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mythicalmo · 3 months ago

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༊*·˚✎ the one with ember | e. r

·͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙ navi | m.list | esme m.list·͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺

content warning: established relationship, emotional manipulation, gaslighting, toxic behavior and speech from a romantic partner, toxic relationship traits, hints of social isolation word count: 2.1k

a/n: alright, this is my very first post so don't be too harsh on me if the quality is low. as for the warnings, there's nothing explicit, at least in my eyes, but there are traces of some toxic speech and manipulation so better safe than sorry. let me know if i miss anything!

"What're you doing?"

Esme jumped back as a deep voice broke through the ambience of the greenhouse. The cauldron she had was situated in one of the smaller side sections. The sounds of the fire from the burner and the bubbling from the mixtures she was working on was like a lullaby. It wasn't unusual to find her zoned out as she scurried around, her mind simply gone and lost to the world.

That's the sight that Ember must've been met with when he walked in and decided to sneak up on her. Her hand was pressed over her heart, eyes wide as she tried to catch her breath. The fire genasi in front of her was smirking at her in amusement. "Didn't mean to scare you. You were really zoned out there, huh?"

"Guess I was," she huffed out in a laugh. "What can I say? Brewing relaxes me." He gave a small hum of agreement, his arms coming around her waist and tugging her slightly. Her own came around his neck. The two of them leaned in, a chaste kiss shared between Ember making some sort of joke about her breathing in too many fumes.

"What's brewing?"

Esme immediately perked up. "Oh! Professor Fernstring is letting me do some of the prep for the potions lab next week!" She had been talking more frequently with the lab professor, her work during classes earning their attention. She was a skilled student, had some sort of natural talent for potions and working her way around plants and various ingredients. Honestly if she didn't she had no right calling herself a Wild Warden. Because the lessons weren't challenging enough for her, Professor Fernstring decided to allow Esme to take on a sort of lab assistant role. A small trial run to see how she'd cope with the work load alongside her busy school schedule. She was thrilled.

"It's a Drimteraj Elixir—it's most commonly referred to as Drime Elixir even though the pronunciation isn't the same and the original translation is lost. It's almost like a... uh—a transfigure—is that how you...— transfiguring element in potions and alchemy. It's easy to brew, the only thing that is difficult about the process is having enough patience and being steady when you mix. You want to make sure that you don't scrape the side of th—"

She was cut off abruptly by Ember crashing his lips against hers. "You're rambling again," he muttered as he pulled away slightly. She went to speak again but he merely chased her lips, rendering her unable to get a word out. "And nearly wacked me in the face a few times too."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Time and place, remember? No one needs the extra information unless they ask for it, otherwise you're just going to seem like a know-it-all." He looked down at her with an eyebrow raised, almost like an adult reprimanding a child for misbehaving. She gave him a small nod, looking down at her shoes. "And you need to work on your Common. I could barely keep up when you keep switching to Elvish."

"I could always teach you," she offered. Taking a chance, the wood elf snuck a glance up at her boyfriend, but he was already pulling away from her and walking towards her station.

"I'm too busy. And I'll never use it anyway."

A soft clearing of her throat, Esme went back over to the cauldron to try and ignore the heat of embarrassment washing over her. Ember had explained to her that she tended to get carried away and that things were different in the Arctic Isles than they were in the Feywild. She had tried to get used to the different customs and the social rules, but it wasn't her area of expertise. The social cues made no sense and there were so many exceptions to keep track of. It was hard enough trying to relearn Common after not using it for so long.

Thankfully Ember was just patient enough with her to help teach her and be firm when she needed. She adored him and part of her wanted to make him proud in some way. To show that she had taken what he taught her seriously and that he was important enough for her to put in effort. She had to pay him back somehow.

She gave the elixir one last stir and checked on the oil she was infusing beside it before lowering the burner and allowing both to cool before bottling them.

She strode into the main part of the greenhouse to grab some glass vials she was allowing to dry whilst Ember looked through her various journals and notes that she had sprawled everywhere.

The quiet of the greenhouse was comfortable. It usually was. When she was first offered the role of lab assistant by Professor Fernstring, she had the task of simply tending to and growing some of the ingredients they'd need to the labs or the prep mixtures. She managed to talk her way into letting the faculty permit her to use the smaller greenhouse they had planned on demolishing. It was out of use for quite awhile but it was perfect for the wood elf. She'd have her own space—a safe space—that she could make into a home away from home.

"Hey, babe?" She hummed in response. The last of the vials were carefully placed on the bench. "Does the Dream Elixir require two elements?"

"Drime Elixir," she corrected. Her eyes scanned over and under the small mess she had created at the station before finding her dull yellow gloves. "There's no extra elements, you can brew it all in one cauldron, another reason it's one of the simpler ones to make."

"Then why are there two potions in here?"

Esme paused, gripping her gloves in one hand as she bit her lip. One of the skills she had was the ability to brew multiple potions at once with efficiency. And in the same cauldron. It was a feat she was proud of and one of the things that managed to capture the attention of the Botany and Alchemy Department. She had multiple metal dividers to place inside her cauldron. Right now one of them was used to separate the large pot into two.

