud when Lila first showed up and gone to Alya's apartment to ask about the video of her "best friend" on the same day that it was posted, but it was a little too late to do that now.

"It makes me wonder if she's setting up to do something bigger," Adrien murmured, keeping his voice low. Maybe none of their classmates were lingering close by, but they didn't want to be overheard. "Then she would want to have a solid base. If she validates all of her previous lies, then she can tell a bigger one and not run as big of a risk of people doubting her."

Marinette nodded. Yeah, she was afraid of that, too. She also wouldn't be surprised if Lila decided to make up something about her to get rid of the dissenting voice for once and for all. If she tried, though, Marinette was ready.

There was a lock on her school bag, and another on her locker. Tikki had been told to keep an eye out and to destroy anything that Lila tried to plant. Marinette had even bought a recorder, in case she ever found herself alone with Lila and no witnesses again.

Of course, Lila might very well decide to take the approach of making Marinette look like the bad guy by bringing attention to the fact that she didn't believe any of Lila's stories, and then try to alienate her friends that way. Marinette wouldn't let that happen- she'd just use her connections to discredit Lila if it got that bad- but it wouldn't be particularly pleasant, either.

"Maybe she wants to skip again and the teachers are starting to doubt her," Marinette suggested, keeping her voice just as quiet as Adrien's. "So she's going more indirect this time by showing off her pictures to classmates but not the teacher- except no, it would make more sense than to show the photos off at school. Then she wouldn't have to depend on the teachers overhearing classmates just happening to mention the photos."

"True. Which suggests that whatever she's planning, it's more important that our classmates all believe her." Adrien sighed. "I miss the days before Lila showed up. I didn't feel like I had to keep an ear open to what was going on and what was being talked about all the time."

Marinette nodded. Yeah, things had been a lot more simple before Lila returned. Maybe she still had to deal with Chloe's nonsense, but at least Chloe hadn't been trying to frame her for things, just make her life difficult in typical bully fashion.

"I guess we'll find out what she's up to soon enough," Marinette said with a sigh. She wasn't looking forward to it. "I almost wish I could see the photos without Lila there. I bet there's something off about them that I'd be able to point out, but she's hardly going to hand over her phone and let me pick them apart."

Adrien perked up. "Oh! Lila sent her Ladybug photos to Alya to post on the Ladyblog. Maybe it's not all of the photos, but you could at least look over those ones."

Marinette grinned. That was a start, at least. Of course, she would have to be really careful when bringing up any problems with the photos because otherwise she wouldn't even get her friends to actually look at the issue before they jumped down her throat about how she was being so mean doubting poor Lila, but maybe she could pose any concerns as a question or something.

"Hey, Marinette, come check this out!"

"I'll wait here and if Nino and Alya got anything more out of Lila once they finish chatting with her," Adrien said when Marinette hesitated to respond, not fully willing to give up their discussion so early. He nudged her towards Max. "There'll be plenty of time to try to figure out what Lila's up to later."

Marinette nodded, stepping away from Adrien and heading across the grass towards Max. He was grinning, looking eager about something.

"I would love some feedback on some of my proposed designs for the akuma villains that I'll be rolling out as part of my upcoming game update," Max told Marinette as she drew closer. He pulled a folder out of his bag and opened it, pulling out a sheath of papers. "Both the villain costume design and the powers, really. I want to make them a bit less, ah, one-dimensional, I suppose. Less predictable. I had some ideas, but would definitely be open to any improvements before I code them all in."

Marinette perked up. Oh, that sounded interesting, and something that sounded loads more interesting than discussing Lila and her nonsense. "Sure! How many akumas are you thinking of adding?"

"I thought ten to fifteen in the next release, then maybe do regular releases after that on a more regular basis with five or so akumas per release, just to keep things fresh." Max adjusted his glasses, angling the paper stack so that Marinette could see the top design. "Of course, how long I can do that for depends on Hawkmoth making new akumas and not simply recycling powers over and over, but at the moment I have quite a list of supervillains that I could use."

"That sounds like a lot of work, but very cool," Marinette told him, accepting the top paper. She scanned the design, grinning when she noticed how well Max had done at getting the details right. "This is so cool! Was it hard getting all of the details?"

"Nathaniel assisted with the character modeling," Max told her, shuffling around so he could stand next to her and see the page as well. "Which really helped bring the characters to life."

"It's really fantastic!" Marinette glanced through the next few papers, impressed. It was a real step up from Max's original character designs, which had been detailed enough for people to be able to identify the characters but nowhere near this quality. He had focused less on the design and more on the coding for the actual play. "Have the old characters gotten the same design upgrade?"

"Yes, that was what the last update was. I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect and there wouldn't be any mismatch between the old characters and the new ones." Max shuffled a step closer. "So, what do you think about this character?"

Ten minutes of character review later, Marinette left Max scribbling down notes in the margins of his character pages and headed back across the park to where her friends were hanging out. Halfway there, she was stopped in her tracks by the sound of Lila's voice, loud and pointed and annoying.

"You missed out on seeing my pictures earlier," Lila said loudly, smugness coming across loud and clear in her voice. "Which is a pity, really. There were some really nice ones that my mom recovered off of my old phone. If you wanted, I could still show you a couple."

Marinette snorted at that. As if. "So you've taken up Photoshop as a hobby, I take it?" she asked, thoroughly unimpressed. "And I think I'll pass on looking at the photos. If I wanted to see something that wasn't real, I'd go watch an action hero movie. That would at least be enjoyable."

"You're just so certain that they're doctored," Lila sniffed, still insufferably smug. "Do you know how jealous that makes you sound? It's not a very attractive look on you at all."

Marinette had to roll her eyes at that. Jealous? Why on earth would she be jealous of Lila? "Puh-leeze. There was a photo of me and Jagged Stone on the cover of Metal Lord not even a year ago, and I've got actual selfies of me and Clara Nightingale on my phone from when she was doing her music video. I don't need Photoshop. Some of us actually have the connections that you pretend to have. If anyone is jealous, it's you."

With that, she turned on her heel and left before Lila could say anything else, continuing her journey towards Alya and Nino and Adrien. Alya was busily tapping away on her phone, clearly in Ladyblog article mode.

