#so I am delighted to see this more than I could possible put into words.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

i love your hua cheng design so dearly

YES! YES! TRUE TO SIZE!!!

[parkerslatte]

Happy Together

Eris Vanserra x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: mentions of Berons's abuse. mentions of injury

Summary: Apart of the Inner Circle, Y/N has to hide her relationship with Eris. When she is injured on a mission, Eris demands to see her and the truth is revealed.

A Court of Thorns and Roses Masterlist

•••

“Eris, I need to go,” Y/N said as Eris peppered kisses down her neck. 

“I know,” Eris mumbled as he pulled her closer by her waist, burying his head in her neck. 

Y/N held onto him tightly. Moments like this with Eris were few and far between. In public their passing glances and stolen touches were never enough. Y/N always craved more but that was never a possibility. With Beron still a threat to their relationship, Eris hid everything about his relationship with Y/N. Of course Y/N understood. All Eris wanted to do was protect her. 

However, Eris was not the only one wanting to hide their relationship. Y/N hid her affections and love for Eris from the Inner Circle. With relations between Eris and her family being rocky, Y/N was never sure how they would react, especially Rhysand. 

“I don’t want you to go,” Eris mumbled into her neck. 

“I don’t want to go either,” Y/N replied, threading her fingers into his hair, scratching his scalp lightly. 

Eris pulled away and slowly sat down on the edge of the bed, he pulled Y/N to him until she straddled his hips. Y/N’s arms lazily rested over his shoulders. 

“Then perhaps we should stay here forever,” Eris suggested, wrapping his strong arms tightly around her waist. “We are deep in the Autumn woods after all. There is not anyone around for miles. We have everything we need here.”

Y/N giggled. “If that were a possibility, my love, I would accept in a heartbeat.” 

Eris pecked her lips and suddenly pulled her down onto the bed. Y/N laughed in delight and surprise. 

“Darling, I would leave Prythian with you if it would mean I could live happily with you,” Eris said. “I would be able to wake up with you in my arms every night. I would be able to love you in the open and the discreet brushes of our fingers will be no more. I will get to cherish you and be with you. And be happy.” 

Eris rolled over so his face hovered above Y/N’s. He smiled down at her, though it was saddened by the pain in his eyes. “But I know that is an impossibility.”

Y/N caressed Eris’s face. “One day it will be possible. One day we will get to live happily, Eris. And I will live to see that day and so will you. No matter how long it may take.”

As she looked into Eris’s eyes, Y/N wanted to cry. The pain within them was clear, the pain he only ever showed her. With each time Y/N saw Eris, which nowadays was very few and far between, the more tired he looked, the more scars adorned his body. But every single time he saw her, his eyes would light up and the smile that appeared on his beautiful face would always be seared into her brain. She never wanted to take that joy away from him. 

Y/N reluctantly pushed Eris’s chest and he fell onto the bed next to her. 

“I do need to go now,” Y/N said sadly. 

“I know,” Eris replied. “I do too. I have a meeting with my father.”

Y/N caressed his cheek. “Don’t let him put you down, Eris. You are a better male than him and you always will be.” Y/N began to tear up. “I wish I could be by your side.”

Eris wiped her tears away. “Sweetheart, I want you nowhere near that despicable male.”

“I know but I want to be there for you in case he does anything,” Y/N cried. “I cannot hate you being hurt, Eris.”

“Soon,” Eris said, hugging her close. “You will be able to soon.”

Y/N hugged him back. “I better be. Because not being by your side is the cruellest form of torture.”

“It is for me as well, my love,” Eris said, resting his forehead on hers.

Y/N pulled away reluctantly once again. “I really need to go. I have a mission with Azriel.”

Eris’s eyes darkened. “Be careful.”

Y/N pecked his lips. “I always am.”

***

It was over three weeks later when Eris paced inside of his cabin deep in the woods. Y/N was an hour late. Once a month they met without fail at the cabin and she had never missed a meeting until now. Inside of him, Eris could feel a sense of pure dread. 

The three weeks since he had been with Y/N had been agony. Each night he suffered alone without her. His soul called out to be with her. After the beating his father gave him after he spoke back, Eris remembered dragging himself back to his chambers and cried, it was the first time he had ever cried after an altercation with his father. All he wanted was Y/N and it was getting harder and harder to be without her. He craved her in body and soul. He needed to be with her. 

Now as Eris shrugged his jacket back on, he left the safety of his cabin and winnowed right to the Night Court. 

***

Eris had only taken a few steps into Velaris before he was immediately backed into a wall. Shadows forced the air out of him as Eris fought against the restraints. 

“You can show yourself, shadowsinger,” Eris spat. “I am not here to pick a fight.”

Azriel stepped out from the shadows. “You decided that the moment you decided to breach the wards.”

Eris cocked his head to the right. “Let me go, Azriel.”

“Why are you here, Eris?” Azriel questioned. 

“It doesn’t concern you,” Eris replied.

The shadows on Eris’s arms pinned him harder against the wall. Eris winced. The wounds on his back still hadn’t healed properly yet. 

“I am only going to ask you once more,” Azriel said, his voice low. “Why are you here?”

“And I am telling you again,” Eris said, feeling his power grow more restless. “It does not concern you.”

Before Azriel could even move, Eris burned through Azriel’s shadows. They retreated, hurt, back to their master. The shocked face of Azriel was the only thing Eris could focus on. 

“Do not follow me, shadowsinger,” Eris said. “If you know what’s good for you.” Eris turned and continued on his way. 

“Is that a threat?” Azriel questioned. 

“Yes,” Eris said without breaking stride. “Yes it is.”

***

Eris finally made it to Y/N’s house in the heart of Velaris. He had only ever been there once but he still recalled the address. There were many looking at him as they walked by but Eris couldn’t find it within himself to care. The only thing he cared about was hopefully the other side of the door. 

“Y/N!” Eris called through the door. “Y/N, please open the door.”

“She isn’t there,” a voice spoke up behind Eris. 

Eris stopped his knocking and turned to face the High Lord of the Night Court. Rhys stood intimidating in front of Eris but Eris was not intimidated in the slightest. He could find himself becoming more angry by the minute. 

“Where is she, Rhysand?” Eris demanded. 

“In the town house,” Rhys answered. “Healing.”

Eris felt his blood run cold. “What happened, Rhysand?”

Rhys brushed a piece of lint from his jacket. “I don’t believe you are entitled to that information. What do you even know of Y/N? I have never seen you so much as talk to her.”

Eris’s gaze darkened. “I know here better than anyone could ever know.”

Rhys stilled. “What do you mean, Eris?”

“Take me to her,” Eris demanded. 

“You shouldn’t be demanding things of me in my own court, Eris,” Rhys said. 

“I will do whatever the fuck I please,” Eris yelled, losing all sense of composure. “You will take me to see my mate, Rhysand of Mother help you.”

Rhys stood, shocked. “Your mate?”

“Yes my mate,” Eris spat. “Now you are going to take me to her right now, Rhysand, or I will not be afraid to burn this whole city to the ground.”

Wordlessly, Rhys led Eris to the town house. The moment Rhys opened the doors, Eris brushed past him. Despite not knowing the house layout, Eris knew just where his mate was. He simply followed that golden thread that led him to her. 

The moment Eris opened the door he nearly collapsed. Y/N was laying on top of a bed, bandages wrapped around her body. Eris rushed over to her side and took her within his arms. He could feel Rhys’s presence behind him. 

“When did this happen?” Eris asked. 

“A week ago,” Rhys answered. “We have kept her asleep to let her heal faster.”

“Was this anything to do with the mission you sent her and Azriel on?” Eris questioned. 

“How do you know about that?” Rhys asked. 

“Where do you think she goes every time she leaves the court for personal matters?” Eris asks. “She comes to me.”

“How long has this been going on?” Rhys demanded an answer. 

“Nearly ten years,” Eris answered, brushing Y/N’s hair away from her face. 

“Why wouldn’t she tell us?” Rhys asked. 

“Because she was afraid of how you would react,” Eris answered. “I may not like anyone involved in your Inner Circle but you are the closest thing she has to a family. She didn’t want to lose all of you because she is in love with me.”

Loud footsteps came down the hall and three faces peered in. One Eris had already had the pleasure to encounter not too long ago. Azriel, Cassian and Mor stood in the doorway to Y/N’s room. 

“We came as soon as Azriel informed us,” Cassian said. 

“What’s going on?” Mor asked, looking at Eris. “Why is he here?”

“Eris is Y/N’s mate,” Rhys answered.

The silence in the room was deafening but Eris didn’t care. He only continued to brush down Y/N’s hair and grip onto her hand. The slow rise and fall of her chest was reassuring but she shouldn’t have to be in this position in the first place. 

“Why didn’t she tell us?” Azriel said, his voice rising in anger. “We are her family. We should have known.”

“This is exactly why she never wanted to tell any of you,” Eris snapped. “She knew none of you would ever accept it, not truly.”

“Why did you allow him in here, Rhys?” Cassian questioned.

“Because he is her mate,” Rhys said. “And you know how serious mating bonds are in the Autumn Court.”

“I wonder if Beron knows you are here,” Cassian comments. “Turning up to another court uninvited would sour our relationship with the Autumn Court.”

Eris’s blood ran cold. “You cannot tell him.”

“We have every right to,” Mor replied. “You are an uninvited guest.”

Eris finally tore his gaze away from Y/N. “None of you are going to say a damn thing about this to him or anyone else.”

“Why shouldn’t we?” Azriel questioned.

“If you value Y/N’s life, you must not tell him,” Eris said, gripping onto Y/N’s hand tighter. “The main reason why no one ever knew of our bond and relationship was because I am afraid of what he will do to her if he finds out.” His voice was vulnerable and Eris hated himself for it. “I would much rather he lay his hands on me for disobeying him instead of her for loving me.”

The room fell silent and Eris let out a shaky breath. “I do not like any of you but I know that you will do anything to keep Y/N safe, and I appreciate that. But none of you will keep her safe as I have, as I always will. I will crawl to hell and back to keep her safe. I will give my life for hers in a heartbeat. I will put aside my own happiness if it means that she gets to live and be safe without the torment and abuse of my father. I will endure all of that abuse and torment if it means I get to keep her safe. If it means I still get to see her every few weeks, I will endure anything because I am in love with her. She is my mate and the centre of my universe, I live for her. Everytime anything gets too much for me or my father strikes me just the smallest bit harder, all I need to think about is her and I will have a reason to go on, to keep going, keep fighting. 

“I know you four see me as a villain and perhaps I am in your eyes,” Eris continued. “But Y/N sees me, the real me. The parts of myself I never show to anyone but her.” Eris turned back to Y/N. “You can kick me out if you want to, but I am begging you when I say, do not tell my father.”

When Eris rested his palm against Y/N’s cheek her eyes fluttered and her head turned into his hand. It was only a small movement but made Eris smile regardless. 

“Have you accepted the bond yet?” Rhys asked. 

“No,” Eris replied. “Because the moment we do it is the moment my father will find out and I cannot risk that.”

Rhys sighed. “You may stay here tonight. Don’t give her the sleeping potion in the bottle on the cabinet, she should wake up normally in the morning.”

“Rhys–”

“We should leave them be,” Rhys said. “We can discuss what this means when Y/N is healed.”

Rhys leaves the room, followed by Mor, Azriel and Cassian. As soon as the door closed with a firm ‘click’, Eris finally allowed the tears to fall. He brought Y/N’s hand to his lips and pressed a soft kiss against her knuckles. “We should have stayed in the cabin.”

***

The moment Y/N awoke her body ached and there was a bandage wrapped around her. She groaned as she began to sit up. The moment her eyes opened she was greeted by the familiar sight of her bedroom but there was one thing unfamiliar about it. Eris slept in the chair to her right, his jacket rested across the back of it. 

Y/N furrowed her brows. “Eris?”

The moment she spoke his name, Eris’s eyes shot open. “Y/N?”

“Why are you here?” Y/N asked. “What happened?”

Eris shuffled the chair closer and grasped her hand in his. Y/N gave it a small squeeze. “You were injured on your mission. You have been healing since.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you are here?” Y/N said and tugged his hand closer to her. “Not that I am not enjoying your presence.”

Eris sighed. “At the cabin. You didn’t show up and I knew something was wrong.”

“But we weren’t meant to meet at the cabin for another week?” Y/N said.

“Honey, you have been asleep for a week while you have been healing,” Eris replied. 

“What?” Y/N said. “Eris I am so sorry, you must have been worried when I didn’t show up.”

“I was,” Eris replied. “And I had good reason to be.”

“I have had worse injuries than this, Eris,” Y/N said, shuffling to rest her back against the headboard. Y/N patted the bed next to her and Eris obliged, wrapping an arm around her and gently pulled her to his side. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Eris said, kissing the top of her head. “You were hurt and that is all I cared about.”

Y/N nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent. “Rhys knows, doesn't he?”

“He does,” Eris answered. “As does Azriel, Cassian and Morrigan.”

“How did they react?” Y/N asked, dreading to know the answer. “Did they take it well?”

“That is up for debate,” Eris said, lacing his fingers with hers. “But right now I don’t care about any of that. The only thing I care about is you.”

“I am perfectly fine, Eris,” Y/N replied. “I ache a little but nothing I can’t handle. But what I want to know is, are you okay? You mentioned a meeting with your father.”

“It wasn’t anything I wasn’t already expecting, let me put it that way,” Eris replied. 

Y/N shuffled on the bed so she could fully see Eris. There was a white bandage peeking out of his shirt. She pulled him into a hug. “I am sorry, Eris. I wish I could have been there for you.”

Eris hugged her back, cradling her head. “You were there with me, not physically, but through your love. You were the one who got me through it.”

“I love you so much,” Y/N said. “I wish I could show everyone just how much I adore you. I wish to not hide it anymore. I want to see you more than once every few weeks. I want to be able to hold your hand and dance with you at balls. We have been hiding for ten years and it hurts me to keep my love hidden. It is too much for me now.”

“Maybe your wishes can come true sooner than you may think,” Eris said. “Y/N, I wish to have you by my side for eternity and I cannot do that with my father still in power.”

Y/N pulled away. “Eris, you cannot mean–”

“I do mean exactly that,” Eris said. “I will kill my father if that is what it takes for you to be safe, for my mother to be safe and for the rest of the Autumn Court. I love you, Y/N and I wish for everyone to know how much I love you. I wish to have a family with you. I wish to have a life with you. And I wish to finally accept our mating bond officially.”

“I want that too, Eris,” Y/N said. “I want all that and more, just as long as it’s with you.”

Eris smiled and Y/N felt it deep within her. His smile always made everything feel okay because the moment he smiled Y/N knew he was truly at ease. He surged forward and pressed his lips against hers. 

Y/N welcomed them and wrapped him within her arms.

[restlessmaknae]

water prince // leehan

When you receive a wedding proposal from the Water Kingdom, you are set on making Prince Donghyun change his mind about marrying you. At least, until you actually see him for who he is.

➳ Characters: prince!Leehan (called Donghyun in the story) x princess!female reader/you

➳ Genre: royalty au, arranged marriage au, magical kingdom au, elemental powers au, fluff, comedy, a bit of angst too

➳ Words: 13.7k

➳ Warning: mentions of food, reader almost drowning and being seasick, Leehan's father in the story is quite hostile, Leehan feels insecure about not being loved by his father

➳ A/N: Happiest birthday to the loveliest person on Earth @dat-town❤️ So happy for everything you've achieved and so excited to see what you will continue to achieve! May you have the best year ever, and stay healthy and happy all throughout! ❤️

➳ Taglist: @s00buwu, @dat-town, @emmylksblog

“You are to marry Prince Donghyun.”

You literally choked on your water when your father announced the big news he had assembled the family for. Your little sister patted your back, trying to be helpful, while your mother shot you a surprised look as if she couldn’t decide whether you were appalled or delighted by the news, and that’s why you were so taken aback. Your brother, Sungho, sat in his chair in a calm manner as usual, quietly analysing the situation while cutting his meat into tiny pieces in the quietest way possible.

You couldn’t blame him. You were in the middle of your regularly scheduled dinner in the dining hall of the palace when the King finally told you what he had been hiding from you for sometime. Before that, you couldn’t even know whom it entailed - your little sister, Sunghee, your brother, Sungho, or you -, the only thing you knew was that your father had been in talks with other kingdoms. Which was nothing new, really, it was one of his duties as the King of the Fire Kingdom.

“Why him,” was your first question after you managed to stop coughing, and you couldn’t tell who was more shocked by your question: your mother, your father or your little sister. Sungho seemed rather amused, his lips slightly curling upwards. No wonder he knew you the best.

“Because they offered a wedding proposal?” Your father half-asked, half-answered, and as you put down the glass of water onto the table, you were trying to rationalise his words, but there was nothing you could rationalise about this. From a young age, you knew that this would be your fate, you just didn’t know how to face it now.

“I would rather know why I am supposed to be marrying a prince from the Water Kingdom, if it has to be Prince Donghyun out of all people.”

“They say that he’s really handsome,” Sunghee chirped in, her eyes already forming hearts at the mention of the prince. Then again, she was 15, and she had heart eyes for every prince that she saw at formal events.

“You should feel grateful that he chose you. Princesses from other kingdoms are all lining up for him,” your mother weighed in, nudging you in the side, and you felt like a kid being reprimanded for something that she had done, not a princess who didn’t want to marry a prince who had once tried to sweet talk her into dancing with him at a royal wedding, only to trample on her feet multiple times. That guy was full of mischievous ideas, and you wanted nothing to do with him and his troublemaker ass. Besides, he was said to be full of himself, and you hated nothing more than smug princes who thought that a few compliments would make a princess fall for them.

“Prince Donghyun’s birthday is coming up, and he is supposed to find a bride for himself after his 20th birthday. They sent out the offer on his behalf, but before they expect an answer from you, you are invited to his birthday celebration to get to know him better,” the King explained in detail, and you wanted to evaporate right then and there. Really? You were even invited to his birthday celebration? Was he really that enchanted by that clumsy dance you had had at the wedding, or did the Water Kingdom had ulterior motives behind this decision?

