#or Riven getting his feelings /so/ hurt that he breaks up despite the immediate mental consequences his dumb brain will put him though

[charmixpower]

Random thoughts:

1) Cursed ship idea Stella/Riven

2) Do you think Musa got into Alfea on a scholarship?

Apologises if you you’ve covered either of these random ideas before.

Hi Gloomy!

Majorly cursed. Not only are they absolutely not eachother's type, they're perticualr quirks would quickly get on eachother's nerves in a relationship context. I think they'd get along well enough as friends because they're both gossip whores, and both competely lack the ability to express their emotions without filtering it (Riven though anger, and Stella though humor) but only as friends and I can't imagine them being super close. What will happen is pretty clear: Riven is a naturally paranoid person with low self esteem, and he tends to assume the worst of every situation, so if Stella ever used her humor coping mechanism in relation to him and his stuggles his first immediate thought would be that she's making fun of him and his pain, this will either spike a argument (post s1 angry Riven is more spiteful and passive agressive than shout-y) or Riven will competely retract in on himself, Stella probably hates arguing and (what looks like) the silent treatment in a romantic context because of her parents and I can't see her being able to deescalate in any meaningful way, and you see?? It would fall apart almost instantly. Riven is just too sensitive of a person, and Stella isn't the type to watch her words. Plus their perticualr brands of hurting are very different from eachother's, so there really wouldn't be a common ground outside of the more surface level shared experiences. Like when two people on the opposite sides of the spectrum interact and drive eachother crazy despite the fact that they share something in common

Yeah Musa absolutely got into Alfea on a Scholarship. I think it was actually quite easy for her because of her magic. If we look at the minor Alfea faries, their powers are usually pretty narrow. Fairy of laughter, fairy of rivers, fairy of melody, so Musa's extremely broad powers as the fairy of music (later revealed to be the fairy of all sound, because Musa's powers are clearly not just music based in the show) would already put her far ahead of any other applicants. Musa has also shown that she has an extremely high capacity for magic and gets magically exhausted a lot more slowly than your average fairy, and I doubt you can't measure the amount of magic someone has. This combined with her high grades and strong worth ethic essentially guaranteed her a Scholarship. I can imagine Musa never realized how powerful her magic is until schools started tripping over their own dicks to get her, and she applied to Alfea after seeing all this on a whim and got a full ride and lost her shit. Extremely powerful faries are fairly rare, about as rare as someone naturally being extremely adept at at any perticualr thing (math, building muscle, ect), so it's not like Musa was the only one (the Winx as a whole also qualify), but because of her work and ethic she got one hellva leg up above other powerful faries that have just been coasting along by their magical abilities

[drops-of-moonlights]

Confrontation, A Winx Redux AU short

Roughly 2k words, kinda hurt/confort... I think. Stella, Riven, a diner, and the aftermath of the incident at Red Fountain’s Academic Showcase. (AO3)

It was 9PM, she was definitely breaking curfew, and Griselda will definitely give her the earful of her life when she gets back, but she didn’t care enough right now. Not after what happened at the Academic Showcase two days ago.

Bloom has only come out of her room to grab some food occasionally and she still doesn’t want to talk, and from what Brandon told her Sky is in more or less the same situation. She didn’t even want to imagine how Diaspro was feeling - she saw the reluctance in her speech on the news earlier that day and she was glad the redhead hadn’t seen it yet. She looked at the map on her phone to see if she was in the right direction, and finally arrived at the small diner she was heading to, recognizing the black motorcycle parked near the entrance. It was decently filled and the aroma of food was certainly promising, and that meant that she would not be noticed, even if her unusual dark clothes helped her blend in regardless. She started looking for a specific booth until she saw him.

“Hey, Riven” - she said with a familiar affection, even if the tone was pretty monotone - she was not in the best of moods. He seemed to be the same, if his expression was to be considered. “Hey yourself, Stella.”

She sat down opposite from him, and after quietly ordering their food they remained like that, Riven looking at her and she looking at the window absentmindedly, or at least she hoped that’s how she looked like. The silence finally broke with a question.

“So, was that why you asked me to not speak with you at all last year? The whole switch thing?” His tone sounded slightly hurt, but it was mostly just genuine curiosity. So he’s mad but not super mad, Stella thought to herself, so hopefully I can explain it without much issue. “More or less, yes.” She finally looked at him, and realized it might be more than just “mad”.

His eyes were very red, and while he tried to hide it a bit with that scowl, it was clear he had cried a bit. He was always bad with holding back tears.

“So for an entire year, I couldn’t hang with one of my best friends because of just some weirdass switch between a prince and his squire? For some marriage arrangement or whatever that shit was? Why the fuck did you even have to do with all that?!” He kept the tone low since they were in public, but it was clear he was hurting. From what she heard of what happened last year, she’s not surprised - and she really wished she had been there for him that time.

“More or less, yes”, she said again, before elaborating. “I was tasked to help with the cover of Prince Sky due to Eraklyon and Solaria’s ties, and as such anyone close to me that was not related to the Courts of Solaria or Eraklyon had to be cut off until it was deemed safe for Sky to reveal his identity”, she said, fully knowing how stupid that entire thing was. Erendor was being paranoid again and Samara only helped make that fear bigger, Sky knew how to use a sword and Brandon was always with him, he wasn’t in that much danger. She was happy her father agreed with her, but his hands were tied and the council accepted Eraklyon’s terms. She hated politics so much sometimes.