She would probably have the photos and whatever article she was writing up done by the evening and posted with the photos, and then Marinette could look at them. With any luck, there would be something obvious wrong with them, and maybe- maybe she could post under an anonymous name and bring up the fact that the photos were clearly faked then?

"Max sure looks serious about something," Adrien commented as Marinette returned, settling down on the grass between him and Alya. "I don't know anyone else who would bring a file folder to a picnic- well, anyone else our age, at least."

"He's gearing up to start work on a new release for his video game," Marinette told him. She was really excited to see it, actually. Hopefully she would actually have the time to play. "Or, well, he's started work, but he wanted to get some input on how to make it better. He has twenty new akumas lined up to create, and they all look fantastic!"

Adrien perked up. "Oh, cool! I saw that the graphics took a huge leap forward with the last release, which was really nice. Before, it was very, ah..." He tipped his head to one side, considering. "Very early-game-y? But now the graphics match the coding, which is nice. I know there was a huge spike in interest once that upgrade came through."

"As there should be!" There had been several akuma-and-superhero-themed games that had come out since she and Chat Noir hit the scene, but in Marinette's (completely unbiased) opinion, Max's was one of the best. "We were talking about the powers that the akumas get and how he's working on making them a little more realistic and less predictable. Thankfully he doesn't have to puzzle it out through trial and error for each akuma. Or, well, at least he really only had to do a bunch of puzzling for the first one, and then each one after that only needs a few small tweaks here and there."

"I can't wait for that to come out. Did Max say when he's expecting to have that ready to roll out?"

Marinette shook her head. She had asked too, but Max had said that there were way too many variables to promise anything yet. "I think he's still early on enough in the process that it's impossible to predict. Everything could go really smoothly..."

"...or the code could tie itself into knots and take weeks to find the issue," Adrien finished. "Ah, I suppose I could be patient."

"I wonder if Max would be interested in giving out some preview pictures before everything is ready to go," Nino chimed in. "I know Alya's mentioned his game on the Ladyblog before, but it never hurts to drum up some more interest. Right, babe?"

He got a vague grunt in response.

"Babe?"

"I think she's a bit focused at the moment," Adrien said with a laugh when Alya didn't respond again. "We'll bug her later. I think Max's game is a pretty cool thing to put on the Ladyblog."

"Though not as cool as Lila!" Nino exclaimed. "I mean, I guess her friendship with Ladybug is old news now, but Ladybug doesn't pose with civilians that often, not unless there's an event or something. And the pictures- Marinette, you missed that! Lila's mom got a specialist to recover a bunch of her photos from off of her old phone that got destroyed, and she was showing everyone. It was cool to get to see the inside of Prince Ali's palace! Like, there weren't a ton of pictures of the inside, just what we could see in the background of her photos with him, but still!"

"Hm," Marinette said, completely noncommittal. "Pity. I had to make sure that none of the food was going to fall off of the picnic table. It kind of looked like Kim might have arranged it last- there was a really precarious pile of stuff. One pan was hanging halfway off of the table and the only reason why it hadn't fallen yet was because something else was piled on top of the portion that was actually on the table."

Adrien laughed. "That sounds like Kim. And yet there was plenty of space on the table, it seems? Nothing is about to fall off now."

"Yeah, it was just that dishes were piled every which way and there were a lot of oddly-shaped gaps between..." Marinette trailed off, squinting across the park. Lila was headed towards Rose and Max and Juleka, but something seemed... off. She didn't seem entirely steady on her feet for a moment, half-stumbling before catching herself and continuing.

Huh. Was Lila still sick? She had seemed mostly fine at school on Friday, and for most of the rest of the week, too. Marinette would have guessed that Lila was just trying to get attention again, except that stumble was...muted. Almost like Lila was trying to hide it.

...maybe she just didn't want to take attention away from her faked photos? The attention from that was sure to be better than any attention that she could get from being sick, even if Lila had clearly enjoyed the attention that she had gotten during her- what? One, two, maybe three weeks of being sick?

That... that was a long time to be sick.

Marinette kept watching Lila as she sat down, almost immediately joining in the conversation. She seemed fine now, but Marinette was positive that she hadn't imagined that stumble.

"-lots of tasty dishes," Nino was saying, though Marinette had largely tuned him out. "A lot of things that I want to try. The pastries you brought look great- and did you see the quiches that Juleka brought? I heard she made them herself!"

He didn't get a response. Marinette was too busy watching Lila.

She had the feeling that something was off, and she didn't want to let her guard down until she figured out what.

Hawkmoth had been quiet lately. Lila had gotten photos that were either photoshopped or had been made in some other way. Maybe it was a stretch to say that the two were related, but there was a niggling feeling in Marinette's gut that there was some sort of connection.

Marinette had long since learned that her gut was usually not a great thing to ignore. If she sensed that something was wrong, she needed to investigate. Just sitting back and waiting for things to resolve themselves or for problems to show up wasn't enough, not anymore.

"You guys? The quiches?"

Marinette startled, pulling her gaze away from Lila and back towards Nino. Right. Investigating was important, but so was not being obvious about it. If Lila caught her staring, or one of her other classmates did, then Lila would no doubt go out of her way to be even more sneaky about whatever it was that she was up to.

That was fine. Marinette could hold a conversation and watch Lila unobtrusively at the same time. So she did. And what she noticed...

Well, Lila was definitely still sick. She had looked positively green as she picked up food from the table (following what might have been either an attempt to make people feel like they had to rush to assure her that she could take all the food she wanted or a stab at getting out of eating that backfired spectacularly- Marinette suspected that it was meant to be the latter) and not entirely steady on her feet as she headed back to the bench that she had been sitting on. She hadn't eaten until one of the other girls commented on it, instead just pushing her food around her plate, and, if Marinette's eyes were serving her correctly, Lila seemed to occasionally be swaying in place. Which... wasn't normal.

If it weren't for the faked photos, Marinette would say that Lila was just ill and wasn't up to- well, wasn't up to being up to something. But clearly she had had enough energy to put in the work to create the photos.

Unless- well, there was a possibility that Lila had been working on those photos gradually, over the course of several weeks, and just finished them recently. Several weeks of Photoshop work logically made more sense than a day or two, unless Hawkmoth was involved. Somehow.