You let out a sigh in return, clearly against the whole thing, but it’s not like you had a say in it. However, you had a say in how you behaved around Prince Donghyun, and actually, this birthday celebration would be the perfect chance to make him change his mind about you - or his family or whoever came up with this stupid idea of being his bride. You could be on your worst behaviour, and make him hate you, or worse, make him disgusted by you, and that’s exactly what you needed.

“When is this celebration?” You inquired from your father who gave you a satisfied smile in return, and told you that he would tell you all of the details and show you the wedding proposal after dinner. Sungho narrowed his eyes at your sudden change of behaviour, but when you turned towards him, you merely mouthed “I know what I’m doing”, and he seemed to believe you, going back to his fig jam-coated meat.

Whenever you attended a formal event in another kingdom, at least two members of your family had to be present. Before you and Sungho had turned 20, you had always needed to be accompanied by an adult - mostly your mother because the King had other duties to attend to. Since you were both deemed responsible adults when it came to age and appropriate behaviour, the two of you could go together to Prince Donghyun’s birthday celebration since your mother was to attend one of her sisters’ wedding with Sunghee the day later you set out to the Water Kingdom.

Since travelling on a ship would have required more people to accompany you (and since you were often seasick when out on the sea), you travelled by carriage, and you were supposed to arrive the day before the actual birthday celebration as per the Water Kingdom’s request. That left you with plenty of time to tell Sungho all about your plan of changing the prince’s mind starting from your choice of dress for the day of your arrival - a beautiful, knee-length black dress with puffy sleeves and a V-neck that highlighted the pretty necklace brightening your pale skin with little diamonds in the shape of a flame. It was an appropriate dress in style and length, maybe the V-line was a bit steep according to some, but it was its colour that mattered. In the Fire Kingdom, black represented the end of something - just like how flames turn to black ashes when they can no longer feed on oxygen -, and usually, you wore black clothes at the seasons’ farewell ceremony. You had a farewell ceremony for all four seasons when you bid goodbye to the previous one and welcomed the new one, gathering around a huge fire and giving your blessings to the kingdom and the royal family.

You highly doubted that Prince Donghyun would be aware of such traditions in your kingdom, but that was the best part of it: that he didn’t know about it, but you knew why you dressed like that. You had other tricks under your sleeve, and whilst Sungho didn’t disapprove of your plan, he was partly worried about your feelings.

“Will you be able to handle that? You hate nothing more than embarrassing yourself,” he pointed out gently, in his own big brother way, when you mentioned that if you had to embarrass yourself for your plan, you were ready to give it your all. The goal was to make Prince Donghyun go back on his words - or beg the one who came up with the idea of you having to marry him to change their mind  -, and the journey getting there might not be all rosy, but it would be worth it.

“I’ll make sure I do it subtly enough to not bring embarrassment on myself in front of others. Plus, I think he will want to speak with me in private, so that’s when I need to strike for real,” you announced with a triumphant smile as you tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear. The ladies all dolled you up at the palace, but if you were going to a battle, you needed to go in style.

Sungho didn’t show it if he was against your plan, and instead, he directed a topic elsewhere but your looming marriage proposal. This way, at least you didn’t feel like crawling out of your skin until you arrived, and guess what, Prince Donghyun just had to wait for you at the entrance of the palace when the carriage halted and the servants helped you down.

You tried hard not to stare at him because he did look… different. Of course, he looked different, he had been around 16 when you had last seen him; it had been a year after that ominous wedding, and you had seen him in passing in the circle of princesses who cooed all about his beauty and his deep voice and whatnot. Years had passed by, and he grew taller, his shoulders were broader, and his hair was longer, it reached his shoulders already. His features were less boyish, but there was still that mischievous spark in his eyes when you walked up to him after waiting for your brother to get out of the carriage.

You even forgot to look behind him to take in the grandiose palace walls and huge rose windows because he was the main view for you. The way the fading sunlight - late afternoon flowing into early night - shone onto him made him seem like someone from another world, or rather, someone from those fairytales your sister still believed in. If someone embodied royalty, it was him, and you had no idea how he had such an effect on you when you had come here to destroy his plans to marry you.

Alas, you could not let yourself sway just because he was pretty. Beauty could be deceiving, beauty could hurt, and if anyone, you knew that. Being praised for being beautiful, but never being praised for being smart or reliable or kind made you see this whole thing in a new light. So you kept your compliments to yourself, and focused on the boy’s cheeky smile instead.

There was a round of formalities with bowing and courtesy, the servants already hustling-bustling around you, carrying your luggage and gifts, and you heard two ladies from your own kingdom whispering about Prince Donghyun’s angelic smile as they passed by.

You rolled your eyes at their antics, but the Water Kingdom prince either didn’t seem to notice, or he didn’t mind. Instead, he posed a question that made you furrow your eyebrows.

“Did you come in black because you’re putting an end to your life without me?”

“Pardon me?”

“I read that black symbolises the end of something in your kingdom,” he pointed out in a casual manner, and you needed to hold yourself back from commenting that you didn’t expect him to do some reading on the Fire Kingdom and its traditions. You could clearly see Sungho’s facial expression though, he was visibly impressed.

The prince gave you a crooked half-smile as he took one step closer to you, closer than before, but not close enough to call it inappropriate. You had a feeling that he was playing at just that;  dancing on the fine line of being playfully flirtatious and a bit too much in general. 

“But did you know that it symbolises deep love in our kingdom? It’s a metaphor because if you love someone deeply, you would be willing to swim to the bottom of the ocean for them and the bottom is always so dark, almost black,” he continued equally joyfully, but you needed to gulp down the profanities that were threatening to leave your mouth.

Just how could you mess this up so badly? Not only had you chosen a black dress that symbolised deep love in their kingdom, but you had also failed to consider Prince Donghyun actually looking up the meaning of the colour in the Fire Kingdom. Well, you had to give it to him that he won this round, but you wouldn’t have said it out loud for all the money in the world.

So you let Sungho ask about the palace instead while you were ushered inside, and if Prince Donghyun had any itinerary planned for the rest of the day since you were supposedly the only ones who were invited to come a day earlier. Prince Donghyun explained that you would have dinner together and he could show you around the palace afterwards if you were up for it.

“Excellent idea! I would love nothing more than to spend more time with you,” you announced in an overzealous manner, hoping that it could make the prince falter in his good boy role. On the other hand, he seemed rather amused, not weirded out, and suggested that you could check out the lighthouse and the docks if you were that interested. You had no idea that they had such places on palace grounds, but sure, you were in the Water Kingdom after all.

Hoping to direct the topic to something else, when you spotted a bouquet of flowers in a huge vase, you acted oh so innocently as you asked:

“Ah, are these fake?”

“My mother picked them from her garden in the morning. She likes tending to her flowers,” the prince pointed out casually, and you bit down on your tongue in response. Damn it, why couldn’t you get a hold on him? 

Sure, you might have been the only kingdom that had fake flowers placed in the palace corridors because they just didn’t grow as exuberant as the ones in the Earth Kingdom, for instance, but you had different climates as well. You would think that the colder, rainy climate of the Water Kingdom didn’t necessarily help flowers flourish, but well… maybe you were wrong about more than just one thing.

You pressed your lips into a thin line, forcing yourself to shut your mouth, while you were following the prince and the servants down the corridors that were full of paintings of the royal family. The amount of paintings about Prince Donghyun from a very young age to present days was overwhelming: him with a book in his hands in what seemed like a library when he was a child, him in the garden surrounded by flowers, him standing by the sea, him standing by a fish tank, him holding a rose and the list goes on…

You weren’t sure whether looking at the actual real-life prince or his painted features was more unsettling, so you did neither and just stared ahead of yourself. Which was a mistake on your part because you managed to walk into the prince’s chest when he halted in front of a room.

“Are you alright, princess?” He inquired with wide eyes as he held you by the shoulders to steady you. You immediately stepped backwards, making him yank his hands away from you.

“I’m alright. It was just a bit dizzying with all the floors and corridors.”

“You will get used to it,” he said naturally, but there was a slight hint of nervousness in the way his eyes darted from your face to Sungho’s when he said the words out loud. Your brother, on the other hand, merely stayed still, calmly listening to your conversation. You were sure that you would hear his opinion on it later on, but for now, he didn’t seem fazed by the boy’s behaviour and flirty remarks.

“So will these be our suites?” Your brother asked to break the silence, and indeed, Prince Donghyun took this opportunity to show you to your rooms. Yours was fully equipped with a bathroom and a restroom, a huge wardrobe, candles by the double bed and a wide wooden desk by the equally wide full-length windows that led to a balcony. What took you by surprise was that the fluffy blankets, the luxurious curtains, the welcoming pillows and the walls of the room were all in different shades of blue, but it was done in an elegant way, so no colour overshadowed the other. However, the sight made you feel as if you were close to the sea, and you didn’t necessarily like it since the sea always reminded you of those boat travels when you got seasick.

Prince Donghyun said that a servant would come by when dinner was ready, but until then, he would let you unpack and settle down. When he got out of sight, you let out an aghast sigh, and fell into the bed, silently screaming into the pillows.

This was so not going as planned.

Dinner was passing by excruciatingly slowly. You literally checked the huge clock on the wall - which had a different type of fish painted by each number of the 12-part circle - every 5 minutes, hoping that time would go by faster, to no avail. You might have been able to spark a fire or put out one as a Fire Kingdom princess, but your magic didn’t involve meddling with time.

Alas, you had to sit through the forced conversation with Prince Donghyun’s parents (his older brother was away for a trade talk or something like that), and while his mother was a lovely woman, and her smile, at least, seemed genuine, his father was the definition of a politician. Which wouldn’t have unsettled you so much if you had not known his type, and how all of his sentences were well-calculated, carefully practised and being a part of a bigger plan. Even when he complimented his son, you could see that the prince was taken aback for he was smiling so coyly, you had a feeling that he scarcely complimented his children without an audience around.

You were thankful that Sungho was good at reading the room and changing topics in a polite enough manner, so that the King wouldn’t deem his action rude. It was difficult to displease them because while playing a foolish girl who always finds something to complain about and acts all so erratic was all fun and games with Prince Donghyun, when you tried to do the same in front of the royal couple, the King’s comments made you retreat. He was borderline misogynistic, saying that your honesty would be “cured” by having a husband, and that you should be lucky someone was willing to marry you with your reputation of being a fiery princess who always rejected princes.

It got to a point that you needed to excuse yourself to head outside because he started putting down your own parents for raising a princess like you, and you could not stand that. Even though you told them that you would go to the restroom, you had no place in mind, so when a servant left you by the closest restroom, you just stood there for a minute, completely frozen.

“Do you need anything, princess?” A familiar voice spoke up beside you, and you actually jumped back when you heard his voice. You were totally lost in thought, trying to process what you had been told, you didn’t pay attention to anything else.

Prince Donghyun noticed your shaken state, and his lips quivered slightly when you didn’t speak up. This was the first time that you saw something apart from mischief flash across his orbs when he looked at you, he looked genuinely concerned this time, and suddenly, you had no idea what to do with it.

“I’m so sorry about my father. He isn’t the best with…”

“You don’t need to apologise on his behalf. He needs to do it himself if he wants my forgiveness.”

The moment the words rolled off your tongue, you knew how naive it might have sounded, but you didn’t care. You kept your chin up high, kept the eye-contact, and the boy did the same. You had a feeling that he was afraid that if he looked away, you would run away. Which was incredibly close to what you actually wanted to do right then and there.

Even though you were usually good at keeping your composure in check, or at least acting like you didn’t care what people said about you, you didn’t have it in you to continue acting that night. So you were about to say that you would head back to your room to avoid having a conversation with the prince in your state, but he beat you to it.

“How about that walk to the lighthouse? That's the furthest place from the dining room,” he suggested out of the blue, his words carrying a certain gentleness. You couldn’t decide whether this was the perfect, kind prince role that he wanted to play, or whether it came naturally to him.

Nevertheless, you didn’t have the luxury to ponder over it, you just wanted a change of scenery - as much as the situation allowed, at least. So you gave in to the prince’s suggestion, and followed him outside the palace through a few unfamiliar corridors, walking through his mother’s garden to get to the docks. It didn’t resemble the docks for trading that you had been to before, it was a much more sophisticated one. It was more like a pier with only two ships waiting by the riverside, probably the ones the royal family used for travel.

For starters, the path was lit up by lanterns that glowed joyfully with the last few patches of the sunset still present on the horizon, like little fireflies in the night. The wharf itself wasn’t very well-lit, but the brightness coming from the lighthouse made up for that, illuminating the wooden structure leading up to it periodically. Even though there was mud where the water licked into the ground, the palace’s garden was connected to the shore with a little bridge, so you could walk on it as soon as you stepped past the fence separating the two sides.

Prince Donghyun held his hand out to help you step onto the wharf, and you would have objected fervently if it had not been for your dress - which seemed quite impractical for this kind of movement -, but alas, you accepted it. His grip was strong enough to hold you yet gentle enough to not crush your hands, but you didn’t hold onto him longer than needed.

“Oh no,” you said as soon as you stepped onto the wooden structure, realising that there was no railing on the sides. Even though the pathway was wide enough for two people, maybe even for three, in the momentary light the lighthouse provided when it was its turn to shine onto the wharf, you weren’t sure that you could cross it without getting panicky about it.

“What is wrong?”

“I don’t like the fact that there’s no railing here,” you announced as you pointed at the obvious lack of added safety, to which he merely gave you an amused smile.

“You can hold onto me if you want to,” he offered with a playful wink, and you were anything but impressed by his idea.

“I get seasick easily, and even though we are not on a boat, just the idea of being this close to water without an extra barrier makes me feel odd because I can’t swim, so…”

You were not one to talk about your weaknesses so easily, but the sight frightened you more than you would have admitted, and the words just rolled off your tongue without thinking ahead. It was too late to go back on your words though, you could already see how the prince was trying to make sense of the situation.

“I have an idea,” Prince Donghyun announced, mischief no longer evident in his voice as he turned his back to you and stood still.

You blinked, confused, and the thought crossed your mind that this would be the moment he would scare you or push you into the water, and you would have every reason to hate him then because you couldn��t swim. Not to mention that you were seasick often, so you absolutely detested anything that was related to water.

“You know, if you are trying to make a joke out of this whole situation, I wonder why-” You started as you took a step back in case he really did want to trick you. Instead, he raised his hands around him in a circular motion, and a few seconds later, a literal bubble formed in front of him. Then, he directed that bubble to hover between you two as he turned around.

“How did you do that?” You breathed, bewildered, as you looked at the water bubble in front of you, moving at his will. The boy couldn’t hide the smile that was creeping onto his lips at your awestruck expression that turned even more surprised when he started expanding the bubble. You were about to open your mouth to say that you didn’t want to get wet when it started getting so big that it almost touched you, but the collision never happened. What happened was that the bubble grew around you without touching you at all, so ultimately, you found yourself insead it, the world around you suddenly quiet and dim.

“It doesn’t burst with human contact or with objects. At least, I can now control it,” Prince Donghyun explained with a bit of a giggle as he stood inside the bubble with you.

You shook your head, trying to recover from this daze, but gosh, it was such a mesmerising sight. The prince looked to be in his element as he was talking about how he had learned to create bubbles and then to control them, all wide-eyed affection and enthusiasm pouring off his gorgeous features. Even if you had moments before when you questioned just how genuine he was, you couldn’t question it now, it was enough to look at him. He was dazzling, maple-brown shoulder-length hair tucked behind his ear, big doe eyes filled with stars, while he was showing you how you could touch the bubble from the inside, but it wouldn’t budge.

“I am good, aren’t I?” He quirked an eyebrow after his monologue, a proud smile tinting his lips. You looked back at him, rolling your eyes at his antics, but you had to try hard to sniffle your smile.

It felt like being inside a separate little island as you were walking inside the bubble, walking towards the lighthouse. You had to be close to him though, or else, he would need to expand the bubble even more, so you followed him diligently, and only halted when you reached the end and stood beside the beacon. This part of the wharf had railings, but you almost didn’t notice because the bubble kept out not just the outside world, but also your worries for a while.

“I didn’t know you could do something like this.”

“I’m glad to hear that I could surprise you,” he flashed you an even wider grin, if that was possible, but there was something coy about it now, as if he couldn’t believe that you could see him in a different light. Well, what could you say? You definitely didn’t expect this either.

The prince seemed curious at this point about what you could do with your powers, so you told him that you could make anything related to fire - you could create a spark, you could light up a fireplace, you could burn objects if you got your hands on them, and you could also put out fire if needed. There weren’t a lot of uses to your power, to be honest, but you didn’t mind. You always had a feeling that the reason war didn’t break out between the kingdoms was because you could only practise your magic in your own kingdom, meaning that you couldn’t do anything with fire here, even if you wanted to.

Prince Donghyun was attentive and curious, his eyes still having that bright spark to them, and for a short while, you even forgot why you ended up there, inside a bubble he created. Yet, when the next strike of light shone onto you two, and you felt your throat closing up at the sight of him - so boyish, so gentle, so affectionate -, you told him that you wished to go back.

He did seem a bit disappointed, but an understanding smile replaced his momentary pout in a bit, and he walked you back without a word. When you stepped off the docks, the bubble didn’t actually burst around you with splashes of water, it merely disappeared. You attempted to seem disinterested, but you were impressed, even if you tried to divert the topic elsewhere.

When you reached your suite, Prince Donghyun offered that you could let him know if you needed anything anytime, he would assist you. You could even knock on his door at the break of dawn - he had shown you where his suite was located on your walk back from the lighthouse -, he would be ready to help.

“Shouldn’t I notify a servant instead?” You raised an eyebrow, challengingly, but the boy either didn’t seem to take note of it, or didn’t deem it as an act of challenge.

“Well, I’m a man of many charms, and I can do a lot more than you think I’m capable of.”

“A man, pff. You’re not even 20 years old,” you pointed out cheekily, and he let out a deep, long laugh before his features went back to their previous state.