"Uh, I'm just—it's nothing. Some talon oil is all." She spoke quickly and quietly. Shoving her hands into the gloves and making her way over to the cooled cauldron, Esme tried to busy herself with bottling the oil so she wouldn't see Ember's exasperated and annoyed reaction.

"Esme, we've talked about this!"

"He's my friend, Em!" Esme's voice had a tinge of desperation. She didn't want to have this argument with him again, but it seemed like no matter what, Amarcus was always going to be brought up and case another rift that she would have to mend. "I know you two don't get along for now but—"

"What? I'm not the one with the problem here, it's him."

"You don't make an effort to make the situation easier." Her focus was wavering, trying to steady her hands to properly pour and cork the oil so she could move onto the elixir.

"So you're saying it's my fault?" Her hand slipped and she slammed the bottle down. She closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths. The oil dripping over the side of the vial and over her gloves was tough to ignore. "Great, I'm the bad guy now."

"I don't want to argue, Ember," she spoke slowly. Esme finally turned towards him, a tired and exasperated sigh leaving her lips. He was across from her, leaning back against one of the low benches with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were guarded, lips pressed into a thin line as he regarded her coldly. "Can we please drop it?"

"Do you not understand where I'm coming from?" His voice took on a tone that had Esme clenching her fists. "I don't like you going out of your way and spreading yourself thin for something he can just go out and buy for himself."

She rolled her eyes, accepting the fact that he just needed to say his piece before they would be finished with this conversation. Turning back, she blindly grabbed a rag to clean the bottle and what she could of her gloves, placing in the last cork before she could get started on bottling the elixir next. "I'm not going out of my way. If I'm already in here brewing something, there's no harm in making the oil too."

Ember let out a groan from behind her. "Prims, that's not the point! I'm saying that it feels like he's more of a priority than I am!"

"That's not true!" Her voice had finally risen, the silence that followed filled with a tension that almost felt suffocating. The only sounds were the simmering from beside her and the heavy breathing from the two of them. She hates fighting and arguing, especially about a topic that somehow seemed so controversial. Ember had brought it up to her from a place of concern. He believed Amarcus was taking advantage of her and her friendship, claiming that she wasn't well-versed enough to know the difference between a true relationship and a business partnership. It was a pill Esme refused to try and swallow.

"I took your advice," she finally said after calming down. "I talked to him and set boundaries. I told him I can't give him all of my free time and I stopped communicating with him on my crystal so frequently too."

She thought that would appease him, make the air lighter. It only seemed to give him more fuel. "Well then what's worse is that means I'm still being stood up because of some plants and a potion that could've waited a day to be brewed."

"That's not fair. You know this is important to me."

Her breath hitched slightly, her mind struggling to keep up with the monotonous task of filling up bottles and vials to store them for awhile. This was usually the part she could get through easily. She had a rhythm, a routine of how she liked to do things. Perhaps Ember was right, she needed to leave the greenhouse at some point and put some things off just a little bit.

She heard him sigh and before she knew it, he was behind her, tugging at her waist to turn her around to face him. She let him, trying to keep her eyes on the cauldron to make sure the elixir didn't begin to turn color from simmering too long. His fingers gently grasped her chin, moving her eyes away and giving her no choice but to make eye contact.

"I know." His voice was softer now, his lips brushing against her forehead before leaning down to look at her. "But sometimes I'd like to think that your boyfriend is important to you, too."

"I know—I'm sorry." She took off a glove. Her newly freed hand grasped at his waist, fisting itself in his jacket. "I promise I'm trying, this is all still new to me." She gestured between the two of them.

"You'll learn." He raised her chin, a final kiss pressed to her lips in finality. "How much longer is bottling going to take so we can go?" She looked up at him with innocent confusion, her head tilting to the side. "Our date..?"

Her eyes closed in silent realization. She felt the warmth of his body move away. The only reason she reached out and followed him was due to the fact that his footsteps were retreating towards the door of the greenhouse.

"Wait!" She grabbed onto his hand, stopping him in his tracks. She only received a look from the corner of his eye. "I... I won't come up with an excuse. 15 minutes. I'll make it up to you."

Her thumb swiped gently across the back of his hand, her eyes pleading with him to forgive her for getting so lost inside her mind that she disregarded everything that wasn't in her little personal garden.

He turned to her slightly, offering the smallest of smiles. "I'll be outside."

She brought his hand up to place a kiss to his wrist, but he pulled away before she could even get close. She swallowed, watching him walk away as she tried to formulate how exactly she was going to finish bottling, cleaning, and storing everything in only 15 minutes...

soooo not gonna lie, towards the end i do feel like i rushed it a little bit. doesn't seem like it flowed the same as the beginning, if it does at all, but i did want to get this done and posted before i chickened out. i'm pretty proud of it nonetheless.

#mythicalmo #world of mythica #esmeralda rosesky #d&d 5e #d&d character #d&d #dungeons and dragons #original character #dnd character #fantasy #dnd npc #ember volki

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