...it wasn't a completely illogical thought, right? She was pretty sure that Lila had worked willingly with Hawkmoth before. She had been Akumatized and looked just like normal, at least for a bit. So it wasn't impossible.

...but then how did the cold fit in? And why on earth would Hawkmoth bother giving someone photoshopping powers?

Across the way, Lila swayed in her seat again. She was looking rather pale now, and Marinette wondered why she hadn't just gone home. It would have been easy enough for Lila to claim that she had just gotten an email requesting an urgent Skype meeting about pollution or something and then she could have left.

"Just like Mom and Nathalie," Adrien murmured, pulling her out of her thoughts. "That's so strange."

"Hmm?" Marinette blinked over at him, puzzled. "Who is?"

"Lila." Adrien tipped his head towards Lila, who was pushing herself to her feet to follow Rose. "I think I might have mentioned it once before. Nathalie was really ill just like Lila. She was all tired and ill and dizzy for the longest time before she started getting better, and then there were sometimes off days where she seemed just as sick as she had been before. Mom was like that too before she vanished. And I've never heard of a cold before that acted like that."

"Me either." Not that there weren't illnesses that behaved that way. They just weren't colds. Not an average, run-of-the-mill cold, anyway. "Nathalie got better though, right? So if Lila caught whatever she had- oh my god!"

Across the park, Lila had stumbled and then simply collapsed, hitting the ground hard enough- and in an awkward enough position- that it was pretty obvious that it was 100% not at all faked.

"LILA!" Rose shrieked, dashing back to her side. "Oh my god, can you hear me? Are you okay? What- what do we do?"

"Rose, take a deep breath," Marinette called, already shoving herself to her feet. She had gotten first aid training several months prior, just in case she ever needed it as Ladybug, and- well, she was pretty positive that she was the only one in the class with the training, which meant that she needed to take charge. No matter how much she disliked Lila- or how suspicious she was that Lila was up to something- she had to do the right thing. "Juleka, help Rose roll Lila onto her back so that she isn't all crumpled up like that. Alya, call for an ambulance."

"On it!"

Marinette dashed over as Rose and Juleka got Lila into a more comfortable position on the ground. Lila's skin was white as a sheet against her hair, so far beyond pale that it was really concerning.

At least she was breathing. Marinette could tell as much as she skidded to a stop by Lila's side.

Rose was practically in tears. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She's breathing, so she should be fine." As long as she kept breathing, at least. Marinette quickly scanned through her memories of what she had learned in her first aid class. Lila had been acting ill before, so they didn't need to worry about environmental threats to them, too. That also pretty much ruled out choking, and the fact that Lila hadn't been coughing or clutching at her throat (or eating) before confirmed that. She had just passed out, so watching after her while they waited for an ambulance to arrive should be pretty easy.

Now, as far as things that they could do went...

"We want to encourage blood flow to the head, since Lila fainted," Marinette told everyone, keeping a close eye on the slow rise and fall of Lila's chest. "If someone could find something to prop Lila's feet up a bit, that should help. And then I'm just going to make sure that her clothes aren't too tight, because tight clothes restrict blood flow."

Several people darted off to grab their backpacks or bags to prop Lila's feet up. Marinette watched them go for a moment, then turned her attention back to Lila.

Right. What she was meant to do if Lila's clothes were tight, Marinette wasn't sure, but if she could figure out how to defeat an akuma with a traffic cone, she was pretty positive that she could puzzle out how to help Lila.

Methodically, Marinette worked over Lila's body, scanning for anything that might be in need of loosening, pausing briefly partway through to help Nino prop up Lila's feet slightly before going back to her scan. Nothing in particular was sticking out, except for maybe Lila's scarf. Even that was pretty loose, though, not something that would be cutting off any blood or air.

Maybe she should still be removing it? That would probably be a good idea.

"Marinette," Tikki hissed suddenly from Marinette's collar. "I'm sensing something really odd near Lila's neck. Can you take off her scarf? I just- I want to check something out."

Marinette nodded as subtly as she could, not wanting to attract any attention from her audience, then carefully removed Lila's scarf. There was something hard hidden in the folds, and a quick glance down at Tikki confirmed that whatever it was that she had sensed was on the scarf itself.

Had- had she been right? Was Lila actually akumatized and Tikki had detected the akumatized object? Maybe she had been akumatized all week, and that was why she had seemed better. Then the sickness had gotten too much and gotten through the boost that the akuma gave.

Which... well, that made Marinette wonder just how sick Lila was if it was able to force its way through the boost that an akumatization usually gave.

Also, speaking of which, she had to get away soon, then, and purify the akuma before it peeled itself out of whatever was in the scarf. But she couldn't just step away from Lila unnoticed, not when she was the only one of her classmates who was trained in first aid. She would have to wait until the professionals arrived- and even then, she would probably have to brief them on what she had seen and done, even if she had seen the same thing as most of her classmates and hadn't really done much in terms of care.

...maybe she would get lucky and the cursed butterfly would stay in the brooch or whatever it was in the scarf until after Lila was turned over into far more capable hands. It was a long shot, but not completely impossible.

Maybe. Hopefully.

"Here comes the ambulance!" Nathaniel called from the corner of the park. He rushed back towards them. "Clear a path, clear a path!"

The next few minutes were a blur as everyone scrambled out of the way of the path and grabbed up stray bags, making way for the paramedics. They surrounded Lila, taking her vitals and moving her onto a stretcher when she didn't respond. There were questions to answer about what they had seen and what they had done and then Lila was being wheeled away towards the ambulance. The class swarmed towards the curb, watching the ambulance pull away anxiously, but Marinette held back. With everyone else's attention off of her, she glanced down at the scarf in her hands. No corrupted butterflies had fluttered free yet, so Marinette carefully unfolded the scarf to see what was inside.

The folds fell away, tumbling to the side, and the pin inside was exposed. It glinted brightly in the sun, and Marinette gasped.