“But I will turn 20 tomorrow. I will be a man,” he retorted as he took a step closer to you, his eyes not leaving yours. Your heart betrayed you because when your eyes locked, that traitor decided to skip a beat. You had never been this close to him before, not even inside the bubble, and instead of feeling like you had to keep your guards up, you wanted to destroy the walls you built around yourself, and in that moment, he looked like he wanted to do the same.

“Good night, Princess!” He wished with a widening smile, shattering the serene moment into tiny little pieces, before he turned around and walked away.

The birthday celebration officially started the next day at noon, but guests started arriving from early morning. You didn’t even finish breakfast, you were notified that the first carriage pulled into the court, and Prince Donghyun dutifully followed his mother outside to greet the guests. The King was supposedly in his study, but you actually preferred it that way, especially after the previous night’s conversation at dinner.

So that left you and Sungho enough time to finish the rest of the breakfast while discussing the day ahead. Your brother even brought up the events of last night, and where you had been with Prince Donghyun.

“Nowhere scandalous, trust me!” You justified more fervently than needed, and Sungho held up his hands as a peace offer. He looked like he was conflicted whether he should be amused or concerned by your dramatic reaction.

“I would have been surprised if you had been anywhere scandalous, especially with your plan to make him change his mind,” he pointed out reasonably before reaching for his mug of tea. One of the reasons why you liked your brother was because he could keep his cool, and he knew you well enough to not jump to stupid conclusions. His question was probably more out of curiosity than teasing either way.

Hence, you decided to be honest with him, though you didn’t want to talk about Prince Donghyun creating a water bubble around you, so you would dare to walk the wharf with him. You didn’t know why, but it felt like a rather affectionate reaction to your seasickness, and you didn’t want to bring it up.

“He showed me the lighthouse, and we talked about our magic, and what we can do with it.”

“Seems pretty ordinary to me. Where did you leave your over the top acting?” He inquired with a playful smile, and you gently pushed his shoulder with your own.

“I didn’t feel like doing it last night. The King’s words got to me more than I would have thought so,” you admitted feebly, suddenly finding your empty plate more interesting than anything else in the dining room. You were usually not one to be swayed by others’ opinion, you weren’t a naive and scared teenage girl anymore. On the other hand, you had never even met anyone as hostile as the King of the Water Kingdom, and you had met a lot of royalty, so that said a lot.

“I’ve heard that he’s like that with everyone; he’s never truly satisfied, and doesn’t agree with anyone even if he’s wrong. So it wasn’t directed at you,” Sungho reassured you softly, and when you looked up at him, you directed a grateful smile at him. He always seemed to know what to say, and you appreciated it more than ever.

You didn’t have a lot of time to yourself afterwards because the servants notified you that you should get ready for a bath before they would do your hair and make-up. So you followed them and let them take care of you from head to toe. Sometimes it felt cumbersome to be all dolled up for an event, but you enjoyed being pampered after the previous day, and you didn’t want to let it show that you had been affected by the King’s viciousness.

Red was the trademark colour of your kingdom, so you picked a cherry-red dress for the event, one that you always felt so powerful in. The bottom part was a widening skirt in wine-red with a thin, more translucent layer covering the silky one underneath that had such a nice fall to it. From your waist up, the material switched to lacy with pretty embroidery making it more intricate on your chest and on your arms alike. Golden beads dotted the middle line that ended in a V-cut that revealed an appropriate amount of skin before it closed up underneath your neck which was covered in beads again. You had matching burgundy high heels to top the look, though they would be covered by the wide skirt either way.

The ladies curled your hair and made the locks resemble the waves in your dress, letting them fall over your shoulders elegantly, with the exception of your front locks which were held back and secured to your temple with a ribbon. Your eyes were covered in a mixture of sparkly silver and burgundy, your lips the colour of ruby-red apples.

You were of the opinion that if you were forced to attend such events, you would do so in style, and you were thankful that your parents let you choose your outfits and consult the tailors yourself, they didn’t really meddle with your preference in dresses. Same went for Sungho who showed up in a burgundy-black outfit with delicate embroidery on the chest of his long-sleeved shirt, and an exquisite pair of cotton pants.

As always, you didn’t fail to compliment the other’s look, and when the beginning of the celebration was announced, you made your way to the ballroom, your arms resting on your brother’s. Since he was by your side, you were more reassured that you barely knew anyone here, though you saw a few familiar faces from other kingdoms. It was easy to tell who came from where because apart from a few different colours, everyone chose to dress in the trademark colour of their own kingdom - blue for the Water, green for the Earth, white for the Air and red for the Fire Kingdom. Since most of them wore some kind of blue, you assumed that quite a lot of relatives of Prince Donghyun showed up, and judging by the older boy by his side, you guessed that his brother also came back from the trade talks in time for the celebration.

The King started his toast with a historical lesson on the Water Kingdom which bored you to no end, so you rather chose that time to examine Prince Donghyun’s flawless outfit. What you expected from such a flawless visual, though? Sure, he would have not looked as dashing in a stable boy’s clothes as he looked right now in his light blue shirt dotted by silver pearls that resembled tiny little water drops, tucked into midnight-blue cotton pants, his shoulder-length hair partly tucked behind his ear, but he had a certain aura to him that was hard to beat.

You might have been staring at him for quite some time because he caught your eyes, and suddenly, you felt exposed. Not only because you had been quite obviously checking him out, but also because he didn’t seem smug or teasing, he seemed rather in awe, his lips slightly parting. Could it be because of your dress? He was clearly looking at you, so it couldn’t be because of someone else, and yet… oh that traitor heart of yours betrayed you again.

“Am I interrupting something?” Sungho mumbled quietly, so only you could hear him, but even his hushed voice was enough to turn your cheeks ruby-red.

“What are you talking about?” You turned to him, trying your best to put on an act, but your brother knew you well enough, he knew that you were lying.

“You seemed to have a moment there with Prince Donghyun, and I suddenly felt like an intruder. Come to think of, yesterday evening, you also left with him, leaving me behind, which implies that despite the fact that you claim that you want to change his mind, you have also fallen-” He started up on a whole monologue, and you had never been more thankful in your whole life that the crowd cheered and clapped, so their loud voices covered up what he was saying.

“Oh yey, it’s finally over!” You clapped enthusiastically with the crowd when the King finally ended his speech, and people started dissolving from the middle of the ball room. Sungho would have probably continued teasing you if it had not been for Prince Donghyun walking right up to the two of you because then, he shut his mouth, but his eyes were telling a different tale.

“May I have this dance?” The prince inquired as he motioned towards the people who started dancing in pairs not far from you which made you realise that you and Sungho just happened to stay at the exact middle of the ball room. Which was awkward in itself, but the way your brother bit down on his lower lip to prevent himself from saying anything made it even more awkward.

You felt the need to clear your throat before you answered.

“Only if you’re better than you were at 15.”

Prince Donghyun let out a joyous laughter hearing your proclamation, probably remembering that memorable dance from years ago all too well.

“I can assure you that I’m way better than I was at 15. I’ve taken dance lessons since,” he claimed proudly, puffing his chest out, and Sungho chose this moment to leave you two behind, stating that he was not in the mood for dancing, so you two go ahead. You tried to sear holes into his back while he was leaving you two behind, but to no avail. He didn’t even look back.

“Sure. Let’s see how much you improved. But if you step on my foot, I will step on yours too, and trust me, you don’t want to encounter these high heels closely,” you threatened half-jokingly as you turned back to Prince Donghyun, but he merely laughed off your warning. He seemed pretty confident in himself, so you wanted to give this a chance, and indeed, he did the right thing by immediately extending his hand to you, so you could reach for it. Then, he escorted you further into the dance floor, expertly manoeuvring around already dancing couples.

If the beginning wasn’t enough to convince you, the rest of the dance sure was. The boy knew what he was doing, and he did it confidently. You could tell that he had taken those dance lessons seriously because there was only slight hesitation in his movements when he first touched you - your hand, your back and your waist -, afterwards, he overcame his coyness, and continued on like nothing happened.

He held himself like a prince, a delicate prince, and you were bewitched by the twinkles in his chestnut-brown eyes, as if stars were truly dancing in them, he was glowing, his endeared smile crowning his look. He held you so steady that you knew, you could tell that if you were to fall down, he would be able to catch you, and you had never felt so taken care of during a dance. It wasn’t about him showing off - despite how he introduced his dance skills -, it was about elevating your dance experience to something you had never had before.

“I’ve told you I got better,” he stated matter-of-factly after swirling you around, and when he closed the distance next, you found yourself mumbling something along the lines of:

“Yes, I can tell.”

“Excuse me, I couldn’t catch that. Could you say that again?” Prince Donghyun teased you, flashing an all too boyish grin, and you rolled your eyes, not believing his antics. Fine, two can play this game, you thought, before you leaned closer and tiptoed on your heels, so that you could be at eye-level with him.

“You can really dance like a man now, Prince Donghyun,” you whispered into his ears, and when you leaned back, you could see a pinkish hue colouring not only his cheeks but also his ears. You got him flustered, and you called that a win.

The song the musicians were playing came to an end, so you let go of his shoulders, and sank back to your heels. The boy was so dazed that he didn’t let go of you for a few more seconds, only when you thanked him for the dance and wished him a happy birthday. You knew that other girls would be lining up to dance with him or other royalty to have a word with him since it was his birthday celebration, so you let him enjoy his day, and got lost in the crowd of royalty.

You ended up having a talk with a princess from the Earth Kingdom, then two of Prince Donghyun’s cousins - Prince Jaehyun and Prince Woonhak - who chirped your ears off about how excited they were to meet you, and shared embarrassing stories about their cousin without flinching an eye. You were sure that it was a way to show you that Prince Donghyun was more than meets the eye, but you got the most surprised when they claimed that the prince had been harbouring feelings for you ever since that dance all those years ago, and he had not stopped talking about wanting to meet you again.

“Why would he do that? I reprimanded him for dancing so poorly,” you pointed out matter-of-factly, but that just fuelled the boys’ chattering even more.

“Oh yes, he did say something about loving the fact that you dared to put him in his place.”

“And that you weren’t afraid to speak your mind since most royalty wouldn’t do so,” Woonhak added to Jaehyun’s answer, and their words just made you wonder even more how much say Prince Donghyun had in this wedding proposal. It should have definitely gone through his father, which made you question why he had even agreed to it if you could not appease him at all, but was the choice ultimately the prince’s? Or did he have as much say in it as you did?

You were about to ask the cousins about this matter when the King announced that it was time to slice the five-tier cake, but he wanted to say a few words before. The princes beside you got all too pumped up at the mention of dessert, and excused themselves to get closer to the cake, so they could be one of the first ones to have their share.

“I would like to start by saying that we are very grateful to have all of you here to celebrate the birthday of our younger son,” the King started with his best neutral smile as he gave Prince Donghyun a side-eye who tried hard to appear more gentle than his father. You could feel from the moment you were here that their relationship was quite strained, but what his father said next just went beyond anything you could expect.

“But we have more to celebrate today, and I would like to hereby announce that our first-born, Prince Donghee, is going to marry Princess Dayoung from the Air Kingdom. Our son has just returned from finishing up on the marriage talks, and the wedding will take place in two months’ time.”

The claps came on quietly at first, then they appeared thunderous in the vast dining room, echoing back from the walls in a mocking tone while Prince Donghyun tried his best not to seem affected. You could tell that his small smile that didn’t reach his ears was anything but joyful, and he clapped like he was a mere shadow of himself. His father didn’t seem to take note of it as he asked Prince Donghee - the older brother you had seen by his side when they had started the celebration - to step forward and say a few words as well. It was all too perfect, all too practised, you felt sick to your stomach as you watched the scene unfold in front of your eyes.

“Marriage talks are underway with princesses for our second-born as well, but it looks like we have to put them on hold to prepare for the wedding day,” the King concluded after Prince Donghee was finished with his own speech, the room filled with roaring cheers once more.

You should have felt relieved that your possible marriage with Prince Donghyun was put on hold, and you should have felt a bit enraged that there were other princesses in question since they had not told you that you had competition. It shouldn’t have mattered, really, but you didn’t like the way the King was playing this game, and you felt anything but triumphant over the news. The prince seemed gutted, to say the least, and the way his eyes were searching for yours told you that he hoped that you wouldn’t take his father’s words the wrong way.

No wonder you didn’t feel like having a slice from the cake when they finished their speeches, and when you saw Prince Donghyun quietly walking away from the crowd, you decided to go after him. You met your brother in the meantime, and told him that you would be back. You didn’t know where you were going, and for a moment, you thought that you lost sight of Prince Donghyun, only to find him leaving through the garden, heading towards the lighthouse.

You tried to catch up to him, but he was a few metres ahead, and didn’t seem to notice you following him. However, when you stepped onto the dock, and realised yet again that there were no railings in sight, you came to a halt.

“Prince Donghyun!” You shouted after him, trying to gain his attention. He immediately turned around, his eyes widening in surprise when he caught sight of you standing still at the very end of the wharf.

“Princess, what are you doing here?” He inquired, his tone neutral, as he stood there, standing still a few metres ahead of you. You felt like there was a distance between you two both physically and metaphorically, and to hell to all of your plans of changing his mind, you would feel awful if you didn’t check on him after how he had checked on you last time following the King’s derogatory remarks.

“I wanted to see if you’re okay,” you blurted out, surprising yourself with how confident you sounded, but how couldn’t you? The prince in front of you never looked more vulnerable, more humane and more in need of a heart-to-heart talk - a mere 20-year-old boy who was hurt, and everyone decided to turn a blind eye to him and his feelings. The way his eyes were full of sorrowful stars instead of the joyful ones you usually saw swimming in them, and the way his lips quivered, full of emotion, but they looked as if they had never learned how to curl into a smile clenched your heart, not just a little.

“I’m not sure this is the right time to talk,” he dismissed your confession, the look on his face betraying his own words, because he looked like he wanted to talk, he just didn’t want to admit it out loud. He was ready to walk away from you when you finally broke from your frozen state, and took a step closer to him.

Your heart was in your throat as you took one step after another, focusing on the prince’s frame instead of the obvious lack of railings by the sides. You pursed your lips in concentration, remembering all those etiquette classes when you had learned how to walk in a straight line. Yet now, your steps were wobbly, your high heels clicking on the wood underneath your feet, and your long skirt didn’t help either.

However, when Prince Donghyun heard that you were indeed walking after him, he turned around, and started walking towards you. It crossed your mind for a moment that maybe he would walk by you, so that you wouldn’t come after him, and when he halted beside you, you held in your breath nervously, more nervous than you had ever been around him before.

“Why did you start walking after me? It’s dangerous,” he pointed at your dress, but there was no malice in his voice. Instead, he sounded as gentle as if he had been talking to a child. For a moment, you couldn’t find your voice, and when you did, you were all just a jumble of words. Gosh, this boy…

“I am… I just… I thought…” You started, inwardly cursing yourself for ever putting yourself in this situation. You hated nothing more than embarrassing yourself, and he knew that, he knew that all too well.

“I’ve never thought I would make you speechless,” he mused out loud, the side of his lips curling upwards, and you felt the need to punch him in his chest for teasing you like that. You were ready to do just that, raising your left hand, but he reached out for it instead, and laced his arm with yours, as casually as if it had been the hundredth time he did that.

Now you were actually speechless, blinking up at the boy whose side profile was enough to tell you that he was feeling rather shy himself, both his cheeks and ears were turning red after his gesture. He guided you towards the other end though, holding your arm safe and steady, as you were walking side by side towards the lighthouse.

May it be because you were more awestruck by Prince Donghyun’s gesture than your own fear of the open water around you, but you were at the other end before you knew it, and you didn’t even think about falling into the water, not even once. Or may it be because he was holding you like he wanted to protect you from all the bad in the world, but there was gentleness in his grip, something that didn’t go unnoticed by you (and that traitor heart of yours).

“I’m sorry about what my father said. It’s true that he has been in talks with other kingdoms regarding marriage proposals, but I haven’t been in talks with anyone other than you. I’ve wanted to tell you sooner, I just-”

“I know, I could tell,” you cut the prince off before he could feel even more guilty about something that wasn’t in his control.

“Really?”

“Yes,” you nodded seeing his bewildered expression. Well, you couldn’t blame him since you definitely looked like you wanted to find anything you could criticise about him or his kingdom the day before, but this - standing beside the lighthouse with his arm around yours, watching the setting sun on the horizon - was different. “And I know we don’t always have a say in what we want when it comes to the matters of our own kingdom. Plus, marriage is a serious topic, and it’s understandable that your father looked at other options, too,” you added matter-of-factly, but you could feel a little bit of a lump in your throat.

Prince Donghyun didn’t say anything for some time, so you hoped that you didn’t cross any boundaries. You could feel him tense a bit beside you, and since you didn’t know why, you let go of his arm, so he could have his own space if he wanted. He looked at your retrieving arm for a few seconds before he spoke up again.

“I’m not sure how to word this, but I feel like my father… he doesn’t love me the way he loves my brother,” he confessed, raw and vulnerable. He was staring far ahead, but you could tell from the way he was clenching his jaw that even this was hard for him without looking at you. “I don’t know why because I’ve tried everything my brother can do, and still… I always get that I’m only good for my looks, and I should marry someone who could bring more to our kingdom.”

You felt your heart drop at his confession because it resonated with you so much, especially the last sentence. Even though you weren’t pitted against each other with Sungho, you were also told by distant relatives and royalty from other kingdoms that you were so beautiful, but nothing else, and that you should marry someone who could make you someone. As if you weren’t already someone just by being born into your family. You weren’t perfect, but you tried to learn how not to let it get to you since as a princess, you had to deal with such comments all the time.

On the other hand, you would have never thought that Prince Donghyun might be going through the same thing because everyone had been gushing about him, and not just about his looks. Yet, you could never know what goes on in a palace unless you live there yourself, so you would never have the heart to question his words. You could tell that he was telling the truth.

“I know it might sound naive given that we are royalty, but the only person you should be good enough for is yourself. Trust me, you will feel a lot lighter if you know that you live your life for yourself, not somebody else,” you shared honestly, looking at him, and that’s the moment he turned his head to look at you, too.