“So for an entire year, a year where I had one of the worst experiences of my life, a year I almost got expelled from Red Fountain, I could not talk with you, or even be near you, just because of some dumb royals deciding that you shouldn’t do all that?! For some dude?!” He wasn’t shouting yet, but he was getting close to. Her mind was telling her that she should try to calm him down, but her emotions acted first, her face twisting into a scowl matching his. 

“Right, because I didn’t suffer anything at all that year no siree, not like I had to break up with my boyfriend for all this bullshit, not like I had to go through my parent’s divorce, not like I didn’t get actually fucking expelled from Alfea in the middle of the year for some dumb accident. No, only you suffered at all. Of course”, she practically hissed the last words, anger starting to overcome her. Riven looked ready to start actually yelling, but he stopped and had a deep breath. “Okay, fine. We both went through some shit, sorry I pretended you didn’t went through bad things. I mean that.” He did sound sincere and his expression had softened. She took a deep breath herself, and tried to see how to continue as their food got served. This was not how she expected their first conversation in a year and a half to go like this.

“Thank you for apologizing. I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have made it seem like what you went through was nothing.” she started eating some of the steak they had ordered - nice consistency, though it could use more spices - before continuing. “I heard the rumors. That had to be hell on you.”

Riven took a bite himself, and looked out the window into the streets of Magica City. “It was, though I’m happy I didn’t get fully expelled and got the chance to stay at Red Fountain. My mother was between furious and ultra comforting when she found out,” he let out a small, sad chuckle at the memory before turning, “but that’s not what we’re here to talk about, Cami.” He finally looked her directly in the eye, and she was genuinely surprised at both her nickname and the topic change. “How are you taking all this?”

“Well, if Musa ever talks to me again even if it’s just insults I’ll be glad”, she looked down at her steak again, a sad look on her face. “It feels like she took it worse than Bloom and she wasn’t even involved. Tecna’s been mostly checking up on Bloom every hour to see if she’s starting to get better with Flora, and Aisha’s both understanding of why all this happened and also wanting to punch Sky and Erendor in the face.” She thought of that for a little longer, and the mental image made her giggle a bit. “As for myself… well, it’s good that I can no longer have to keep that hidden. On the other hand,” she looked out the window again”, I might have lost Bloom as a friend forever.” She still had the fire fairy’s scream fresh in her mind, of how she was a liar, a bad friend, of how she could have prevented her all this by telling her. She didn’t tell herself that it was her fault, but she still had part on it and she couldn’t deny that. “You?”, she returned the question, despite having already heard the answer. “How are you taking all this, especially with… well, with the Darcy thing also happening.”

It had been a week or so since the Trix’s identities had been revealed, and from what she knew the Roccaluce Paladins had been searching for Icy, Darcy and Stormy for all that time. She knew thanks to Musa that he had become good friends with the Solarian Witch, and all this on top certainly would not have helped. “Well, this didn’t help with that I can tell you that much,” called it, “but I feel at least this made me forget about that if only for a little bit.”, he looked back at her, sadness starting to lift from his head. “I still think this was completely stupid-” “it was, trust me”, she interrupted, “-but politics are like that from what I remember you telling me. So I guess I’m fine with it… for now”, he falsely threatened in that annoying fake tough guy tone of his, and she let out a small laugh at that familiarity. “I will see if this can hold up.”

“Thank you for that, Riven. It’s nice that we can finally talk again.” She reached out and held his hand, a genuine smile forming. “I missed this.”

“I missed it too, Cami”, he held the same smile, and they both finally started eating in full, catching up on lost time.

----

They had just finished eating, and they were waiting for the bill, when Stella asked some final questions. “Hey, have you kept in touch with the guys at all?”, a memory coming back to her forgotten in the previous talks. “Because last thing I heard is that you straight up disappeared after the Showcase.” Brandon had called her earlier that day to update her on things on his end, and he had admitted on not having seen Riven at all since then. He in turn sheepishly scratched the back of his neck, hints of embarrassment on his cheeks. “Uh, I… kinda went to sulk on the city for two straight days and I might or might not have tried to look for Darcy myself.” Stella immediately put her hand on her forehead, exasperated. “Of course you did. You were always bad with this type of stuff.” She looked back at him concerned. “You should go back already, you dumbass! Sky is being enough of a hassle as is, you don’t need to add to their worrying.” He let out an awkward laugh. “Yeah, I really should, I honestly just called you on impulse and… kinda went from there.” You’re always like that, Riven, she thought for a second. “I’m going to see if I can help coax Sky out of his blanket fort, he owes us his side of the story as well, and I’ll see if I can convince him to talk to Bloom for you.”

“If you manage that I’ll be impressed, he’s almost as stubborn as you are,” she said with a cheeky smile, before turning it into a real one. “But thanks, Riven. I’m happy we did this.”

“I’m happy about it too, Cami. I’m still with my bike, you want a ride back to Alfea?” “I would appreciate that, cuz I kiiiiiiiiiinda wasted the Sceptre’s reserves on getting to the city.” It was Riven’s turn to smirk. “And you call me impulsive?”

“Oh shut up.” Her tone was angry, but she was smiling, and she felt like things were finally looking better for her.