Because that was no akumatized brooch. That was the Peacock Miraculous.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #The Wavering Peahen

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the-mill-kat · 4 years

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Unshaken Chapter 7

Posted April 5, 2020 | Arthur Morgan x Reader (18+) Slow Burn Romance 🐺❤️🦌

Whew, these chapters just keep getting longer and longer as we delve deeper into the story! Please like/comment/reblog, each one really makes my day! Please let me know what you think. That said, enjoy Chapter 7, y’all!

(Photo credit: the-mill-kat)

You save a mysterious man who is dying on a mountain. Finding out he has Tuberculosis, you use your knowledge and skills with herbs and natural remedies to save him from death and help nurse him back to health. As he slowly starts to recover, you can’t help but wonder: Who is this man? Why had you found him the way that you did, beaten and ill? Only time, patience … and perhaps love … will tell.

Arthur hadn’t expected it.

The feeling of Y/N’s soft lips on his skin, though brief, had completely surprised him. He’d truly had no idea that his drawing would bring out that kind of response from her.

He’d only thought of his drawing as a mere momentary ‘thank you' for all she’d done for him, at least until he was physically capable of doing much more, something kind of like hard labor in return for all her troubles, such as hunting or field work.

After having realized what the white lily meant to her, what it stood for in her life, he knew the sketch of the flower would mean a lot to her, but a receiving a kiss on the cheek for it? His mind nearly raced, still feeling the wetness on his cheek that her lips had left behind.

She’d pulled away instantly, and the blush in her cheeks that he noticed was absolutely adorable. She didn’t look at him as she said, “I’m so sorry, Arthur, I didn’t mean … I — I’ve never kissed anyone before. I don’t know what came over me.”

Those words slammed into him hard, taking him aback. This beautiful woman— one who looked after him all this time, putting his own needs before hers, showing so much passion and strength for her work — turned out to be just as delicate as the white lily itself when it came to anything intimate.

In that moment, knowing how embarrassed she was about what she’d done, knowing how truly inexperienced she was, he wanted to lean forward and claim those lips for his own, to be the first one to kiss those beautiful lips, to reassure her that he was grateful for what she’d given him, that her adorable action was nothing to be ashamed of. Even though he hadn’t expected it from her, he found that he was extremely drawn to her for it.

He hadn’t had very much luck with women in the past because of the life he’d led, and who he’d been. No woman would have him, every one of them leaving him in the end because of the choices he’d made and the life style he’d led. But now … with this fresh start to his new life … and with a woman who showed that she clearly cared about him and for his health, he realized he could be a new man, someone who could possibly protect her and keep her safe with the skills he possessed.

He wanted to let her know that she had nothing to worry about.

“Is that right, honey?” He asked her with a grin, still enjoying the nickname he’d given her. Then before she could respond to his question he leaned his head forward and claimed her lips with his own.

Warm. Oh, so very warm. Her lips felt so plump and soft against his rough ones. She opened her mouth in a gasp, and Arthur stole that opportunity to deepen the kiss even further, pushing his tongue between her teeth and colliding it with her own. Part of him couldn’t believe what he was doing, feeling like he was taking complete advantage of her by taking the kiss even further.

But another part of him knew deep down that he actually wanted this woman. Though she was unaware of it, after all this time she’d proven to him that she was someone who deserved passion, someone who was worth protecting, and he was going to do just that, even if it ended up being just the latter. She’d saved his life, so it was the least he could do.

Those words rang in his head again, the ones she’d said to him earlier, still haunting his mind.

I hate them, every outlaw out there.

Damn those words.

He’d been an outlaw all his life, his rough childhood leading him to join a gang he’d eventually come to know as his own family. The family who raised him for so many years to grow into the man he was today.

They were all so misunderstood in a world that absolutely refused their lifestyles, the harsh ways they got by with the actions they committed. The life of an outlaw, wild and free, making a living off of murdering and thieving, but only to those who deserved it.

But the rest of the world would never listen. It was their way or nothing, and Arthur had chosen his path.

But he understood her pain, and why she would say something like that. Whoever these men were, they had stolen away her mother, someone who she’d clearly loved very dearly.

He knew he didn’t deserve Y/N. Not after everything he’d done, not even if he became a new man. How would he ever tell her who he’d been without scaring her, without her running away in the end like all the others?

He tried to chase those thoughts away, distracting himself with the feeling of Y/N’s mouth against his.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

You couldn’t believe it … he was kissing you.

Arthur was kissing you!

When you’d pulled away after kissing him on the cheek, you’d expected him to verbally lash out at you in some way, to be berated with questions on why you thought you had the right to lay your lips on him in any way. Maybe your expectation of his response was a bit of an over-exaggeration, but you couldn’t help but feel terrified from what you’d just done. Your mind was completely overwhelmed from it, racing with thoughts that had no semblance of reality to them whatsoever.

But in the end, he didn’t do any of those things you’d expected him to. No, instead he said those few words, using that endearment again, leaned forward and placed those lips of his right on your own.

They felt so rough, but also warm and soft at the same time.

You were being kissed, you realized, and the realization of that fact had your heart racing. The kiss was such a surprise that you couldn’t help a small gasp escape you at the response, and you felt his wet tongue push into your mouth, licking its way between your teeth so it could dance with yours.

You were unable to move, unsure of what to do, so you just stayed still and let him continue the kiss, eventually finding yourself getting lost in the foreign sensations of all the warmth and wetness. So this was a kiss, you thought. It felt so strange, being so close to a man like this, feeling his heat through his lips and his tongue.

You found yourself absorbing his sweet touch, leaning in closer to him, allowing yourself to be led into his intimacy.

You thought of the feelings that overcame you from the beautiful drawing he’d made of your favorite flower, something special that he’d made just for you. The fact that he realized the flower meant so much to you, and that he went out of his way to draw such a pretty depiction of it so you could have something that symbolized such strong emotion; you couldn’t help but to get lost in his embrace.

After moments passed into the kiss, you felt his hand begin stroking the back of your neck, and he began running his fingers through your hair, his grip tightening to pull you even closer to him. He began to press harder, his head tilting to get better access to your lips as his breathing intensified through his nose, deepening the kiss even further. He pushed his tongue against yours, licking and sucking at your lips and teeth. The scruff of his beard felt rough on your skin, and the heat of him increased.