When your eyes met, you thought that he would ask you about your experience, and you would have told him. Something in you shifted since last night, and you weren’t trying to undermine his efforts and see him in a bad light anymore. In fact, what all that bravado showed you was that he still accepted you, and he was willing to put up with your behaviour no matter what.

However, instead of asking about your side - though you had a feeling he understood you even without saying it out loud -, he said the next few words that truly put everything in a whole new light:

“But I want to be good enough for you, too.”

Sunset reflecting in his eyes, painting his locks in shades of chestnut-brown and statice-purple, his tall frame towering over you as if he wanted to shelter you from the outside world, your heart skipped a few beats before it picked up its pace, and started thumping against your ribcage, electrifying your whole body from head to toe. Your throat was dry, your words non-existent, and you unknowingly took a few steps backwards, as if to detach yourself from this perfect moment… only to step on the insides of your two-layered skirt, and fall - very far from elegant - into the cold water.

Your body was in survival mode immediately, your arms flailing around wildly as you tried to keep yourself up in the water. Your lungs were on fire, and despite the fact that you tried to pacify your breathing, telling yourself that you would be okay, your brain didn’t listen to you, and made up worse and worse scenarios of you drowning there. Even when firm arms took hold of you, all you could think about was that there was no air, no air, no air… drowning, drowning, drowning…

It could have been mere seconds, you couldn’t tell, before you got to the shore, and Prince Donghyun helped you push yourself upwards, so you could cough up the water. It felt so violent, your lungs and your throat seemed to battle each other while your eyes were on fire due to the salty water, and your whole body was shivering in your cold, damp clothes. In the meantime, you could subtly feel his gentle pats on your back that turned to circles when your coughs easened up, and your breathing wasn’t stridulous anymore.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now. It’s okay. I’m here,” Prince Donghyun said as a mantra while you were trying to pull yourself together. Yet, the moment you felt your shock fading away, you found yourself tearing up, your body starting to shake with the sobs.

Prince Donghyun looked alarmed for a moment, not knowing what to do with you, but you didn’t let him decide. You threw your arms around his equally wet body, and sobbed into the crook of his neck.

“Thank you… for saving me,” you mumbled between ragged breaths, and an intense wave of sobbing came over you when you said the words out loud. You could have died, you could have died just a few minutes ago, and he had jumped in to save you. He could have teased you that the water wasn’t that deep or he could have forgotten that you had told him that you couldn’t swim, and let you drown there, but he had jumped in without hesitation, and pulled you to shore so swiftly, you wondered if he had used some kind of magic just now. For you.

Prince Donghyun didn’t say a word, he let you cry as much as you wanted, while he was holding you safe and sound, while you were holding onto him.

A whirlwind of events followed your unfortunate fall. As soon as you entered the palace, the prince called for servants to help you undress, bathe and help you get warm, and he also notified someone to send a royal medic over to your suite after everything else was taken care of. You were trying to say that he himself should do the same, but he looked more worried about you than his own wet clothes and dripping locks, and you didn’t find the right words to say, still a bit under the influence of the past events.

You followed what the servants asked you to, and you liked that you were being told what to do for a change because it helped you to focus on something else other than the near-death experience. Whenever your mind was trying to replay the scene from when you had been in the water, you pulled yourself back to reality, holding onto the bathtub or the side of your fresh gown a bit more tightly, so as to keep you grounded. It was difficult at first, but the more you practised it, the easier it became, and when the servants tucked you into bed, you felt like you were close to being okay again. The medic also stated that you didn’t have a fever, there was no sign of a creeping illness, your heart probably beat faster than usual due to the shock, and prescribed some calming herbal tea.

Sungho visited you as soon as he was allowed to, and of course, he came with all those “I should have been there for you” monologues, the ones you quickly dismissed because you could take care of yourself, you didn’t need his supervision all the time, but mostly because it was your fault that you fell (and your dress’), no one else could be blamed for it. You also asked him not to blame Prince Donghyun, but he seemed more offended by the fact that you dared to assume that he would hold the prince accountable than by the way you were so quick to take the prince’s side.

“How could I blame him? He saved you, after all,” he declared simply, and let out a long sigh after his words. It was rare that you saw him so concerned, you usually didn’t give him any reason to worry about you, so it warmed your heart yet again just how much he cared under that otherwise teasing brother surface.

“I’m sorry for making you worried.”

“If you’re really sorry, you should get better soon, and listen to the medic,” he reprimanded you as if you had been a child, and maybe he thought the same because he let out a deep laughter afterwards. “Huh, I sound like a real big brother, don’t I?”

“You do, and it kind of scares me a bit. When did you grow up?” You mused out loud playfully, and the effect was immediate. The boy’s furrowed eyebrows smoothed out, and his features easened, softened, his shoulders sagging at ease. He crouched down to toss an unruly lock to the side that was falling into your eyes, and patted your head.

“I remember I did the same when you fell into that pond on our trip to the meadows,” he reminiscenced with a soft smile, and you didn’t need to be told twice what he meant by it. You remembered that day as if it had been yesterday. You had been 12 at the time, and your family had already known that you didn’t know how to swim, so it had been Sungho who had jumped after you. He was already an excellent swimmer, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been shaken by that experience. You remembered how he had stayed by your bedside for the whole night afterwards, afraid that nightmares would haunt you.

“Will you stay by my side for the night this time, too?” You elevated an eyebrow challengingly, and he let out a bewildered huff in relief.

“Do you think I don’t know that you wouldn’t let me?”

“Fair point,” you agreed wholeheartedly, but let him pat your head a few more times before there was a knock on the door. You both turned towards the visitor when he opened the door, and when it turned out to be Prince Donghyun, Sungho gave you a knowing look before telling the boy that he should come in, he was about to leave anyway. It didn’t slip your attention that on his way out, he squeezed the younger prince’s shoulder in an affectionate manner, and even though you didn’t see it from that angle, you had a feeling that he said thank you to the prince, and that’s why he seemed so coy all of a sudden.

His hair was extremely fluffy (now that it was freshly washed like yours), the locks curling elegantly around his ears and neck like soft little tendrils, his doe eyes shining in the dim lights of the room, all bright and fond. He was wearing more casual attire than at the party, so you deemed that him jumping into the water after you meant that he had no desire to go back to his birthday celebration that was soon coming to its end either way.

You felt awfully exposed with your hair still wet at the ends, lack of concealing touches and make-up on your face, and being tucked into bed in a nightgown was not at all how you wanted Prince Donghyun to see you, but he didn’t seem fazed by your appearance. Nor did he make a comment on it when you beckoned him closer, and he could see for himself that you were fine.

You wouldn’t admit it for the world, but it warmed your heart how worried he was, and when it was the fifth time you had to reassure him that you were fine, you had a feeling that it was more out of guilt than anything else, hence, you felt the need to emphasise:

“It wasn’t your fault that I fell into the water, so don’t be sorry. What’s more, you saved my life, so I couldn’t be more thankful for you,” you admitted genuinely, and the blush that crept onto his cheeks was adorable. You had to bite down on your tongue to hold yourself back from smiling at his shy state.

“Still, I’m sorry that you had to experience it.”

“It wasn’t the first time, actually,” you justified, and continued telling him about that time at the pond Sungho had just talked about, and one time when one of the royal teachers had tried to teach you how to swim, but you had nearly drowned. It hadn’t been a super important requirement for a princess to learn how to swim, but since you travelled by ships to both the Air Kingdom and the Earth Kingdom, it was a weakness that possible enemies could take advantage of if things went south. So they had tried to teach you, but to no avail. Your panic always kicked in as soon as water surrounded you.

The prince stayed quiet, and you couldn’t tell whether it was because he didn’t know if he was allowed to ask questions, or he didn’t have any. On the other hand, you had questions, so you inquired if he knew how to create bubbles underwater, and his eyes immediately lit up when he started talking about his power. He did know how to create bubbles both outside of water and underwater, so he could breathe in there without oxygen, and he shared that sometimes he used these bubbles to watch the fish and crabs underwater because he had always been fascinated by them.

His whole demeanour changed when he was talking about the sea and the creatures living there, sharing both stories of his childhood days when he had been collecting shells alongside the shore, and interesting facts about sea life that he read books on. At one point, he was so into talking about his favourite type of fish that he didn’t even notice a servant coming into your room and placing some food and another mug of tea on your bedside table. He only realised that the lady was in the room when she pushed a chair beside your bed, so he could sit down on it while talking. Then, he giggled, a heartwarming mixture of excited and embarrassed, and thanked her for the gesture.

“May I?” He asked before he would have sat down on the chair, and you nodded immediately. It’s not like you weren’t the visitor here, but you appreciated the gesture.

The prince was definitely interrupted because now he didn’t know where to continue or where to start, and he just looked around, his eyes darting between different parts of the room until they settled on the steaming bowl of food and the mug of tea on your bedside table.

“Oh, you should have it while it’s still hot,” he suggested as he pointed at the steaming bowl. “Since there was mostly heavy food for the celebration, I’ve asked a chef to prepare something more nutritious to prevent you from coming down with something,” he explained as he averted his eyes from the food to you.

You blinked rapidly at him, your suspicion kicking in, but then you remembered what he had said just a few hours before:

“But I want to be good enough for you, too.”

And it all made sense now. Not just his kind actions, going above and beyond to make sure that your stay at the palace was comfortable from offering to help with anything to checking up on you the first night you had that awful dinner with his parents, but also the way he was different to you than with other girls. Even if you wanted to deny it, you could see that the prince didn’t dance with anyone else at his birthday party other than you, and Prince Woonhak and Prince Jaehyun also said that he had been harbouring feelings for you, and now it made sense. He had even learned how to dance properly because of you, and he had created a water bubble, so you could cross the wharf with you.

“What’s wrong?” Prince Donghyun’s concerned voice brought you back to the here and now, and you just shook your head with a smile. You weren’t sure that you could ever look at him the same way after knowing that he liked you.

“Nothing. I’m just thankful,” you admitted, and reached for the bowl of steaming soup. You could feel the boy’s eyes on you when you took the first spoonful of the soup, but it was delightful, and when the prince asked about it, you said so. He seemed very happy to know that you enjoyed it, and went over what was in the soup, or at least, what he remembered the chef telling him.

“So…” You cleared your throat after the first few bites, feeling silly for wanting to bring up the topic, but also feeling silly for not wanting to bring it up. In the end, you thought better of it, and just blurted it out. “Did you have a say in the wedding proposal you sent me?”

“Yours was the only one I had a say in. My father sent out two inquiry letters to other kingdoms, and he was the one who chose the possible brides in those cases,” he answered immediately, and you saw heat returning to his cheeks when it dawned on him that he basically confessed that he was the one who had chosen you.

“Oh,” you found yourself saying, but the boy’s expression was quizzical upon your reaction.

“Oh? Oh as in ‘oh, I’m so disappointed’, or oh as in ‘oh, I didn’t expect that’ or… ‘oh, I’m so happy to hear that’?” He listed out the options, and furrowed his eyebrows, totally clueless. It was a cute look on him, you had to admit, especially in comparison to his usual confidence demeanour.

“Oh as in ‘oh, I didn’t expect that’, but it makes me feel kind of… good?”

The moment the last word rolled off your tongue, you knew that you were done for. Yet, the boy’s smug smile just confirmed that he wouldn’t let you live down afterwards, so you braced yourself for his teasing. Instead, his proud smile softened, his big doe eyes turning to little crescents as he watched you eat, and didn’t say a word. You found yourself smiling back at him, letting the silence embrace you, and it was so crazy that a day before, you would have done everything to change his mind about you, and now, you just admitted that you were glad that he was the one who had chosen you. Now, you had a better idea why he would have done so, and it made you feel fizzy and warm and a bit enchanted.

You were the only guests who stayed for two nights, but it was the Water Kingdom’s request, so nobody could blame you for it. However, staying for the night after having a heart-to-heart conversation with Prince Donghyun in your room felt odd, as if it was an invitation for something more even though you were perfectly aware of the fact that the King of the Water Kingdom would most probably do anything in his power to choose someone over you when it came to his second-born son’s marriage. The fact that the prince had been the one to choose you as a potential bride - and you had been the only one he had a say in - made you feel somewhat special, but it also made you feel slightly competitive.

It was laughable, really. You had come here to destroy Prince Donghyun’s plans to marry you, and now, you wanted to destroy his father’s plans to outrule you. You weren’t a petty loser, you knew how to lose, but still… with the way the prince cared for you and went above and beyond to assist you and keep you company during these days made you feel almost compelled to make a better impression on his parents. Not to mention the fact that he had also saved you from drowning.

However, nothing was certain for now, especially not with Prince Donghee’s upcoming marriage that would take the spotlight either way, so you didn’t want to pry about the matter on the day of your departure. On the other hand, you managed to bump into Prince Woonhak and Prince Jaehyun - also having stayed for the night after they had eaten through the whole menu for the celebration - when you left your suite, and they insisted that they wanted you to come back again.

“That isn’t my choice to make, I’m afraid,” you broke it down to them with a friendly smile, and Prince Woonhak pouted as if he would never ever see you again. You had seemed to make a good impression on them, and it warmed your heart since you had only had one conversation. Though that was a very important conversation given that they had spilled the beans on Prince Donghyun having a crush on you for years.

“You should invite us to your birthday celebration then. When is it?” Prince Jaehyun suggested with a wide grin, and when you let them know about the date and that you would keep his words in mind before organising it, he looked like an overzealous kid, all smiles and bright eyes. Gosh, they were so cute, it made you miss your ever-so-bright little sister even more.

“We’re rooting for you two, you know,” Woonhak beamed, not letting silence fall over the three of you, his unruly locks falling into his eyes.

“For who?”

“You and Donghyun. It’s obvious that you like him, too,” he continued with a smug grin, and you were about to open your mouth to decline him, but you were unable to form words. That just seemed to confirm everything in their eyes because their smirks grew even wider, their eyes even brighter.

Thankfully, you were interrupted by a servant who notified you that your carriage was ready, so after a few bubbly words and wishes from the two boys, you were guided outside. Sungho was already there, talking to the Queen of the Water Kingdom by the carriage while you caught sight of both Prince Donghee and Prince Donghyun bidding farewell to other guests. When you halted beside your brother, the Queen inquired if you had a good night’s sleep, and apologised for the inconvenience the day before. You reassured her that you weren’t inconvenienced, you were rather grateful for Prince Donghyun’s assistance, and she smiled a genuine smile, one that made your erratic thoughts calm down a little bit. The King might have been hostile towards you, but the Queen had never been openly critical of you, so you hoped that it could stay that way.

“Excuse me, I have to bid farewell to the other guests,” the woman announced after having a few words with you and Sungho, then, she reached out to squeeze your hands. The gesture took you by surprise, but only in a positive way. “Please, make sure to visit us again. Donghyun might not say it out loud, but I could see how happy your presence made him,” she shared with a secretive smile, and despite your bewilderment, you reciprocated it, squeezing her hands once before she let go.

“With pleasure, Your Majesty,” you bowed respectfully as both an answer and both a farewell. You watched her leave before turning back to your brother who had that amused half-smile playing on his lips that told you that he really wanted to call you out on something, but he tried to hold it in. Sighing, you raised an eyebrow in question.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing, really. I’m just amused by the fact that you came here, set on not wanting to come here ever again in your whole entire life, and now, you just got invited again,” he blabbered as if his words weren’t teasing at all, but you didn’t want to admit anything, so you merely pointed out, trying to keep your voice as confident as possible:

“She meant ‘us’, not just me.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Your Water Prince is likely walking towards us because he also wants to meet me again,” Sungho gestured towards Prince Donghyun who was indeed coming up to you, elegance radiating off him while he was taking one step after another. It was unfair how vividly he stood out, and how perfectly the morning sunlight bathed him in its glory, drawing a halo around his chestnut-brown hair. It was also unfair how much your heartbeat picked up its speed when he halted beside your brother, and how much you had to try to sniffle a smile when your eyes landed on his ethereal features.

“I truly hope you enjoyed your stay with us,” he started politely, probably as a matter of courtesy, and he was about to continue when Sungho spoke up.

“Oh, I certainly enjoyed my stay,” he said as he gave you a not at all subtle side glance, and you felt the need to roll your eyes at his antics. Gosh, did he have to call you out like that?

“Thank you again for the invitation, Prince Donghyun,” you spoke up as if nothing happened, and the boy beamed, a smile blooming on his lips at your words. Unbeknownst to you, your lips also curled upwards. Staring at him felt both so wrong and so right at the same time, and seconds passed by with the cacophony of the surrounding noises fading into the background.

At least, until your brother decided to clear his throat and announce that he would let you two proceed while he would check on the insides of the carriage. A lame excuse, you could tell, but you appreciated his gesture because while you wouldn’t do anything inappropriate with the prince that he should not be a witness of, you felt like you could say a proper goodbye to the prince if it was just the two of you.

“I hope you also enjoyed your stay despite my father’s words on the first day,” Prince Donghyun mused out loud, his eyes searching for yours, something akin to concern flashing across them. You bobbed your head, reassuring him that you were doing better than on that first day.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he noted, letting a small smile invade his lips as he looked down at his intertwined fingers for a few seconds. You had never really mastered the art of saying goodbye to someone, let alone someone like him… someone who made you feel so many things in such a short span of time.

Maybe he was the same for the silence stretched a bit too long, but before you could get discouraged again, you spoke up.

“Thank you for everything. My stay was more enjoyable… thanks to you,” you blurted out, your voice cracking a bit by the end. The prince looked up right in that moment, and his cheeks flushed, tinting his pale skin in the shade of cherry blossom-pink. You could also feel your cheeks heating up, and it was so unlike you that you felt like running away and throwing yourself into the carriage right away.

“Thank you so much for coming, and if it’s up to me, it won’t be the last time we see each other. If you let me, of course…”

The prince let his words trail off by the end, curious and contemplative, while his eyes never left yours. You felt another rush of heat going through your body at the implication behind his words, but even if you wanted to deny it, even if you didn’t, there was only one right answer.

“I’d love to see you again,” you confessed feebly, but in the next moment, you pointed a finger at him warningly to mask up your anxiety. “But only if you keep practising your dancing.”