All these staggering feelings running through your head and his actions suddenly became so immense that you jerked your head back, breaking the intimate contact. You hesitated as you distanced yourself from his face, bringing your eyes up to see the confused look he was giving you for pulling away. Those sapphire-emerald eyes of his were holding so much emotion in them that you couldn’t possibly begin to read whatever he was feeling. You looked away to avoid his gaze.

His deep drawl made you shiver, “Are you alright, Y/N?” He released his grip from your neck, lowering his hand down to his side.

You nodded, unable to form any words. The space between both of you suddenly becoming very static and uncomfortable. Though you couldn’t deny the feelings that went through your body for this man, you couldn’t let yourself get carried away. Not now and not like this.

There was no doubt in your mind that his body and mind were still weak in certain areas, his mental state still recovering from all his treatments. There was a possibility he wasn’t actually thinking straight, and he didn’t deserve to get taken advantage of like this.

“It’s nothing, Arthur,” you said under your breath, shaking your head in an effort to try and bring your mind away from the heat you’d felt and bring it back to reality. “Please don’t think anything of it, I’m just … You’re still sick. I can’t let you … I’m not going to —” How could you possibly let him know what you were thinking without revealing the kinds of feelings you had for him? If anything, doing so would no doubt scare him away when he was thinking straight, and that was the last thing you both needed since he was still recovering.

You could still feel his stare, and you looked back up to see his face. His expression was somber. His lips, that beautiful mouth that was just on your own, now pressed into a thin line of disappointment. His blue eyes that had been sparkling before were now flat, his dark brows furrowed down as if he were lost in thought.

Finally, he lifted the corners of his lips to give you a small smile. “It’s alright, Y/N,” he said, his voice sounding low and hoarse as he gave a single nod, looking toward the stream. “I understand.”

Did he though, you thought as you took in his features. Arthur’s face looked pained, as if he were remembering something. Possibly from his past?

Suddenly, he braced his hands on his knees and stood up from the fallen log. Without a word and without looking at you he bent over and grabbed the fishing rod from your side, walking back over to the edge of the wide stream. What was going through his mind, you thought as he cast the lure back out to the water in silence. Then another thought occurred to you, and it made you worry. Was he hating himself for what he’d done?

“Arthur?” You called out.

He looked over his shoulder at you, offering a small smile, though you knew it wasn’t genuine. “Yeah?” He asked.

You stared down at your feet, pushing a few rocks with the tip of your toe, not sure of what to say. Finally, you lifted your head back up to look at him, “I think you’re a good man,” you said. It was all you could say, you couldn’t think of anything else. But you wanted to let him know that he had nothing to worry about, that nothing had changed because of the kiss.

He’d proven to you over the last few weeks that he was an honorable person, someone to be trusted and who deserved respect. So what you said was the truth, even it it was out of the blue.

His lips suddenly tightened in response, as if he felt uncomfortable with your words, but why would he be? But then he just nodded, and turned his head back toward the stream.

You hadn’t meant to make him feel rejected, you thought sadly, lowering your head back down to push a few more rocks with your feet. The intimate connection you’d both just shared had been such a strange sensation, such a foreign feeling to you, that when he’d suddenly started to push further it had made you pull away. There was no doubt in your mind that he must’ve thought of that action as you turning him down, but truly you knew you were just concerned for his health.

But he was clearly hurting, and you wondered what must’ve been going through his head at that moment. He seemed to accept the thought of the rejection rather strangely, as if it had happened to him before. You lifted your gaze back up to look at him.

Had he loved someone in his past? Someone he’d loved who’d left him, or hadn’t loved him in return?

You narrowed your eyes, studying his broad form, his beautiful dark-chestnut-brown hair, the strong way he held himself. What woman in their right mind would turn this man away? You couldn’t help but stare at him as his back was to you, unable to stop yourself from noticing the power his body held, the way he gave off a kind of intimidation that was indescribable. He was like a large beast that couldn’t help but display his menacing characteristics just by his appearance alone.

You wondered what he would be like once he was fully recovered and truly back on his feet.

Who had he been, you pondered then, what sort of things had happened to him to shape him into the man he appeared to be now? What kind of life had he led up to this point, before you’d found him dying on that mountain? Why or how had he gotten sick?

What horrible things had happened to him that made him end up the way you’d found him? All these questions started running through your mind as you tried your best to piece things together, but none of it made sense. From what you had experienced of his personality, you couldn’t figure out why he’d been there, sick, beaten and bleeding. The person he was now was such a big contrast to whoever he could have possibly been to end up that way.

Then you thought of that mysterious man you’d spotted disappearing into the forest, the moonlight revealing that dirty blonde hair. It had been the only characteristic of his you’d picked up, along with his very nasty voice as he’d been cursing while running off. Had he been the one who placed Arthur in the situation you’d found him in? Was he the one who’d beaten him so badly that he’d been brought to the brink of death? A part of you desperately wanted to find out who that man was, what he was doing, where he was now. Anger nearly boiled your blood at the thought of that man hurting Arthur. From what you’d seen so far, he hadn’t deserved that horrible thing to happen to him. No one did, but especially not him. You were just so grateful you had found him in time.

You remembered him mentioning someone named Hosea. You weren’t sure if it had slipped from his lips by accident based on the expression he’d made after he’d said it, but he’d explained that the man had been a sort of father-figure to him. What had happened to his real parents, how did Hosea find him? What happened to him that made him lose his life? The questions seemed endless. The more you learned about Arthur, the more questions seemed to be raised.

The silence between the two of you stretched on for so long, and all the while you tried to think of what to say next. But what was there to say? There was no doubt in you mind that he thought you rejected him, and he was hurting because of it. He was still highly medicated, so his mind was weak, you thought, he wasn’t thinking straight. And there were some side effects that could effect one’s thoughts and actions, no doubt. You’d seen the animals you’d treated in the past behave strangely in response to similar treatments.

It was such a damn dilemma. On one hand you worried his actions were based on his possibly mixed mentality from the medications, on the other you didn’t want him hurting or thinking that you didn’t care for him. All the while at the same time you didn’t want to risk chasing him off either.

Dammit, it felt like such a paradox!

There just couldn’t be any way that he had actually meant to kiss you … right?