Laughter bubbled up the prince’s throat - airy and carefree - before he promised you that he would keep practising, so that he could continue dancing like a man. Then, he flashed one of those boyish grins of his that made princesses’ knees go weak, and now you kind of understood why that was the case.

“See you again, Prince Donghyun!”

“See you soon, Princess!” He bid his farewell when the coachman came up to the two of you, letting you know that you could leave whenever you wanted to. You smiled back at the waving prince as you made your way to the carriage, and the coachman helped you inside.

Once you took a seat and looked up at your brother who was sitting in front of you, you warned him:

“Not a word, Sungho.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“That’s your luck,” you stated playfully before looking out of the window and watching Prince Donghyun’s waving figure getting smaller and smaller until he was out of sight.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this story of mine! Let me know what you think!

If you want to read more stories of mine, let it be for BOYNEXTDOOR or for other artists, consider signing up for my taglist here.

Hope you have a lovely day/night! Take care! ❤️

[shirefantasies]

First off, congratulations on 300 followers 🎉 I’m a big fan of your work! I was wondering if you could write about the different elf characters and how they would react to realizing they have feelings for a hobbit! reader?

Thank you & my apologies for the late response on this one 😅 but this is a fun one so let's see!

The Elves Realizing Their Feelings for Hobbit!Reader

Thranduil

Denial penetrates every corner of the woodland king's mind- such a humble creature, known not in the slightest for their ways of allure, and yet you permeate his thoughts so! Surely it was your reaction to the sight of him, the simplicity of your manner that was ever so refreshing. Thranduil knows little more than reverence to a fault, cowing and great shows and yet…you see him. You treat him as anyone else. No fanfare, but no expectations either. No doubts. Thus he works to doubt you less, to make less assumptions about your ability and even jokes about your stature. He finds as you talk that you share a love of nature, all your reverence dedicated almost solely to the earth’s growing things, the way roots seek what they need. Thranduil does the same, you point out, and ever does he endure in his place of nourishment, but sometimes any plant needs a good repotting. Astute, very astute, and yet your words strike his heart like an arrow. You, he wishes to say, are his repotting. But perhaps he should put that more romantically… all the greatest shows of elvenkind for a mere hobbit. Who would have thought? Thranduil reflects with a fond, amazed smile.

Feren

From the moment he grabbed hold of you, knife pressed to the back of your neck, Feren puzzled at the way his heartbeat sped, not yours. You were no threat to him, you were nothing in fact save an intruder in his lord Thranduil's realm, one of many his patrol took into custody. You were the smallest, he noticed, and certainly the least deadly if the startled, pleading look in your eyes was anything to go off of. Why did you keep... No, he could hardly relent, not when he had orders to- "You are afraid?" He found himself whispering to you, hiding his gaze upon you by hovering it over you and the other hobbit. You nod and he begins to whisper words of comfort to you, explaining that while stubborn, his king was nothing if not benevolent and would likely simply detain you. No harm would come your way. When indeed Thranduil sentenced your odd company to imprisonment, he found himself strolling to your cell time and time again, offering you food and drink and answering your rapid fire of questions ranging from what would happen to you to soon what customs were practiced in the Woodland Realm. "I think this place is beautiful," you told him, "I think if I were to rot anywhere, I am glad that it is to be here." "I think so, too," Feren agreed, and why he spoke the next part he still did not know, "And I do not think that shall be your fate." It was not until he walked away from you, considering what things he might bring to show you, that he realized how attracted to you he truly had become.

Legolas

Finds himself studying you, gaze unable to fall from you for too long, searching your every movement. Suddenly his interest in hobbits has increased tenfold; in fact, Legolas begins speaking more to Frodo and Sam about their customs, favorite things back in the Shire. His heart swells further for it just as you, taking in with bright eyes every spray of harebell and piping hot cup of lavender tea with scones and little gift of courtship presented to the hobbit of one's dreams. Pastoral, joyful, many delights absent from the prince's own upbringing- what a breath of fresh air you are! But what does he say to you? If possible, the elven prince finds himself even quieter than normal, simply captivated by your every motion. As a result he leans upon conveyance through action, rushing to your defense in battle and being there to catch you when you fall, enjoying in the briefest moments the feeling of his hands about your waist.

Haldir

Years have worn him. Battles have hardened him. Customs have dictated he be free of emotion as much as possible, or else suppress display of them for decorum. You, by contrast, are so innocent, almost painfully so and every sight of your wide, shining eyes has Haldir swearing to protect you. The world cannot take away your wonder, your sweetness, the good you see in all people. Oh, he cannot even wish immortal life upon you for all its horrors, and does he even wish it for himself? The small being remaining within him cries out for your life, to be swept off to your Shire and work hard at cultivating joy above all else. While that future may not lie ahead of him, he seeks it in every question he asks, every story he requests. Often does he marvel at your hidden strengths and wonders, especially in such a deceptively small package.

Galadriel

Oh, the way you charm and flatter her! Someone so small yet without any fear in the world as you spill the sweetest words before her. Galadriel cannot help smiling, especially when you gently take her hand and she sees just how small yours looks in hers. She begins to dream of ways she could hold you, how she can reach down to cup your cheeks… And then without warning she is lost in reverie. Her space is yours and you all but have free rein of her home. All from these unexpected, wildly blossoming feelings. Secretly she wishes you would still seek her out, but Galadriel knows above all that that choice is yours. She will simply have to wait and see and hope each dream she shares of simple joys like a riverside walk or even drawing closer to you in greater, deeper ways from the recesses of her mind, are shared by you…

Lindir

These unfamiliar sensations he experiences in your presence can only be one thing. The desire to run his fingers through your curls, surely soft as they appear. The way you have become his muse, inspiring more than a single song. You have a greater appreciation for arts than Lindir must admit he would have expected of the Shire-folk, and your wonder has him wishing to experience it all again for the first time. Is he to speak these things aloud? Does he dare? Whatever might Lord Elrond think if his servant were to do such a thing? Not, of course, that he has not wished Lindir great happiness. Happiness. Your smile, so genuine, sincere as your bright words. Yes, you are happiness, and such cannot go unspoken, or perhaps unsung…

Elrond

Many words have been spoken of the quiet strength of hobbits, quite a few of them by the Lord of Imladris himself. You are no exception to this, appearing before him as a little blaze of fire unafraid to make demands at council. He cannot even fight, just chuckle and hear your terms, and he wonders if you take notice of the way the others look at his soft response. Why, he wonders, is he being so giving- simple appreciation for the pastoral little folk and all they symbolize for the joy and hope of the world? Perhaps, but a part of him is forced to admit… He is attracted to you. Much time has passed since Elrond has been met with such a force, and quite simply put it stirs something in him. Much as he has endured in this world, your desire to fight for every joy you've ever known rings true to Elrond's own creation of a house of comfort...in your own special way. He cannot help but smile as he listens to you.

Arwen

Developing a little habit for teasing you, Arwen always manages to slink behind you and offer to help you reach something off a high shelf, voice low and lips curved upward. She is older than her visage suggests, wiser, thus you are not the first hobbit to cross her path and she looks upon you with no great shock. She does, however, seek to show a greater level of respect than the so-called 'little folk' tend to be shown. During discussions with her father and the other elves, Arwen smiles and waves you forward, especially if you happen to be shy, then her affection only grows, a hand falling over your shoulder and her smile widening. The more time you spend together, the more this happens, Arwen taking your hand to wish you well, sliding a hand over your waist to move past you, even playfully nudging you when you run together and always keeping pace with you. She is comfortable with you, she realizes, happiest at your side, and that is when it sinks in: she loves you.

Taglist: @lokilover476 @kilibaggins @filiswingman @ibabblealot @stormchaser819 @pirate-lord-of-narnia @datglutengoblin @letmelickyoureyeballs @mossyskinn @wordbunch @tiny-and-witchy @th3-st4r-gur1 @fleurdemiel-145 @mistresskayla-blog1 @misabelle717 | Reply/Message/Ask to join 🩷

[seancekitsch]

The Sword and the Quill: Chapter Two

Pairing: Gwayne Hightower x Reader

In the weeks leading up to little Daeron's departure to Oldtown, Queen Alicent finds herself trying to entertain the unmarried ladies of court. As one of her ladies in waiting, you agree to an anonymous penpal in one of the men at court, and end up spilling your heart to him. He is your perfect match, your equal. The only issue? The Queen's brother Gwayne Hightower will not stop teasing you as you try to uncover who responds to your letters.

My Darling Unfamiliar,

It does delight me to meet you this way, as often court can be all too serious and formal. The summer treats me well. I can tell you, without divulging too much, that the sun grants me her warmth daily, and the nights feel alive in their starlight. I am enjoying it, to say the least. However, I find the castle all too humid and stuffy despite its lofty peaks and open windows. Summers in my own home, though far, are much more favorable as far as comfort. 

I will try not to make it too easy for you to guess my identity, as I can tell you are as sharp as any blade and cunning too. Though I must agree, it is a thought that taunts me as well. I desire to know you immediately, to put a face to such lovely penmanship and words. I will be looking for your hand everywhere in the keep, I fear. In fact, I have already begun. By the end of this little experiment, you may even know me better than myself. 

I am a man of noble birth, and as you so desire, I have traveled a bit. Where would you wish to go first, my Unfamiliar? If I have been there, I can write to you of my time in that place, maybe even draw you a picture from memory. I appreciate that you wish to see the world for what it is, as most might not. The world is a dangerous and wild place, but are you ready to see it? 

I too enjoy the arts, as well as sport. Will you be at the upcoming tourney? If I am lucky, a boisterous young knight will not steal your favor. I will not say more, except that I have a wonderful tutor for the lute and I feel myself learning more as time goes on. I admit that I am only adequate at dancing, but if I had a tutor in the form of an adventurous woman, perhaps that could change. Might we hope for a feast soon, perhaps with the coming of the Princess’ babe? Maybe without knowing, we will speak to one another. If we are lucky, we may even share a dance. I will even promise not to step on your feet.

I am certain our letters will become tomes themselves, as I find myself already getting along with you. Even from one letter, I find you a breath of fresh air in a stuffy keep. 

I await your next letter eagerly,

Your Unfamiliar

You could kiss Alicent, you really could. How had you not known that there was such a man within these walls? Well truthfully, that was easy to miss with the way that you stick by the young queen and chase her children around when they’re playing. There are, however, only so many men it could be. Only a few men remain unmarried at court, and only so many do you think are capable of writing this way. They must be well educated, and not war-minded. This leads you to only four names.

“Lord Rowan, Lord Beesbury, Lord Darklyn, Ser Loras Florent, I don’t know,” you sigh as you sit back into the plush settee in Alicent’s apartments. Young Aegon throw’s down playing cards towards his sister Helaena, much to his mother’s dismay. Luckily though, neither child pays attention to your conversation.

“You’ve forgotten the Lannister Twins and my brother,” She offers, looking towards the list in the little book you’ve brought with you. You’ve started two lists. One of possible identities, one of the information you’ve learned about your unfamiliar. It’s a funny name you’ve come up with, you think. That someone will be so unfamiliar to you in person but so familiar on parchment. You did not dare tell Alicent of this, however. It feels that if you do, she will find something to admonish in it; or worse, speaking of it will mean that some of the magic will be gone. You were serious when you wrote the first letter, thinking that this person may end up knowing you even better than she does. She is your friend, but you do not for a moment forget that she is the most powerful woman in the realm.

You frown, forehead creasing into the pout.

“Do you really think the Lannisters are read enough to write like this? Do you think Jason plays the lute?” you don’t hide the humor in your tone, “Or Tyland being well traveled?”

Surprisingly, Alicent lets a chuckle escape her lips at your words.

“Suppose not,” she agrees, tearing her eyes from your list.

“But my brother still stands,” she punctuates her statement by tapping a finger on the list. Her nails are red, bitten and bloody in the cuticles. You grab her hand in yours, your thumb rubbing over her knuckles.

“Don’t you see, Alicent? Your idea is working,” you reassure her, and drop her hand to begrudgingly scrawl her brothers name onto the list.

The queen only offers you a weak smile, still so unsure of herself. You wish that she would just come into her power, that she would recognize her gentle strength. You suppose that this is unfortunately because she was raised here, as this castle could break anyone’s spirit. You wonder how the princess has lasted this long with her sunny disposition, but even that is starting to wane.

“Have you shown anyone your letter?” she asks, avoiding your praise.

“Only Lady Tarly, as she asked to compare letters.”

“And what of hers?”

“He called her ‘his hopeful betrothed’ and said he wished to know her waist size,” you scoff, infinitely pleased that he is not your partner in this scheme.

“I am only glad that man was not your letter receiver,” Alicent admits, “I think you would have eaten him.”

You laugh heartily. Alicent is rarely like this.

“As if his meat isn’t already spoiled. He would not be worth the roast or the wine uncorked for it.”

It’s then that Helaena speaks up, placing a card down on the rug between herself and her brother.

“The biggest smile will come from teeth stained by wine made from unfamiliar grapes.”

A shiver runs down your spine, as it often does when Helaena speaks. She seems to have riddles that only she understands, but her word choice cannot be coincidence.

“Princess, what do you mean?” you ask, and she only shrugs her shoulders and does not look towards you. She is focused instead on making patterns out of the cards before her, ruining Aegon’s game while he struggles to understand and add to the pattern she makes. She pushes his cards out of the way without explanation.

Later in the day, you find yourself heading towards the library, parchment portfolio and the letter tucked into a bag around your shoulder. You had tried desperately to write in the comfort of your rooms, but each time you went to put quill to parchment nothing came to you. You reread the letter from your unfamiliar nearly twenty times, wanting to say everything on your mind, yet none of it sounding right on paper. You had determined that it was a change of scenery that you needed to clear your mind.

Pushing open the large doors, you take in the familiar scent of the old books, the light of the windows streaming in on their spines. This is where you go to escape, to pour over texts and write notes and copy pictures from books about the old kingdoms and the far off reaches of the realm. And so far, it is only yours. Aemond will scurry in wither a maester from time to time, but mostly you have the vast collection to yourself. All of the books Viserys and Alicent read are delivered to them.

There is a table towards the back of the study, behind all of the shelves and next to a large window that you typically like to set yourself down at; you hide even within the hiding spot. As if compelled, your feet take you there immediately, only when you go to place your bag down, there is already a stack of books and someone else’s parchment there.

“Hello?” you call out, expecting a maester or even one of the servants that picks out Visery’s books. You do not expect a cropping of auburn hair to peek out from behind one of the rows of books.

“Ah, the outspoken pretty one,” Gwayne says, bowing slightly as he reveals himself to you. Already, you feel your blood boiling.

“Ah, the arrogant one,” you match his tone, sarcasm dripping, “I didn’t know you could read.”

“I must have you know I’m skilled at many things,” he replies.

You stand at an impasse, both awkwardly in the alcove at the back of the room at opposite sides of the table.

“What are you doing in my library?” the words come out without thinking.

“Oh, this is yours? I apologize, my lady, I did not know you owned the kingdoms books!”

“That is not— that’s not what I meant. This is where I go. Alone. When I must think or I must write.”

Any jibe to come from his mouth doesn’t land, instead:

“And I’ve taken your writing desk.”

“Yes!” you throw your hands up, exasperated by this back and forth with him.

He seems to ponder the situation, drawn out as his face scrunches in mock thinking.

“Tell you what, you can be of use to me.”

“I would rather be dismissed from court.”

Gwayne rolls his eyes, and you can tell whatever patience he has is wearing thin. That makes two of you.

“Must you always be this vexing? I need help finding a book. I will trade this spot for the book.”

Oh. Well why did he not just say that?

“Fine,” you sigh, but not before placing your bag down onto the chair to already stake your claim.

He leads you back towards the front of the library, where some of the tallest shelves held built in ladders and a large fireplace sat unused until the winter months.

“What subject entices you, Ser?” you ask, mock interest steeped into each word. You turn your back to him, gazing up at the shelf behind you. It contains books on the histories of all the great houses, and all of their vassals. You can see the burgundy and gold of your family’s history sitting far enough away that you’d need the ladder to reach it.

“Courtly Love,” he responds, his voice betraying hesitance. You spin back around towards him.

“And does a knight such as yourself not already know the rules of Courtly Love? Is that the cause of your irksome disposition?” you balk at him. Truly, you are only half joking. As a knight and highborn man, this is something he should know front to back.

Gwayne grimaces, his eyes downcast.

“Forget it. I will find it myself. Enjoy your writing desk,” he tells you, and starts to move away. For some reason, a pit begins to form in your stomach.

“Wait! I apologize, Ser Gwayne,” you say it, and you mean it, “I know where we can find a book that may help.”

“Lead the way.”

You find yourself then looking back as you urge him through the labyrinth of books, a glance over your shoulder here and there to make sure he is keeping up. ‘Just this way’ and ‘almost there’s peppering the experience; to which he sighs, but it’s not as exasperated as before. He seems almost amused at your knowledge of the vast collection around you.

You huff, almost out of breath as you stop before a certain shelf. Gwayne, distracted, accidentally runs into your back, pushing you to brace yourself on the ladder. His hands find purchase on your waist, where your satiny bodice meets your skirt, the sound of swishing fabric and clinking armor echoing.

“Ser Gwayne! Act like the gentleman you claim to be,” you chastise him, but the genuine anger of your bite from earlier is gone. What game is this that he’s playing? He removes his hands from you, steadying you both.

“Lady Y/N, the way you speak to me is unbecoming of your birth,” he retorts, his edge also gone. Are you joking with him right now? Is this not animosity?

“Do you still want this book?”

“Desperately.”

“I thought so,” you confirm, narrowing your eyes at him.

You grab the rungs of the ladder easily, this climb normal and easy to you. It is at least weekly you grab books from the tops of ladders, and at least monthly you help Alicent pick out books for her children though you suspect only one of them reads them all.

“It is here,” you call down to him, gesturing at the shelf nearest where the wall turns off to a balcony of sorts, a separate study. You grasp the book, pulling it gently from the other dust covered tomes and climb back down. 

“I did not take you for a climber,” Gwayne remarks, watching you carefully the entire time as if you might fall. You do not; you are good at this by now. 

“And again, I did not take you for a reader,” you retort, hopping down the last rung and returning to the floor on his level. 

“I appreciate this, and I’m sure my sister will be glad to hear that we did not kill each other.”

The corners of your lips fight to turn upwards, and you steel yourself against smiling. 

“What do you need this for?” you ask as you hand over the book, watching him press his lips together and blow excess dust off of the cover.

“I fear that you will be merciless if I tell you, but you’ve been helpful today.”

Right, the urge to smile dies as he throws that your way. 

“It’s about those letters my sweet sister has us writing. I find myself wanting to brush up on the practices of Courtly Love if my writer will have me.”

Your eyes widen, understanding what he’s saying. Gwayne Hightower is potentially looking for a wife. Maybe that will suit him, you think, maybe matrimony will quiet the boisterous personality and bold flirtatious streak within him that frustrates you about him. Maybe a wife will make sure Daeron does not grow up to be a spitting image of his uncle. 

“Well I do hope she understands the challenge ahead of her.”

His eyes narrow, taking the barb in stride. 

“And you? What are you here for, my lady?”

Your shoulders sag, the magic of an almost nice moment with him already gone. 

“If you must know, I am here to write my own response letter to my writer. Sometimes my quill seems to take a mind of its own in this room, and I can get the words on the page easier.”

“Is this where you normally go?”

“I have one other place, but I do hope you never find it.” 

And you do mean that, for multiple reasons. You do not want him knowing your location like this, nor do you want him or anyone discovering that you know about Maegor’s tunnels, though all they would have to do is find the same book you did to be able to discover the tunnels for yourself. Based on his inexperience in the library, however, you feel that secret will be safe. 

“Not to worry, I won’t go looking,” He assures as he holds up the book to you again, as a silent thank you before he turns to walk back towards the front of the library. As he turns, he mumbles just barely loud enough for you to hear, “I fear what might happen to me if I do.”

He leaves you again after giving the last word, though this time it does not leave the same bitter taste within your mouth. You sigh deeply, and decide to head back to your writing desk to finally sit down and pen this letter. 

You take out the parchment, your little pot of specifically blue ink, your quill, then finally you sit; this chair is old, and specifically needs to be reupholstered and stuffed, as now your bottom has created a noticeable dent within the failing down within it. However, you hesitate to notify any of the castle staff about this, as that could spell the end to the privacy of this location for you. 

You try to clear your mind, thinking of only your Unfamiliar. You read the letter again, and again; thinking of all the things you wanted to say, the urge to be an open book and practically reveal yourself to him almost too tempting, but you need to be clever. 

So you dip your quill in the ink, and begin. 

My Traveled Unfamiliar,

It is quite coy, the way you evade giving yourself away. I fear, for your sake, that it will be much harder to hide from me as you reveal more of yourself in these letters. If I may be so bold, I feel that I am glad and surprised that a man such as you is not betrothed, and that we may meet at all. How terrible would it be if an impending marriage would stop us from becoming friends? I feel I need more friends in this castle, and despite not knowing who you are, I feel a certain kinship. I agree with you that this place is far too humid, it makes my hair frizz and my temper fray. I find myself, despite a promise not to, trying to narrow down the list of eligible men that you could be. I will be comparing every answer of yours to my knowledge of these men, so your identity will not remain a secret for long. I apologize if that seems forward, but I have never been one to let a mystery sit. 

Have you ever been to Dorne? Or Lys? I have heard many a wild tale and adventure from their lands, and one day I’d like to see them for myself. Maybe one day, I will be traveled enough to write to you of where I have been. Or even closer, have you ever been to Oldtown? The Queen has mentioned its beauty before, I would love to know more.

You pause your writing, thinking for a moment about that question. You ask partially for yourself, partially for little Daeron. Of course Alicent says all good about Oldtown, but she is from there. Maybe, if there is some kind of flaw there, maybe you can keep little Daeron as your shadow for a little longer. Perhaps this will also prevent your quill mate from knowing who you are. Everyone here has spoken to the queen, and you did not reveal you know her well. 

I must disappoint you though, as I do not care much for tourneys. I find the boastfulness of the men distasteful. Though this time, perhaps it will not be so vexing. This tourney, I will be scanning the crowds in hope that I will find you. I have this hope that when our eyes meet I will just know that it is you. That there is something that I will recognize right away in you. Perhaps after this tourney, if I find you, I can persuade you to play me a song on your lute after the games conclude. 

I would very much like us to share a dance at the next feast, though you must be warned that I will dance circles around you. You will not be able to step on my feet because you will not keep up with them! 

I am very glad to have met you, even though I have not met you. Your letter has brightened my disposition within this castle, and I appreciate you. I hope we will write novels to one another. 

Hoping for a quick response,

Your Unfamiliar. 

You look over the letter, realizing that maybe it’s very forward, but the way that whoever on the other side wrote to you tells you that it won’t matter. You fan the parchment in the air, the corners of it shaking and making noise. Gwayne, from across the library, snaps his head up to look at you. But instead of any sneer, he simply just smiles at you and nods. He is already about halfway through the book you recommended, a parchment next to him and notes clearly taken from the content of the book. You pity whatever young woman he is trying to impress, you think. 

When the ink on your parchment is dry, you place it carefully into your portfolio, and pack up to leave so you can seal it in your room. 

You walk across the library, bag slung and rusting against the material of your skirts. Gwayne’s attention falls upon you again. 

“Thank you,” he calls to you, that soft smile on his face again. You only nod in response, an odd feeling settling in your chest as you put more distance between yourself and Gwayne Hightower. 

[dionysism]

ohhh i am really thinking about penelope and grief. 20 years of it.

10 spent knowing your love is fighting at war and may die at any moment, every sunrise and sunset spent wondering if you're staring at the same sun right now or if he's already gone. and then the war ends, but not for you. it might as well have never ended, because now new grief sets in.

now you wait for him to come home, but he doesn't. and you slowly but surely hear about other great men making it home, and their tales of victory, and maybe you even hear about your husbands great trojan horse, how it won it for them, but you do not hear anything else about him. you listen very closely to the names of fallen greeks at troy, still, you do not hear about him. you wait another year, two turns to three, to four. nothing. no news, no closure at all.

you can't help but spin the worst possible tales in your mind, night after night. is he dead? ship shattered against the rocks in some storm? has he drowned? did he stop somewhere for supplies and get ambushed? cut down? could his men have betrayed him? did he anger some god and bring about his own doom? is there a chance, at all, that he's still out there? will you ever see him again?

and your son. your beautiful son who you love, who gets older every year, who can only know his father through the fragments of memory you can pass down to him, but it's not the same, not enough. and hero as he may be, what you would prefer is a husband. a father to your son. and his great deeds are somewhat lost now anyway, as he is. you cannot put a man to rest when his fate remains unknown— if he had fallen at troy, or made it home only to succumb to some wound or illness, at least you would know. at least then you could find some small amount of solace in him leaving a name and legacy for your son to inherit, some closure for you, but all you have is wind and words. and telemachus is starting to look like him, and you begin to dread him getting any older, as you remember you promised your husband you would remarry when he comes of age. another joy soured by grief, most women delight in seeing the men their sons grow up to be, but it only marks doom for you. sometimes you tell him to shave. just a little longer. he may still come back. you have to believe he will come back.

then the suitors decend like vultures, eating you out of house and home and every one of their faces is a reminder that he is not here, that he has not been here for a long time now. that you might never see his face again. you remember him perfectly, still, after all these years. can still see clear as day the image of him in your mind the day he set off in his ship, remember to the last detail the clothes you sent him off with. you can't imagine a life with any of these men, nor any other man on earth, but it becomes more clear to you everyday the gods must not care what you want. oh, how you both must be cursed by them, to be served such a fate! but you are not completely without hope, not yet. and so you stall, for as long as you possibly can, with your clever weaving scheme. and for awhile, this is something. you almost allow yourself to smile at the thought of how he would love a scheme like this, thinking about all the tricks and strategies he must have employed at troy, how you would have liked to have heard about them. ("well, here's what i would have done," you would sometimes tell him when he would recount old stories from his past to you. "penelope, you're brilliant! i should take you everywhere i go" he would usually say, and, you really wish he would have.) but he has gone somewhere far away now, somewhere you cannot follow, or even know about, and you are left with more grief than you know how to carry.

at some point, he's gone longer than you were married to him. eventually, he's gone longer than you knew him at all. it may seem silly then, to be so grief-stricken still, to love him so hopelessly, still. but you are only human, so you are, and you do. you've been betrayed and your scheme exposed, there's no denying your son has become a man, and the inevitable can be put off no longer. you falter constantly between a relentless despair that he will never come home, and fickle hope you are just a few more days from seeing his ship on the horizon. still, your nights are spent mostly weeping.

then this strange beggar comes to your house. he tells you he's heard about your husband, tells you he's coming home! and you want to believe it, desperately, more than anything, you want to believe it. but it sounds too good to be true. and yet, faintly, this strange man kind of reminds you of your husband. something about him you can't quite place. maybe you're just going mad, looking for him in everything, finding him where he's not there. but maybe...

and so here is your last stand, your last shred of hope, one final scheme. you'll marry, but first, a contest. a bow, that only your husband can string, an arrow shot through 12 axeheads. a contest conveniently leaving the winner the only armed man in the room. and if not what you ultimately hope, maybe, at least, you can watch these idiots sputter and fail.

[cowboywritersworld]

A Rhea Ripley x Reader, where Reader gets a new neighbour, she doesn't see her at first because of both their working hours and when Reader sees Rhea is finally home, she prepares her a cake as a welcome gift?

Welcome home

General Masterlist | WWE Masterlist | Rhea Ripley Masterlist

Characters: Rhea Ripley, Reader

Prompt: A Rhea Ripley x Reader, where Reader gets a new neighbour, she doesn't see her at first because of both their working hours and when Reader sees Rhea is finally home, she prepares her a cake as a welcome gift?

If someone would have told you, years ago, that at some point you would be neighbour with a famous wrestler, you would have laughed.

For sure you don't live in a small city, but it's still kinda in the suburbs, so you are delighted when you discover that the well kept house has been sold.

Since you work full time as a physiotherapist, you get home in the evening to a truck unloading a couch. Someone in the house is giving direction on where to put it, but you can't really recall where you heard it from. You sigh and leave your things in your hallway, before walking to their door.

"Hi, I'm Y/N. Your neighbor. Welcome here." Your eyes widen as your gaze falls on none other than Rhea Ripley.

"Oh, hi! I'm Demi Bennett, if you follow wrestling you know me from there." She smiles at you and damn, if that was a dream, no one should wake you up.

"Yeah... I am a huge fan. Would you like to come in and drink something?" You ask her: you are not sure what you can actually offer, but you'll find something.

"I would love to, but. I have to follow this and then be as quick as possible on the road. I'll be back in three weeks though."

~ 3 weeks later ~

You notice that Rhea has come back on a Saturday evening, deciding to prepare a cake. The next day you ring her bell, a huge smile on your lips and the cake in one hand.

"Hi Y/N!. Come in, sorry about the mess. Do you want something to drink?" Rhea is gentle with you and you actually don't mind having her as a neighbor, taking care of her house when she is not there.

"I can care less about the mess, don't worry. I baked a cake for you, as a welcome in this neighborhood. I know you moved here some weeks ago, but between your traveling and my work as a physiotherapist, it has been difficult." You chuckle, scratching the back of your head. "Some juice would be great, whichever you might have, of course."

"Oh you are a physiotherapist? I could surely take you into consideration, if I get injured."

She tells more to herself, but she actually doesn't understand how much those words mean to you. You eat the cake together on her patio, spending the next few days she is in town together, to get to know each other better.

[lambtail-tales]

Obey Me guys and how they like to finish

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

!!MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!!

I've been playing Obey Me again because I missed Asmo a lot and then this happened?

Warning for sexually explicit 18+ material!

GN reader!

Wordcount: 1750

Also first smutpost yeehaw! I had fun with these headcanons! I am so Normal about Barbatos I promise. Not beta'd prior to posting oops!

✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉

Lucifer - in your mouth, on your back

Lucifer takes great pride in the mess he’s made out of you; watching you swallow every drop of him with your chin held firmly between his fingers with your misty eyes gives him a better high than anything in the Devildom possibly could. He delights in having you on your knees for him while making sure you can’t look away. The only thing he loves more is bending you over and taking you from behind, preferably on the desk in his study, and hearing you whine as he pulls out right as you both climax and his load splatters across your lower back, but he promises you aren’t done yet. You look marvelous in white.

Levi - between your thighs, in your hand

He’d do anything for a thigh job. Bonus points if you also wear thigh highs. If he’s doing it from behind, he’s going to be kissing your shoulders and neck. From the front, he’s all over your chest. Keeping his mouth busy keeps him from stammering like a dork, but there’s no bigger ego boost than when he’s on top of you; he’s made you a squirming, whimpering mess, and that’s his name on your lips. He can’t help but kiss you hard and deep as he finishes outside of you, all over your thighs. If you really wanna surprise him, you start palming him through the front of his pants mid-game, and snake your hand into his boxers. Your hands feel so good on his dick. He tries not to whine and writhe under your touch, especially when you feign innocence, but you always know just how to work him over. Levi is putty in your hands. He’ll cum quickly for you, and he turns the brightest red when you smirk and bring your hand up to your mouth to clean up your fingers, all without even looking at him.

Mammon - on/between your chest

Mammon strikes me as pretty easy; he’ll cum anywhere, but he is totally a boob guy in my eyes, plain and simple. I feel like in all honesty if he were to pick a favorite part of his partner, he would be into their chest, and would focus a lot on it. Touches, kisses, bites—you name it, he’ll do it, but when all is said and done, he loves nothing more than you servicing him with your chest, begging him to cum for you. Titjobs get this guy stupid high, and seeing his cum all over your chest, dripping from your nipples or collarbone, he’d easily take that over a stack of Grimm.

Satan - on your face and stomach

Satan doesn’t particularly mind where he finishes for the most part, but it’s pretty clear he does have a preference. He, like Lucifer, loves it when you make eye contact. He loves to see your pretty little mouth working his length, half-lidded eyes peeking up at him through your lashes. And when he can’t hold back anymore, the sight of you licking him off of your lips gives him satisfaction so great he can’t put it into words. Satan is a fan of any position where he can see your face and he’s able to observe all of the cute faces you make while he’s making you feel good; if he pulls out, he’s going to finish on your stomach, and he loves to see his load dripping down and around your bellybutton. Bonus points, because facing each other means easy kisses, and I think he’s big on kissing, especially after the two of you become a panting, sweaty mess of limbs on the bed.

Asmodeus - on your chest and back

Asmo has no qualms about where he makes a mess, as long as he gets to make one, but he’s definitely a fan of admiring his handiwork. Besides, what’s classier than a pearl necklace? Seeing you flushed pink all over and covered in his cum is such a pretty picture. The only thing that looks better than that is the reflection of the two of you in the mirror while he takes you from behind, where you can both see everything he’s doing to you, how good he looks doing it, and of course, the shaky, adorable mess he’s reduced you to. He wants nothing more than to hear you scream for him as he makes an even bigger mess on your back after he pulls out of you. Of course, expect lots of kisses and praise after from Asmo when you’re done, too.

Beelzebub - between your thighs, on your stomach

Beel thinks your thighs are soft and warm; he loves them. Plus, it’s pretty easy to get away with fucking your thighs in all the places that matter—like in the shower after his fangol practice, or in the kitchen while you’re making (and being) a late night snack for him. Beel also has a fondness for tummies. He finds them to be cute, especially yours, even after he blows his load all over it (which he silently takes pride in). Being that he’s such a big boy, he worries about hurting you, since you’re gonna be smaller than him. He loves to see you on your back, caged in with his arms, making the sweetest face at him as he fucks you. He’ll have his mouth all over you, savoring every part of you as he releases his load all over your stomach.

Belphagor - in your mouth, between your thighs

Belphie is a smug little shit, don’t tell me otherwise. I said what I said because this is all pretty low effort for him. He doesn’t really need to move from the bed at all to get between your legs, and he knows how to bully you under the blankets between his legs. He loves fucking you between your thighs because he can tease you by whispering things to you that would make most people go scarlet to the tips of their ears, and he can still touch you while he tells you how lewd you are (he’s not gonna ignore your needs too, after all). But, being in your mouth is just as good for him, because then you can’t talk back when he calls you a name or two, and hearing you swallow his seed really gets him going.

Solomon - in your mouth, on your ass

Solomon is just smitten with how cute you look on your knees for him; the look you give him from between his legs drives him absolutely crazy. He can’t get enough of how you say his name and beg him for what you want. He wants to see you swallow every last drop of him. He’d absolutely make you open your mouth so he can see that it all went down, and he’d praise you for it. That said, Solomon is an ass man and you can’t change my mind. Of course this means he loves to take his partner from behind and watching your ass jiggle as he rams into you. He’s also big into leaning over against your back to tell you how good you make him feel, and to ask you if you’re enjoying yourself. The cherry on top is seeing the mess he made at the end of it all.

Simeon - on your stomach. between your chest

Simeon isn’t an angel for nothing. I feel like he could be so soft and careful—he loves intimacy. Tender kisses, gentle caressing, hand holding, forehead touches, the works. He speaks to you in hushed, husky tones all the while, making sure you’re okay and you feel good, and making sure you know how incredible you are. He’s nothing but considerate of you and he can take it as slow or as fast as you ask him to. As much as he loves to see your stomach covered in his cum when you’re finished, he’s quick to clean you up and make sure you’re comfortable. On the other hand, if you offer to get him off with a titfuck, he will feel spoiled, and he will look so, so pretty gripping the edge of the bed, head thrown back as he pants and moans softly for you.

Barbatos - in your mouth or on your face

Barbatos relishes in any alone time he gets with you. He will do just about anything you ask of him—he loves to see you enjoying yourself, but more than that, he loves to see you disheveled and dirty, with your tongue all over him. You are all his, and he is all yours, and this is a version of you that only he gets to see and have for himself, and he savors it. He hates to see the tears in the corner of your eyes as you take his cock down your throat, but he loves how hungry you are for him. Your lips were soft and perfect, and they felt so good. Despite being in the profession of housekeeping and tidying, nothing pleases him more than the messes you make together when you’re alone, and he loves that you are so willing to take orders (which is a nice change of pace for Barbatos, too); if he tells you to drink it all, you do it, and then you open wide for him, so that he knows you listened like a good human. He hates to mess up your cute face, but you also look good with your face painted with him, licking him up from your fingers.