Thinking back to the kiss, you raised the tips of your fingers to your lips. The kiss had actually felt so genuine. Even though you worried he was just under the influence of the herbs and medication, it had still felt so real, you thought. The connection, even if it was just on your side, had definitely been there during the kiss the entire time.

You had to apologize, to let him know there was nothing for him to worry about. None of it was his fault.

“Arthur, I — ” you looked back up at him and he turned to face you once again. The words caught in your throat as he waited for you to continue, and you tried you best to push them out. His stare definitely didn’t help. How could anyone possibly hole a straight conversation with this man with how intimidating he looked? “I — ”

The lure on the fishing line jerked, and Arthur snapped his head back over to the water, his focus back on the task at hand. He immediately began to reel in the line, drawing the fish closer and closer to shore.

Finally, he pulled a large Muskie out from underneath the surface, water splashing as it landed at his feet. He crouched down, bending his knees as he reached down to pick it up. He worked out and released the hook from its mouth and placed the large fish in the bucket with the other. “That oughta do it,” he said, his accent strong. He looked over at you, “There enough here to feed us for a couple days, you think?”

You had to smile as the unease seemed to soften just a bit from his light-hearted words. The tension was clearly still there, but you saw that he was giving you a chance to move forward to another topic. You nodded in response, “Yes, I think that should set us up for awhile.” He picked up the large bucket and without thinking you rushed over and took it from him, “Now, what’d I say about you lifting heavy objects?” You said as snatched it from his grasp playfully. As the weight was exchanged, you nearly dropped the bucked. Each fish had to at least weigh over fifteen pounds. There was no way you were going to let Arthur carry this.

He gave you a grin in response as he folded up the fishing rod, amused by your struggle, “Sure you can handle that, honey?” He teased. His voice was still a bit rough, as if his mind was still racing with emotions, but you could tell that he was trying really hard to lighten the mood.

“Yes, I got it, Arthur,” You teased back with a smile.

You and Arthur carried everything back to the shed by the stables, and you set the bucket down near Austin’s butchering station while Arthur placed the fishing rod back precisely where Austin had it stored before.

Just as you straightened from placing the bucket down you heard heavy hoofbeats growing closer. You looked around to see your brother riding Lily with Butch following directly behind him. The horses were incredibly dirty, their hooves and legs muddy as if they had had quite the run through the fields on the other side of the forest.

“Welcome back, Austin!” You shouted to him. Your brother lifted his hand in a wave as he rode over to you. Once he reached you and Arthur, he swung his leg over and dismounted Lily. You reached out to Lily and stroked her muzzle softly, “Were you a good girl?” You whispered playfully to the horse. Lily whinnied and shook her head up and down, her white mane flapping. You smiled, “I hope Austin was kind to you while you were away?”

You felt Austin’s glare on you, “Hey, now, you know I ain’t a bad rider!” he said.

You shrugged, and you couldn’t help but add, “I guess not, but Lily has told me here that you’re definitely not the best.”

Austin just gaped, then he looked up at Lily, “C’mon, girl, I ain’t that bad, right?” He actually waited for a response.

Lily just looked at him then turned her head, looking away from Austin as if to say she did not approve of him.

Austin’s jaw dropped, then he closed his mouth and just rolled his eyes, looking away as he went over to Butch, who nudged his shoulder. He scratched the horse’s large neck making the war horse let out a strong snort of content. “Alright, fine then. No carrots for you tonight, Lily. They’ll all go to Butch here.”

You gasped, bringing a hand to your chest in mock surprise, “How dare you threaten my girl!” You reached out and stroked Lily’s muzzle in an effort to comfort her, “Don’t worry, Lily, you can have all the treats you want. Don’t listen to the bad man.”

Austin couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at your silly action. He came over to give you a hug, like he usually did after coming back from a trip, no matter how long or short it was. “Missed you, little lady.” He said. You smiled and hugged him back, then he leaned down to say in your ear, “Did Arthur behave while I was gone, or do I need to beat him up for ya?” He made it look like he was whispering it to you, but you were sure he intentionally said it loud enough for Arthur to hear.

You lightly pushed at your brother’s chest, making him take a step back. “How dare you, Austin,” you snapped, feeling a blush creep into your cheeks. “Of course Arthur was a perfect gentleman!” You felt Arthur’s gaze on you and you turned to see him giving you a knowing smile, as if he was trying to make you think of the moment you two had just shared. You had to look away before your blush got any bigger. “He even taught me how to fish, we caught two large Muskies,” you added.

“Really? Great to hear that you know how to fish now.” Austin chuckled at your reaction, not picking up on what Arthur’s smile to you actually stood for. “Well, I gotta get to work, I’ll take care of the horses and then start gettin’ to work on the fish.”

You looked up at your brother and reached out to place a hand on his big shoulder, “How about Arthur and I take care of the horses and you get to work on the fish now? Remember, sharing the load?” It was hard to get Austin to split the work sometimes. Even after all these years he would rather have you handle the delicate tasks while he did all the dirty work. But of course, it was the natural instinct he had as your older brother.

Austin raised up a hand to rub at the back of his neck, letting out a sigh. “Alrighty then, you know where the water barrel is, right?”

You resisted the urge to roll your eyes at him, was he ever going to trust you to remember where things actually were? Just because you didn’t work in the stables that often didn’t mean you forgot where things were placed. “Yes, Austin, I know where it is, and the brush, and the other tools.”

“Would you like some help?” Arthur asked.

You turned to look at him and smiled. “If you’re up to it, that would be great. It shouldn’t be too much work.”

“Alright, sounds like we all got our tasks set,” Austin said, clapping his hands together once, “I’ll see y’all when dinner’s ready.” Then he looked at Arthur with narrowed eyes, he lifted a hand to point directly at his chest. “I’m still keepin’ my eye on you, mister.”

Arthur didn’t dignify the statement with any kind of response, but you rolled your eyes, then you started pushing your brother away, urging him toward the butchering station. “Go, Austin, we’ll handle the horses, don’t you worry.”

Austin just gave a smile and nodded. He patted Butch on the back one more time, “See you later, boy.” Then he turned away and headed over to start working on the fish you’d caught.