Diavolo - on your stomach and your ass

Diavolo will take you however you want, and he adores seeing his own mess. As long as he gets to be inside you, he truly does not care. He loves how needy you can sound, practically sobbing his name and begging him to give you everything, which he will gladly oblige. I doubt just once is enough for him, though; he’d fuck you good and hard, make sure you’re okay to keep going, and then plow you some more. He loves to see how you look with him inside of you from every angle, and the same goes for how you look covered in his cum, so expect this man to flip you over on the mattress, and expect to get dirty—he’s learned to keep towels handy. He of course always worries it’s too much for you, no matter how many times you do it, and no matter how many times you tell him you can take it. At the end of the day, you are precious to him, and he will spoil you silly for being such a good human for him.

[marloree]

𝙰 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚏é 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎

Pairing: boyfriend! Soobin × Reader

Genre: fluff

Word count: 0.78 k

You've been wanting to go to this new cute little café that just opened recently for a while now. Unfortunately, your and your boyfriend's tight schedules didn't let you run straight to the café on its opening day. But, on you way back home, you would observe it eagerly, wishing you could visit as soon as possible.

Luckily, the weekend didn't take so long to come and now you finally had some spare time to go to the lovely café you've been eyeing for the past week.

Despite it being Saturday, you woke up early, the excitement rushing through your veins made you unable to sleep for a second longer.

Well, you had some dignity to not wake up your boyfriend at 7 in the morning on one of his rare weekends, so you took your time getting ready.

Firstly, you finished all the work you had left and then began getting ready. While putting on the cutest outfit and making your hair, you felt the anticipation building inside you more and more.

Once you were done and checked the time, it was already almost 10 am. Quite the time to wake Soobin up, you thought.

You went into your shared bedroom, trying not to make too much noise to save the last precious moments of your boyfriend's sleep.

"Hey, Soob..", you whispered, lightly tapping his shoulder.

It didn't take him long to fully wake up. Looking at you, Soobin could see you beaming with joy and anticipation which made him smile, too. He knew how badly you wanted to go to the café and, to be fair, he wanted it almost just as badly. He missed your cute lovely dates: both being busy, you couldn't afford going out as much as you used to.

"I'm coming right away", Soobin nodded, letting out the last yawn before getting up and going to prepare as well.

You waited patiently for him to get ready as you looked out of the window, your gaze on the café on the other side of the street - the café you were going to. It was so prettily organised, you thought. Obviously you couldn't tell much about the inside since you haven't been in yet, but you could see just how lovely it looked from the sneaky glances you took from the outside.

Soobin, as promised, didn't take too long. Deciding to match up with your outfit, he also wore something cute: a fluffy jacket and baggy jeans.

"Ahh, I can't believe we're going there today, the week flew by so fast. You look almost as cute as the café itself, by the way", you let out a content giggle as you two headed straight to the café.

"You look even cuter, though", Soobin remarked, taking your hand in his as you made your way towards the café.

It took you less than 5 minutes to get inside. Honestly, the inside was ten times better than you could've ever imagined. Everything was so nicely organised: the tables, the chairs and the cute little sofas placed on the sides of the café, the paintings on the walls - everything together brought such a cozy vibe to the place.

Even without tasting the bakery yet, you were sure you'd come here often when you had the time. The atmosphere here was so relaxing and peaceful.

However, once you two settled down and took a look at the menu, you got only more delighted by the sight. It contained so many diverse peaces of bakery, you felt like it could please everyone's taste. Numerous muffins with different flavours, cupcakes, buns, cinnamon rolls and many many more made you want to try every single dessert they could offer.

Well, for now you had to pick a few that caught your eye the most of all. It's not like you could devour all the bakery they served even if you wanted to...

So, you picked a few of your most favourite desserts and so did Soobin.

While you waited for them to be done, you chatted, recalling the times you would sit like that at some other café. You both missed these days dearly and were happy to get a chance to spend your weekend just the way you used to once again.

However, once the bakery you ordered was brought to your table and you got a taste of it, your eyes sparkled even brighter. The taste was heavenly: not too sugary, containing just the perfect amount of cream, it was perfect. Now you could proudly call the café your favorite. You definitely wouldn't miss a chance to visit it again with your boyfriend in the future.

[convexicalcrow]

I was scared of the piglins at first. The nether is such an awful place, but it's where I find myself trapped, at least for now. I didn't make bases. I carried what I needed and nothing more. Existed off mushroom stew and the occasional pork chop from hoglins I managed to kill with lava. Miserable existence.

I guess it was stupidity as to why it took me so long to understand why the piglins kept getting mad at me. It was the gold, of course. Of course it was. It's such a terrible metal to work with, especially in the nether. It's so hot there the metal loses more durability than it does in the overworld. But I crafted a helmet of what gold I could wrangle, and once I put it on, the piglins smiled. I think I even saw them cheer when they saw me pass. Of course there were other hostile mobs around, but at least the piglins weren't trying to kill me.

I had other problems, like trying to find my way back home. I'd wandered too far, of course, and it's so easy to get turned around. How far was I from home, I didn't know. Didn't dare to find out, if I was honest. That would have brought reality into it. I was just lost and wandering and exploring, just to see what I could find.

-

At one point, I found a bastion. Seen a bunch of them before, of course. I'm not new to this place. Most of the piglins didn't bother me, especially once I took out the brutes with lava so they didn't get mad at me. I wasn't there to steal their gold, just looking for food. I wasn't going to steal it, no, but held up a mushroom, just to see if they might understand.

The piglin near me looked confused. I couldn't understand their grunts, of course. Not then, anyway. Perhaps he thought I was a very strange pig to want to eat mushrooms. But then he gestured to my helmet and tapped it, as if testing it. He shook his head, and grabbed my arm, taking me to his friends.

"I made it," I said, hoping they would understand. "Not very well, though."

My helmet proved quite the amusement for them, though, until one piglin took hold of it, gave it a good look, and then walked away with it. I had been given another helmet at this point, possibly because they felt sorry for me wearing such a terrible piece of kit.

They took me further into the bastion then, where some of the other piglins were sitting down to eat around a blazing fire. Hoglin was on the menu, slowly roasting in the flames. I was offered a seat, and I sat down, glad they seemed to understand.

They talked. Laughed. I wasn't really able to follow much of their conversation. I showed them some of the things I'd found, but they were especially interested in my gold. I felt it only fair if they were repairing my helmet for me. I got some nether quartz, blackstone, fire resistance potions, all kinds of things just for the gold I had managed to collect. I must admit I didn't know at the time that they would trade gold, but I am glad they do.

-

I stayed at the bastion. I know, it sounds crazy, but they took care of me. Gave me food. They could see I had better tools for mining even if they weren't of a material they preferred. Slowly, I was picking up words, too. I hadn't expected them to have language, but they did. The piglin who'd taken my helmet had been teaching me how to forge. He hadn't repaired mine, but instead wanted me to fix it. So I could learn. I'd made it so badly they clearly thought I didn't know how to make it at all.

I found it very peaceful, actually. Of course, I could go to the overworld, and once they realised that, sent me on expeditions for them. I had fixed my helmet by then, but they were more interested in overworld gold, as there was more of it there. They just couldn't survive out there so having me around meant they could get access to it. I found a mesa and brought them back armfuls of gold.

The delight on their faces though! It wasn't just the amount, but the quality, too. They were very impressed at my smelting techniques by now. I was able to make gold ingots to piglin quality standards, and that made me very happy.

-

By now, I had a little house in the overworld, right by the portal that lead to my bastion home. I needed a base camp for all the materials I was gathering, and sometimes I just needed to see the sky. I wished they could see this with me the way I could see their home. But they were scared of the portal, and they would zombify if they went through. The overworld was not for them.

I was speaking fluent piglin by now, though. Something about these piglins just made me stay with them. I helped them rebuild their bastion. Get rid of the holes in the floor and the broken walls and such. They could forge the armour, but I could build. And we made the most glorious bastion.

I was still working on my forging, though. I wanted to make them proud. That I hadn't wasted all my time there, and had learned nothing of their immense skill in creating such beautiful pieces of armour. Because you don't really spend enough time admiring their skill, do you? Not normally, anyway. You see gold, and go the other way. Least I used to, of course. Not any more.

The brutes, of course, will never like me, but they explained it was part of their culture. The brutes kept them safe. The most I got was that I was not immediately attacked on sight, and the other piglins perhaps distracting them long enough for me to get past. I didn't want to kill them if I could avoid it.

-

It felt weird to call the nether home, but that's what it was. I had a stable of striders now, in their own lava-filled pen, and I'd taught the piglins to ride them. In return, I joined them on hoglin hunts and danced and sang with them when we succeeded, bringing back good food for the rest of the group.

And yet the forging remained. I was... I could make things, much better this time, but not to their quality. Not yet, anyway. I was still lacking something. I was working on a chestplate this time, and I had the main basic shape in place. I wanted to make some intricate carvings into it, some light decoration, but it wasn't working out somehow. My teacher was trying his best, but somehow it wasn't clicking.

I returned to that chestplate for days. Weeks, even. Time is hard to keep in the nether. It could have been hours. Doing test pieces and trying patterns and shapes and trying to master the tools I'd been given.

It just wasn't working.

I decided to return to the overworld, go on another gold expedition. I needed some time away from the nether to get my head clear. Obsessing over one piece of armour wasn't helping me get better at it.

-

Villages are always happy places to find. I found one in a spruce forest, and there was a blacksmith there, hanging out a chestpiece she'd made. Really nice carvings on it. I complimented him on her work, and asked if she had any advice as I was trying to learn the same techniques. She seemed delighted to be asked, and we spent the afternoon practicing.

The tools worked different on iron. The iron was strengthened, harder, it took more effort to carve into. Gold was so soft to work with, it was easy to make a mistake. The piece could get so scratched up just by forging it. The polishing took forever.

What she did do, though, was make a small adjustment to my tools. She changed the shape of the blades, and the handles, so they would work better. And she was right. I had a better grip, and the blades worked a lot better.

After another week perfecting my techniques, I was ready to return to the nether, and to my chestpiece.

-

The piglins had missed me, but I came bearing gold, and I was glad to offer it to them. They, of course, showered me in gifts, which I always felt was more than I deserved but I wasn't going to turn them down. I had my own room in the bastion now, where I kept all the trades I'd got from my gold. I was no piglin myself, just someone they liked, but that was enough for me.

I went back to my chestplate, and this time, it all came together.

-

Instead of pity, which I got when I first arrived, when I presented my chestplate to them, their eyes just lit up with joy, and they cheered. They all wanted to see it, inspect it, make sure I'd done as good a job as they would have done.

I knew I was on to a winner when one put it on with care, trying it out. And there were so many cheers of approval. In fact, I never got it back. That piglin wore my work with pride, and I think that's when I felt I'd finally earned my place.

They gifted me a gold sword, one with intricate carvings, and an elaborate gold and leather scabbard. I was one of them now. I was a piglin. I think I always had been, but that's when it felt real. We celebrated that night with a hunt and roasted hoglin, with dancing and singing and cheering. Not even a ghast could bother us now.

[captainlilyuniverseworld]

The Willingly Unwilling

A/N: This was meant to be a short thing about Astarion using the invisiblity spell for innapropiate means, and delved into an Ascended Astarion, Consort Gale situation

The Willingly Unwilling

“I’m bored.” 

“So you’ve said.” 

“Aren’t you going to do something about it?” 

“I am slightly busy if you hadn’t noticed,” Gale motioned to the books strewn about the table. The parchment filled with his scrawl. The various ingredients. 

Astarion came up behind him and put his hands on his shoulder, slowly he ran them down the length of Gale’s chest, nails scraping the thin material of his shirt. 

“I’m all for having a hobby pet, it’s good to keep yourself occupied but as I said. I. Am. Bored,” he leaned over Gale now, chest pressed against the wizard's back. 

Gale shivered and spread his legs almost automatically as the vampire’s fingers began to knead the flesh of his thighs through his linen pants. 

“I’m nearly finished,” Gale licked his lips. “You promised-” 

“Agreed.” 

“Promised,” Gale repeated. “That I could have time out of the day to do what I wanted, and you would let me.” 

Astarion huffed. “You were playing dirty when I agreed to that.”

“You didn’t agree, you promised,” Gale reached for his quill. “And I’m almost done. We can do whatever you want after I finish.” 

“Perhaps it’s good I didn’t make any more spawn,” Astarion sat back but scraped Gale’s scalp with his nails. “Your stubbornness might rub off on them.” 

Gale leaned his head back at the touch and felt the cold press of lips, sharp fangs along the column of his throat. They were dragged teasingly against the skin before Astarion severed all contact. 

“Fine. I’ll find some other way to entertain myself,” Astarion left the room and Gale rubbed the back of his neck.  

He waved his hand and the door shut behind him. A quick flick of his wrist and a muttered spell and the doors lockeded. Astarion’s displeasure is palpable. 

Gale set the quill down and runs a hand through his hair. He’d lost track of how much time had passed, how long they’d been together in this, gods whatever it was. Everything leading to now felt as if it’d happened simultaneously merely weeks ago as opposed to months, when he first agreed to visit Astarion, to the newly named Ancunin Palace. Astarion had taken a gleeful delight yanking the plaque that adorned the large columns outside the iron gates and breaking it over his knee. 

When Gale had first arrived the palace was nearly stripped bare from the inside. 

“I can’t very well cement my place if everything reeks of old,” Astarion had told him. “So, I gathered everything that belonged to Cazador, minus the jewels and the gold, took it all outside and burned it.” 

Astarion hummed. “I even dusted off a few bottles of wine and enjoyed the little bonfire with a drink or two.” 

“Out with the old, in with the new as they say, no?” 

“Exactly!” Astarion whirled around and grinned at him. “When I said I was going to be better than Cazador, I meant it in every possible way. Just because we are the undead does not mean we must live and dress the part. He had no real sense of taste the more I thought about it.” 

“Astarion, why am I here?” Gale tried not to watch as a servant carried an armful of bloody bedding. 

“Because I asked you to come,” Astarion answered. 

“Yes, I understand, but your letter said that you needed something from me. Help or…or-”

“Help?” Astarion cocked his head to the side. “Nowhere in my letter did I state I needed help.” 

“Assistance then,” Gale replied. 

“Mmm no, no assistance, I’ve plenty of thralls roaming the halls,” Astarion mused. “I don’t need help and I don’t need assistance.” 

“Then why am I here?” Gale tried again. 

“Because I want you here,” Astarion had said. “Because I want your company. Because I want to talk to you, watch you. See you. We are friends, aren’t we Gale?” 

And Gale, like the fool he was, took his words at face value. He tried to keep his visit short, but then Astarion would look at him with those eyes. He’d pour Gale another glass of wine, or brandy, or tea. 

He’d find another book in the palace’s vast library. 

“When I saw it, I wondered how long it’d take you to read every single volume,” Astarion mused. 

The second time he tried to leave, citing his work and his research and wanting to write down his account of their journey Astarion had given him the office with the elevator. 

“I have no use for it,” Astarion shrugged, holding out the key. “Consider it yours to do with as you see fit. No one but you and I shall have the keys.” 

“Are you quite sure?” Gale asked. 

“Of course,” Astarion smiled. “I want you to enjoy yourself while you are here….You are enjoying yourself aren’t you?” 

“I am,” Gale answered.

Read More

[nuttersinc]

Teaser: And possibly I like the thrill (of under me you quite so new), Chapter 9

This is unbetaed, so I hope it's not totally unreadable and full of nonsense, but I was having so much fun with the dynamic between Crystal, Charles and Edwin that I had to share...

Movement at the door caught Edwin's attention and he yelped in fear when someone stepped through it, becoming visible from one moment to the next, a shimmering vision that took on the shape of a person. A startingly familiar person.

“Crystal!” Charles said in surprise, attempting and failing to push himself up from the sofa, the fingers of his hand digging painfully into Edwin's thigh as he did so.

“There you are. Lazing about. Of fucking course,” Crystal said, putting her hands on her hips as she took in the casual way they were sprawled on the sofa, her nose wrinkling a little in exasperation.

“Is this you, Crystal?” Charles said, heedless of her slightly caustic words, and finally scrambled to his feet, hauling Edwin upright with him.

“Yeah,” she said, arching a perfectly plucked eyebrow in consternation, her eyes sweeping over the both of them and briefly coming to linger on their clasped hands. She cleared her throat gently, prompting Edwin to drop Charles’s hand as if it was burning him. “Who else do you think this is?”

“What he means is: Are you a dream or are you really here,” Edwin said, and adopted a straight-backed posture, peering haughtily down at her in hopes she wouldn't see how he felt she had the upper hand in the current situation. Like this, he could pull rank as a senior dead boy detective by the sheer advantage of superior height.

She turned her brown eyes onto him cooly, unimpressed by his posturing. “I'm really here. You’ve been sleeping for more than 48 hours. We’ve been trying to wake you.” She paused meaningfully and with sadistic gusto, until the penny dropped. “We’ve been unsuccessful.”

“Oh my…” Edwin whispered, when his brain had parsed her words, his hand coming up to press against his lips, to prevent anything else that wanted to leave his mouth. Charles wasn't as successful in staunching his reaction to her obvious taunt, falling prey to the devious trap Crystal had laid out.

“You were in our room?!” Charles cried in dismay, his mouth dropped open, eyes wide.

Predictably, a delighted smirk rose on Crystal’s face. She knew Charles too well. “Yeah. I wish I hadn't been. When you didn't react to our knocking, Hob opened the door with his key.”

“You were in our room?!” Charles repeated incredulously. "Where we were sleeping?”

“Yes,” she confirmed gleefully. “And yes, my pure and gentle soul will never, ever recover from the horrors I have perceived.” She shook herself, like shrugging off a bug sitting on her clothes, before turning her gaze on Charles, smug grin still in place. “We're going to have words, Charles Rowland. Many words,” she added, a little threateningly.