“Alright, Arthur,” you said. You placed a gentle hand on Lily’s muzzle, an effort to keep her calm as you urged Arthur with a waving hand, gesturing for him to come over and stand next to you. He did as you asked, and you had him stand in front of Lily as you stepped aside. “Lily’s not so good with strangers, and I know this is your first encounter with her, so I’m going to show you how to — ” You stopped mid-sentence as you watched, shocked at what you saw happen next.

Arthur lifted his hand up, keeping his palm and fingers flat to reduce the risk of them getting bitten off, and Lily lowered her head down to sniff at it. Then, to your surprise, she let out a loud chuff of air through her nostrils and nudged his hand playfully, taking a step forward to get closer to Arthur. She pushed at his shoulder with her nose and huffed, the air of the snort blowing Arthur’s dark chestnut-brown hair back. Arthur just smiled and reached up to pet her on the check, “That’s a good girl.” He said to her softly, his voice deep and soothing.

The way he said it had you thinking about how it would feel if he talked to you like that. You shook your head suddenly, trying to erase that thought from you mind. “She seems to really like you,” you blurted, genuinely surprised at Lily’s reaction to Arthur. The first time you’d gotten her as a foal while you’d lived at the plantation, she had never warmed up to anyone but you, rearing at any strangers who dared to approach her. But she was calm with Arthur, using her nose to play with Arthur’s hair as he just smiled, allowing her to do what she wished.

“She’s never done that before,” you breathed, unable to fathom the sight before you. “How … How on Earth did you do that?”

Arthur lifted his gaze to you as Lily continued nudging at him, “I just gotta way with horses, I guess.” He said, letting out a small chuckle as Lily nearly pushed him off his feet. He lifted a hand to stroke her muzzle, and she let out a soft nicker, lowering her head as if she wanted him to pet her more. Arthur reached up higher and patted her head softly, running his fingers through her rough white mane. “She’s beautiful,” he said.

You smiled at his compliment, touched by his words and how well Lily was getting along with Arthur. “Thank you, I got her when she was a foal for my 20th birthday. She’s the sweetest horse you’ll ever meet, as long as she likes you.”

Arthur smiled in response, his deep voice amused, “Is that right? Well, I guess I’m a lucky man.”

“Do you know how to lead a horse?” You asked, nodding your head at Lily’s reins.

“Course,” Arthur replied, then took Lily’s reins in his big hand, grasping the leather strips arounds his fingers, ready to lead her.

You walked over to Butch who was grazing at some of the grass near a tree, “Hey, Butch, you ready to get cleaned up?” You asked him. He lifted his head to look at you, and you approached him slowly, reaching out a hand to let him know who you were. He seemed to recognize you and turned to walk in your direction, his heavy hooves crushing the grass beneath his massive weight. He would be an absolute threat to anyone he didn’t know. “Atta boy,” You said, leading him towards the stables.

Arthur joined you at your side with Lily as you both took the horses into the stables. You told Arthur to place Lily in her stall as you attached Butch to the wash rack. You got the water barrel and brush ready then started getting to work on cleaning his fur, “Would you mind making sure their stalls are cleaned, Arthur?” You asked over your shoulder.

“Will do,” Arthur replied. Soon you could hear shuffling noises in the stalls as he got to work on changing them out.

Once Butch’s coat was clean and you finished washing all the mud from his legs, you got to work on his feet, using the hoof-pick to clean out all the dirt from his hooves. When you were finished, you untied him from the washing rack and placed him in his stall. Arthur had finished up that one first, and now he was currently working on finishing up Lily’s stall. She didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he was in her space at all, which was so odd to you. Even to you she would sometimes nicker in annoyance if you stayed in her stall for too long. She was often like a child in that way, wanting her space to herself. But she didn’t seem to mind with Arthur in the least bit.

Arthur finished spreading out the clean hay and walked back over to you, giving you a small smile as he placed his hands on his belt, “Lily’s turn now?” He asked, referring to the wash rack.

“Yes, sir!” You replied, “C’mon now, girl.” You clicked your tongue a few times to get Lily’s attention, and she started walking over to you. You lead her over to the wash rack and tied her securely so she wouldn’t move around, then you got to work on wetting the brush in the water barrel and running the bristles through her fur, working out all the mud and grime. She had such a beautiful white coat when she was clean, you thought to yourself with a smile.

Arthur came over and picked up the hoof-pick you had left on the nearby table. He positioned himself by the horse’s side and lifted up one of Lily’s back hooves to get to work on cleaning them out, scraping all the chunks of dirt out before moving to the next hoof. So he knew how to groom horses as well, you thought. Had he been some kind of stable-master? Maybe a cowhand? A cowboy? You started to wonder again who he possibly could have been before you’d met him.

Several minutes passed by as both of you helped Lily get clean, until finally the chore was done, and you led her back into her stall. She turned to face you as you closed her door and leaned her head over the low gate, nuzzling your hair as if to thank you. “No problem, Lily.” You laughed and reached over to one of the sacks hanging off the wall, pulling out a carrot and offering it to her, “Here you go.”

Lily took what you offered greedily and you patted her gently on the muzzle as she munched up the carrot. You turned to see Arthur leaning against one of the walls by Lily’s stall, his brows furrowed as he looked at the horses as if he were trying to study them. Grabbing another carrot from the sack you went over and held it out to Butch, and the large horse approached you, leaning its head over the gate and taking it from your hand. When you pulled away, you looked over at Arthur, and the silence that suddenly approached felt like it stretched on forever.

You thought back to the kiss, remembering the feeling of his mouth on yours, the expression he’d made when you’d ended the kiss so abruptly. He’d looked so pained after you’d pulled away, but he seemed to have accepted your rejection with such a strange ease, as if he were used to being denied?

You opened your mouth to say something, then closed it. What could you possibly say? Was there anything that was going to change the unease and tension that had now placed itself between the two of you?

“That your brother’s horse?” Arthur’s voice suddenly pierced the silence, and the deep tone almost made you jump.

“Yes,” you replied, trying to clear your mind to answer his question, “Austin got Butch as a foal for his 20th birthday back in ’87, and this big guy has never left his side since.” You smiled at the memories, thinking back on all the playful times your brother had with Butch as he’d raised him from such a tiny thing to the big war horse he was today.