“Why me?” Charles huffed, throwing up his hands. “How am I the bad guy?”

“Please,” Crystal snorted, sending a look Edwin's way that spoke of her disbelief that he could have had any active part in such wickedness.

“Can we stop talking about this?” Edwin said snappily, tugging his jacket close and straightening his shoulders. “I believe our personal lives have nothing to do with this case!”

“Awww,” Crystal cooed mockingly, her smile faux-sympathetic, “are you embarrassed? Hey, I get it, he's hot. We all make mistakes.”

“Oi! I'm not a mistake!” Charles cried with so much indignation, that Edwin, despite his irritation with Crystal roasting them and his deep mortification about being found in such a compromising and helpless situation, had to turn his head aside to press his lips together to not burst out laughing.

“Alright,” Crystal said, snorting, her curls shaking with her sniggering, “alright!” She lifted her hands in a appeasing manner. “This was a lot of fun, but…anyway.” She took a deep breath. “After I got over the initial shock, it was really disgustingly cute, you two cuddling all sweetly with your clothes all over the floor, Edwin ghost drooling on your shoulder-”

“Crystal, enough!” Edwin snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose hard.

....

Excerpt from upcoming chapter 9 of

[quinloki]

Marco, Newgate, Jinbe for Pregnancy kink, breeding kink, Praise kink please

I'm going to preface this with - I see Jinbei and Newgate as very fatherly (not Daddy-ly? ) so I don't have much personal head canon for them. (My apologies, I am a horny bastard most of my head canons are horny-based XD)

That said, I will do my best! I'm not uncomfortable with it or put off by it personally, so no harm. Oh my I thought Jinbei was in his mid-50s, seems he's a spry young 46!

Let's do these by Kink - Praise, Breeding, Pregnancy.

Praise Kink:

Marco - FUCK Yes - Marco will have a hard time not praising you, to be honest. Those calloused warm hands slide over your body just as smoothly as his gaze, and his words drip down softly like honey. It's a steady, soothing cadence, and his words delight in every sound and twitch he pulls from you. You purr so sweetly for him, you take him so well, you always listen like a good [insert here].

He certainly doesn't mind getting praised in return, it's always a pleasure to hear your voice. But he gets more from giving than receiving in this case.

Newgate - Yes - Newgate often sings the praises of his sons and his crew, so it's fairly second nature to him. Of course he would praise someone who could stand by his side, and support him in ways that no one else can. That deep voice rumbles through your body like rocks and thunder, in a tone a little different for you than anyone else.

Jinbei - Yes - Of course Jinbei loves to praise you \o/ This is a very positive and supportive gentleman, and you deserve all the praise. Jinbei is a busy guy, and you've stayed by his side through a lot of employment changes. Things always manage to work out, and you always manage to find your way back to him. The warm hands, the warm voice, and the kind words.

His tone of voice for praising you behind closed doors is a little different, but that's just for you to know.

Breeding Kink:

Marco - Sure - Marco is more than happy to fill you up. He loves letting himself go inside you, the noises you make the way you feel throbbing against him. He couldn't possibly ask for more. But there's not really anything else to it - there's no fantasy of using you just for breeding, there's no connection/desire regarding marking you or filling you up. It's not a matter of "It's hard to get overt enthusiasm out of Marco", so much as there's just not that extra connection or spark for him.

Condom or not he just enjoy finishing inside you and bringing you over the edge at the same time (or near enough to count), makes him feel like he hasn't lost his touch.

Newgate - I dunno - I just don't feel like the guy who adopted (sometimes a little forcefully) a couple hundred sons is at all interested in any part of the process for creating biological children. I do think he's a caring enough guy that he would give it a try, if it was a fantasy of yours. I imagine he'd be more enthusiastic and into it if he was breeding you anally, to be honest.

Now, to be fair, breeding kink does not equal pregnancy kink, so I want to make sure I'm clear I'm not saying they go hand in hand. His hesitation isn't because he can't separate the two, his hesitation is because, well, regardless of gender he's more of a "swiggty, swooty he comin' for dat booty" kind of guy.

Jinbei - Yes - This man appreciates the sight of you just overflowing with his seed. The certain way the blood rushes across your skin, how you tremble in pleasure, there's just something different from other times, and he appreciates that difference.

(I wish I had more, but he's a simple guy who has simple pleasures)

Pregnancy Kink:

Marco - I don't think Marco knew he had this kink until you got pregnant. He'd seen/dealt with pregnant people before now, and it never did anything to him. But once you started showing he started to get a feeling that he wasn't sure what to do with. He became nearly feral in the bedroom, and spent most of his free time tending to you - massaging your feet, rubbing your shoulders, offering to feed you and other acts of service. Anything to be around you.

He wrote it off mostly to some instinctual drive to protect you, but the strong desires and urges were almost hard to control. You two ended up sitting down and talking about it and realizing that it was very much a oh god you don't even know for him.

Newgate - No - Pops wishes anyone who is pregnant good luck. May everything go correctly, and may you have many healthy babies. Just leave him out of it. He's not completely averse to the visual of pregnant people, he's just not terribly comfortable around it. Babies and kids? He's good with that, he's Pops after all.

He just doesn't have any interest in the process.

Jinbei - Sure - Jinbei falls into the "you were beautiful before, you are beautiful now" category. He's not turned off or away because you're pregnant, but he's not doing more or less with you because of it. Well, he's doing more with you - your pregnant - he's going to look after you and help you out like a good partner. He does his best to match your energy and pace - in and out of the bedroom.

Sorry, this is a little bare bones for what I usually do ^_^;

Kinky One Piece Head Canon

[sona-verse01]

PAC

CHANNELLED LOVE QUOTES & SONGS

Take deep breath, and choose the picture/number that calls you.

Quotes from your Future spouse/partner (not your crush).

Disclaimer:

Images/quotes/songs are not mine. Found on internet.

Since, I am very bad in writing quotes, I channel messages & feelings, then search for suitable quotes on internet, that have same message.

Some quotes are a part of a song or poem. Others are written by writers.

Quotes are chosen on the basis of your FS/FP's energy, feelings & messages.

For entertainment purpose.

Don't copy/steal/translate my work.

Songs are in Indian languages, so if you don't understand that language, you can look for translation or just leave it.

Pile 1

Quotes:

"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

"Hit me like a ray of sun, Burning through my darkest night. You're the only one that I want, Think I'm addicted to your light."

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk through my garden forever."

"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

"Take me into your loving arms, Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars, Place your head on my beating heart, I'm thinking out loud, Maybe we found love right where we are."

"Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time."

"Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be."

"Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite."

"Because of you, I laugh a little harder, cry a little less, and smile a lot more."

"I like to be alone. But I would rather be alone with you."

Songs:

Pile 2

Quotes:

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height, My soul can reach."

"Cause all of me loves all of you. Love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections."

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

"Absence is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great."

"I carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)."

'"How do you spell 'love'?" - Piglet. "You don't spell it...you feel it." - Pooh'

"I may not be your first date, kiss or love... but I want to be your last everything."

"One day, we'll never have to say goodbye, just good night."

"When you smile at me you brighten up my day more than the sun ever could."

"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

Songs:

Pile 3

Quotes:

"Baby it's you. You're the one I love, You're the one I need, You're the only one I see."

"When I say I love you more, I don't mean I love you more than you love me. I mean I love you more than the bad days ahead of us, I love you more than any fight we will ever have. I love you more than the distance between us, I love you more than any obstacle that could try and come between us. I love you the most."

"Maybe I don't know that much but I know this much is true, I was blessed because I was loved by you."

"Love is missing someone when you're apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you're close in the heart."

"You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear."

"Love is friendship set on fire and you are my spark."

"If I know what love is, it is because of you."

"I hope you don't mind that I put down in words, How wonderful life is while you're in the world."

"Come live in my heart and pay no rent."

"Together with you is my favorite place to be."

Songs:

Pile 4

Quotes:

"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'"

"Life is a flower of which love is the honey."

"Don't want to close my eyes, I don't want to fall asleep, 'Cause I'd miss you baby, and I don't want to miss a thing."

"Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze."

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."

"Love is a friendship set to music."

"For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home."

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

"Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do."

Songs:

Reblog if you like it.

Reply or send an ask for feedback.

Follow for more.

Check out my masterlist as well.

© @sp22sworld - All Rights Reserved

[carabas]

Dragon Age Veilguard liveblogging, through the end of the game -

Bianca's broken pieces really were left on Varric's bedside table this whole time, not sure if that's better or worse than if she was part of Rook's hallucination.

And now it's Bellara's turn to send me codex entries from the future, talking about wishing Harding was here now that we've... solved all the big endgame problems that we absolutely have not solved yet? Spoilers, Bellara. i mean, i did already expect to defeat the big bad and save the world in the end. This does rather squash hope for Harding making a last minute Titan-magic-fueled reappearance though.

Talking to Emmrich about when we stopped Solas's ritual back at the very beginning of the game. "It was a team effort. Me, Harding, Neve. And Varric." And the conversation goes on to be specifically about Varric and mourning, no more mention of the others, but that list of names laid out like that is hitting me - Rook is the only person on that list who is not missing or dead. I mean, I've got my fingers crossed for getting Neve back. But the specific people who were lost were the entire team Varric put together, no one left in the Lighthouse ever met him, Varric's team is gone except for Rook.

Talking with Lucanis, Rook questioning if he actually got out of the god prison, this could be more of the Fade... i'm just. flailing in the general direction of the mental Ossuary about this.

And also thinking about all the Dread Wolf's legends about traps, and Rook following in the Dread Wolf's footsteps in this too, both in his own story and as this foundational part of this love story, Rook as the person who opened the door for Lucanis

Also Lucanis wanting to hear Rook talk, "your voice is a comfort" - Rook's voice actor is pretty great, I get it. Pretty sure my love for Rook is mostly due to Alex Jordan's delivery.

Assigning the team to different missions with the allies we've gathered and seeing that play out in this big final battle - feels like everything we did mattered, Dragon Age has really learned from Inquisition's mistakes on this front. Honorary Crow Taash, omg, they get to fulfill their childhood dream!

SOLAS. incoherent flailing in delight about the Rook-Solas confrontation, but WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WON'T TEAR DOWN THE VEIL, the gasp I gasped, YOU TAKE THAT BACK. Turning on Rook in order to escape the trap wasn't a betrayal, we knew he was going to do that, Rook himself repeatedly said he was going to do that, this is a betrayal. What are you thinking, talk to me Solas... oh, fine, i'm too happy about fighting side by side to be that alarmed right now. One cataclysm at a time.

Bellara thinking over all the questions she had for Solas and what she really wants to know is why he killed Mythal ;_; my girl. i'm so glad I brought this team. And Solas also refers to Spite as a spirit of Determination!! I was starting to wonder if that comes up in this game at all if you don't happen to bring him to fight in the Hall of Valor but Solas points it out too, I'm so happy about this. Lucanis and Spite refusing Solas's offer to separate them, oh my god, everything I want all the time in this game!! except the veil coming down i guess.

BIG WOLF MONSTER SHAPESHIFTER BOYFRIEND i still can't believe they put that in the trailer IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY THE RETURN OF SHAPESHIFTER WIFE, this game is for shady apostate enjoyers specifically

Oh thank god it was a trick lmao, Veil tearing down plan is still on, why did I doubt that, of course it was a trick.

TEN YEARS SINCE INQUISITION. TEN YEARS. and they get their happy ending, lavellan's role in this story was everything i could possibly have dreamed of, no words.

my solavellan heart is very full.

...my mage-rights-obsessed, spirit-loving heart on the other hand is having mixed feelings. i am not surprised the veil did not come down but i did not feel great about turning solas away from that purpose, not without offering him some kind of alternative, someone else picking up the duty he's finally laying down - Lavellan says the people he has wronged are asking him to stop, and indeed some of them are, but the spirits are still so desperate to get back into a world they were separated from that they twist into demons and abominations, Cole in Trespasser was so delighted to discover the Veil was not natural and that he wasn't a wrong thing... but then all my reasons for wanting the Veil torn down come from the previous games and not from Veilguard, why would that be in the ending when it wasn't in the previous hundred hours. Lots of smoothing over of previously complex subjects happening in this game, most of which I'm happy to roll with, but this one's so central to Solas - and the reason this game otherwise works for me even with all its changes in style is because it usually seems to have been built entirely out of love for Solas.

Anyway. I was so incredibly tempted by the option to try to trick the Dread Wolf himself. I want Rook to follow in the Dread Wolf's god-imprisoning-trickster footsteps so badly. But Mythal. And Lavellan's hope for talking Solas around. The lasting reunion for Solavellan that I'd hoped for but wasn't sure we could truly get. So. I haven't looked up what the other endings are like yet, maybe trickster Rook can be something for my Dorianmancing Inquisitor's worldstate.

That post-credits scene - I feel properly rewarded for doing all the sidequests and they've got villains set up for another game if they want them, but by Dragon Age standards that's not even slightly a cliffhanger. The four-game-long story is over. I don't know how I feel but I'm feeling it.

Oh, there's no playable epilogue. I appreciate Bellara's codex entry from the future now.

...okay so I wrote out those last few paragraphs and then actually I couldn't stand having talked him into giving it up, I went back to play through what happens if Rook tries to trick the Dread Wolf and I feel better lmao, it solved my mixed feelings by giving me another, different set of mixed feelings, the mixed feelings balance each other out. I had a blast with this game, we're ending on an odd note, i'm going to be chewing on this for a while.

[writtingforfun]

Daemon Request: Daemon secretly follows the women he fancies every time she sneaks out of the red keep.

Thank you so much for the request, sorry it took so long and I hope you like it :)

I'm sorry if there are any errors, I'm Portuguese

Daemon Targaryen x F!Blackwood!OC

Warnings: Daemon is kinda of a perv following her

I'll Follow You

Daemon Targaryen was an obsessive man, he knew that. But how could he not, when the object of his desires slipped through the corridors of the Keep?

A lady of her standing leaving the Keep every night to wander the streets of King's Landing. If the wrong person was to see that... she would be ruined.

He was hooked from the first time he saw her, bright blue eyes and black hair like the night sky.

"I'm only keeping an eye on the Lady" he convinced himself every night before entering the hidden tunnels that led to her hall.

It started out as a coincidence, it did. The first night he was walking towards the brothel when he noticed her. The day after that, he was walking to the library when he saw a hooded figure (that turned out to be more beautiful than murderous) walking in the shadows.

For 5 days he has followed her; he watches her every step, her every move and everyone that dares to look at her.

It's past the hour of the owl and no sign of her today. Daemon paces and paces, prays to whatever God will listen to him to allow the Lady to wander once again. Perhaps he is not as disliked by the Gods as he thinks, because soon he is watching her make her way to the exit of the Keep.

He enters a sort of trance. He keeps his distance but never takes his eyes off of her, watching her like the dragon he is. Heat fills him when she finally has the courage to enter one of the busiest brothels in the Street of Silk. It excites him to think she no longer stops at the door and walks away, tonight she enters with the hood on her head keep her identity hidden. Yet, a strange feeling makes its way to his chest - it tightens as he wonders what she could possibly want. Surely she would not ruin her reputation, she is perhaps one of the most pious ladies he has ever met.

"My Prince", one of the whores of the establishment approaches him, batting her eyelashes at him as if he is so easy to fall for the charms of such woman.

"Get off" he states simply, discarding the woman and walking towards the depts of the place.

Daemon leans against the wall, his own hood still somewhat concealing his identity, watching the Lady he had followed. Her eyes were wide, lips parted as she watched the orgy in front of her. He followed with his eyes as took a grabbed her dress with her fist, squeezing it so tight he could see her knuckles turning white even the dim light.

He laughed lowly, eyes watching her like a prey.

The high pitched moans echoed around the room, but she could only hear her heart pounding in her chest. "What am I doing?" she asked herself, looking down to the floor in shame. It had taken a whole lot of courage to finally get inside. Every time she tried, her cheeks turned red, her heart rate increased and her leg started to shake. Today, she had hoped to finally put away the question of what fucking is.

It was the hot breath on her neck that made her almost jump in her place, fear freezing her body.

"This is hardly the place for a noble Lady"

She knew that voice... Oh, how she knew that voice, sweet like honey and aggressive like a dragon. She was dazed for a second, relinquishing in the feeling. As his broad chest was firmly against her back, she jumped of her place, his hands landing on her hips to keep her still.

"Shh" he cooed "calm down"

"My- my prince" she tripped over her words, unsure of what to say. She was ruined. She finally ruined herself, she should have listened to her mother.

"My Lady" he whispered in her ear "what brings you to such delightful place?"

"I-" she took a deep breath and opened her mouth again "you cannot tell my parents!" she practically screamed.

The Rogue Prince simply laughed when she covered her mouth with hand. He finally turned her around to see her face, both without their hoods covering them. He looked her up and down and noticed her cheeks were turning red, he lowered his gaze and noticed her bosom also turning red. He smirked as he turned around to leave.

Confusion hit the young woman, would he leave her here? Would he tell everyone? He had a reputation, but surely he would not be so cruel to leave her to wonder what he would do... Would he?

"Are you coming or staying?"

She moved quickly, closing the distance between them in a few steps. The whole walk back to the Keep was silent. It was the most painful thing she had ever had to endure.

They stopped in front of her chambers. She couldn't look him in the eyes, but wanted to say something. But what?

His fingers touched her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"I'll see you tomorrow for your daily stroll" he said as he laid a kiss on her cheek and walked away.

When she laid in bed that night, dreams hunted her. She woke up sweating, his last comment replaying in her head over and over again. He was watching her. He was watching every time she walked out of the Keep and she never noticed.

It should terrify her, and it did partly, but it excited her more. She was foolish. He was the Rogue Prince for a reason. He fucked his whores and took maidenheads of the Ladies of the Keep, never to see them again. He was surely just using her. Yet, warmth filled her chest and between her legs. She couldn't understand such warmth, but she could only hope that he would lit the fire inside of her.

Let me know if you like it or if you want part 2!