“So you got this horse for your birthday?” Arthur asked, his deep voice sounding curious as he looked over at Lily.

You nodded, “A farmer owned a Shire ranch near our plantation and a foal was just born to two of them. Her parents were both brown, but she was pure white, and my father knew how much I loved the color. So, he offered to buy it from the farmer, and she became part of the family.” You looked over at Lily as she leaned her head over the gate, nudging Arthur’s shoulder. “Hey, girl, don’t bother him,” you said teasingly, “ you already got your treat.”

Arthur let out a chuckle as Lily pushed his head with her nose. “Easy, girl.” He patted her muzzle and gently pushed her away. Lily snorted and shook her head, turning away to start munching at the hay he’d thoughtfully filled her trough with earlier.

You thought about how good he seemed to be with the horses, how he knew what to do to care for them, and the question popped up once again. Who had he been before you’d found him? What sort of life had he led? He was clearly skilled with horses and how to treat them. There was no doubt in your mind that he probably knew how to ride them, too. So who or what could he have possibly been? “Arthur?”

He broke his gaze away from the horses and looked at you, “Hm?”

How were you going to ask the question without sounding too peckish for the answers? Was it truly any of your business what his past was like, who he’d been before you found him? “Um, I noticed how well you get along with horses … did you use to work with them?”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, his thick brows drawing down as he lowered his head, breaking the eye contact between both of you. It seemed as though he was getting lost in his memories once again. “I did,” he said after a few moments, his voice nearly sounding like gravel. “Used to have one of my own, but … it passed away recently.”

You felt your heart suddenly ache for him, and you stepped forward to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Arthur.”

He nodded, acknowledging your touch with a small smile.

You nearly wanted to kick yourself for asking yet another question that just ended up bringing more pain to Arthur. Even though you couldn’t possibly know what he’d lived through and what he’d experienced, this man had clearly had a very rough life before you’d found him, and anything you tried to find out from his past seemed to do nothing but hurt him.

Truly, his life must’ve been a harsh one. Whatever happened to make him this way, to put him through so much anguish, it was clear to you that his answers to your questions were not going to be good ones. You decided to leave it alone for now, to let him tell his story whenever he was ready.

You gave him another smile in an effort to reassure him, to wordlessly tell him that you were no longer going to pry.

Arthur’s eyes, those beautiful sapphire emeralds, practically sparkled as he looked down at you, his lips stretching into a small but beautiful smile.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Arthur couldn’t help but appreciate the comfort Y/N was trying to give him, and he gave her a small smile to reassure her that he was alright, that she had nothing to worry about for asking him these things, he couldn’t blame her for being so curious about him.

But hell, he didn’t know how he was ever going to answer the questions she would have about his past. He feared that she was eventually going to find out who he’d been, what he’d been, what he’d done. He’d never even given her his last name in fear that she would recognize it and end up piecing together the undeniable fact that he was actually a wanted outlaw, and not just the innocent, normal man she had come to know him as.

He thought back on the kiss.

If she ever found out who he’d been, would she regret having done that with him? Would she throw him out of her house right on his ass?

Dammit, why had he done it, he thought. He’d had no right. She’d even pulled away from him when he’d tried taking it further, which he knew he’d been wrong for doing.

Of course she had rejected him, what woman in their right mind wouldn’t? He knew he didn’t deserve to have anyone in his life, not after the dark path he’d chosen to follow. It was no surprise to him that she’d broken away.

Then suddenly he thought of what she’d said earlier, that she’d never kissed anyone before. … Was that it? Had he moved too fast for her? Damn him, but was he an idiot for possibly not having thought of that sooner? He wanted to find out the reason she’d pulled away, even if he didn’t deserve to know the answer.

“You said you never kissed anyone before,” he said, his voice sounding rough to his own ears. He cleared his throat, “Is that why you pulled away?”

Her eyes widened at his question, and he wanted to punch himself in his own stupid face as he looked down to avoid her gaze. Why the hell did he even bother —

“Arthur,” her soft voice interrupted his thoughts, and he raised his eyes back up to look at her. Her expression was soft, and he could see a hint of blush filling her cheeks. “To be honest with you, I think I pulled away because … it was a lot to take in.” She lifted a hand to run her fingers though her hair, fiddling her finger through some of the loose strands as if she was nervous. “I was just worried, because you’re still sick. I — I wasn’t’t sure if the herbs and medication were mixing up your thoughts, so … I wasn’t going to let you do something that you probably didn’t mean to do, or that you would regret later.”

Arthur felt his heart nearly lift at her words, a heavy weight that had been sitting on his chest suddenly disappearing. So she’d thought that he hadn’t been thinking straight because of his treatments, and she’d feared that she would have been taking advantage of him if she’d allowed him to get carried away.

“You ain’t gotta worry ’bout that, honey.” He told her, his voice low and deep in an effort to soothe her. She gazed up at him curiously, as if to ask what he meant by that. He looked at those lips of hers, wet and inviting.

He leaned forward slowly, making sure she was comfortable with what he was about to do. But she didn’t move, and so he took that as an invitation.

Just as their lips were about to meet, that damn brother of hers shouted out from outside, “Y/N! Dinner’s all ready!”

She suddenly jerked, and Arthur straightened back up, fire in his eyes as he glared over at the open doorway of the stables, feeling like he wanted to burn everything else but Y/N at that moment.

“I — I think we should go and eat,” she said, her voice sounding so soft, as if she were shy about what had just been about to happen. He turned his head to look at her again. That blush was back in her cheeks, making her look so fragile. She stepped back and headed for the doorway. As soon as she reached it, she looked over her shoulder to see that he was still standing in the same spot he’d been in. “C’mon, Arthur!”

Arthur lowered his dark brows in irritation, placing both hands on his belt in a tight grip to avoid possibly murdering her brother for the intrusion, even if he hadn’t meant it. There was no way Austin could see what he and Y/N had been about to do.

But dammit, still!

He followed her back to the cabin where that damn brother of hers stood on the porch, waving nonchalantly at both of them. Arthur narrowed his eyes at the man, he was probably going to need to lasso Austin up at some point, just to keep him from interrupting anymore in the future.

— To Be Continued

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