#tucked away in a forest at the bottom of a mountain

[nd-babblinggoblinfromthevoid]

My husband makes the best homemade noodles/dumpins I've ever had. He doesn't do anything complicated. Or technically special/different. They're always just, amazing. Thick. Absorb the soup flavor so well. Just. Delicious.

Side note. I've had the Palia underground music stuck in my head since 6pm yesterday, which began with me becoming aware that I was humming it while showering and it has been in the Brain Background ever since.

[utahimeow]

cw — nsfw content. minors dni. boxer!wriothesley, established relationship, handjob, slight size kink

warm water wraps around you as though a blanket, envelops you as though a coccoon. steam crawls softly into the air, wispy as it winds its way into your lungs and tucks away every last thought in your brain.

the scent of cherry blossom settles into every corner of the bathroom and mingles with the soft vanilla of the candles you lit. tealights glow like little fireflies all around the tub. with your eyes closed, you’re floating along a river in an enchanted forest, until a door clicks and you’re back in your quaint city apartment.

not that that’s a bad thing—after all, the noise signifies the return of your lover.

there’s about a minute of shuffling outside and the heavy thud of his duffle bag hitting the floor. then, the door handle dips slowly and wriothesley slinks into the haven you’ve made of your bathroom.

he crosses the room in one stride, but before you have the chance to open your eyes to examine his face like he knows you will, he cups your entire face in one huge hand and draws you in until his mouth is on yours.

his lips are hot, the bottom one slightly swollen and bumpy in a way that you know in an instant it’s been bruised.

it comes with the job is what he always tells you. you think he’s trying to convince himself more than you. he’s broken your heart a thousand times, coming home with cut cheekbones and blood streaming from his nostrils at least once a week, and still it never gets easier for you to see.

if it were up to you, you would lock him up inside your ribcage and keep him safe, stowed away from the relentless world.

he’s stopped letting you come to his fights. he did a while ago—his version of ‘protecting’ you. he figured it was worth giving up sharing the triumph of his victories with you if it meant you didn’t have to witness the violence he was paid to do, to have done to him. it also meant you were left to stay at home and bask in a pool of your own dread until he came through the front door again.

i fight for you, my dear is what he always tells you. he doesn’t listen when you tell him that you wish he didn’t have to.

wriothesley starts to climb into the spot behind you, but you shake your head no.

“sit in front,” you say, soft.

wordlessly, he obeys.

you continue, “did you win?”

“‘course i did,” he says, like he’s telling you the weather. “it was a rookie though. almost beat my ass. he could be trouble in a couple years.”

you hum. the water sloshes as he settles in the nook created by your thighs, his broad, hulking back facing you.

wriothesley is a mountain. he stands at six foot five, his muscles hard and thick and honed to perfection. he is the personification of raw power, and yet when your thumbs rub tight circles into his shoulder blades, he melts like wax.

your gentle fingers work away the stubborn knots beneath his skin. his breathing bounces off the bathroom tiles, deep and heavy yet full of relief, as your touch helps him slip further and further from the weapon that he becomes in the ring.

the tips of your fingers trace along his spine, sliding over each vertebra. they ghost over his shoulders, gliding forward until they run along his collarbones.

with your arms hooked around his neck, wriothesley allows you to pull him backwards lightly until his back is flush to your bare front, and you hold him. there is nowhere you want to be more than here, with your flesh moulded with his.

you reach for his wrist, lifting his hand out of the water, rubbing your thumbs over his bruised, bloodied knuckles. after you’ve cleansed them, you bring them to your lips and you kiss them one by one. then you reach for his other hand, wipe away his sins, and forgive them with your lips.

moments like this remind you of what wriothesley was like when you first met him. a stray dog in human form— he cowered from your touch, bared his teeth and growled and snapped at you. he had no trust left in him, therefore all he knew how to do was fight.

like all stray dogs, however, he started to let you in, slowly. he started to come to you. he knew he could come to you. quickly he figured out that your lap was his favourite spot.

now, he lays between your thighs, while your lips press wet kisses at the top of his spine, and along his shoulder blade, and in a trail up his neck. he lets you kiss and suck and bite and devour him all you want, mark him up, make him yours. there is nowhere he wants to be more than here, melting into you.

a deep moan, almost inaudible, rumbles in his chest as he breathes out, a sound that makes you throb between your legs and your lips twist into a grin.

you lean in close to his ear, let your warm breath ghost over the skin of his neck. “can i touch your cock?” you ask in a whisper.

“please,” he grumbles, but it’s far from desperate. wriothesley does not beg—his plea is to encourage you.

one of your hands trails down his rigid body until you find his cock, half-hard at the bottom of a dark trail of hair, and your fingers curl around him, but he’s so thick that your fingertips don’t even touch. you thumb at his slit, drawing small circles around his blushing tip, the way you know makes him utterly weak.

the moment you start to move, gliding your hand slowly up and down his cock, wriothesley’s head falls back against your shoulder, his body slumping as he surrenders himself to your touch. he sighs out, like he’s trying to expel the stress that’s within him, relishing in the way you work him.

biting your lip, you start to pick up your pace, jerking him off with a tad more vigour. you tighten your fist around the head of his cock, feeling the muscles of his back stiffen against your chest as you do.

it’s uncharacteristic how pliant he becomes sometimes, so putty in your hands in a way that makes you wonder if this is the same man who can put his opponents in a coma. he batters and beats them bloody, just to come home and fall apart in your arms.

“am i making you feel good?” you murmur into his skin, tugging at his cock steadily.

“fuck yes,” he replies, a low growl. “always do, baby.”

wriothesley’s gravelly voice travels straight to your core, spurring you on, so you flick your wrist just a little faster, again. you squeeze him a little tighter before loosening your grip, going back and forth in a way that makes the man’s head spin.

you’re peppering his neck and shoulder with kisses, lips fluttering over his skin tenderly in hopes of drawing him nearer to his edge. blood rushes to his face, his cheeks and nose burning hot pink, his lips parting slightly as he pants. the one downside to having him like this—you can’t see his pretty face.

he can’t help how his hips buck slightly up into your hand, following the swift strokes of your wrist. you go faster, filled with the urge to help him finish, determined to help him find euphoria.

he’s achingly hard in your hand now, throbbing against your fingertips.

“‘m fuckin’ close,” he mumbles, breathy and low, lifting his head off your shoulder to watch the way your hand drags up and down his cock.

and the sight alone is enough to make him cum—he groans, roaring loud, throwing his head back onto your shoulder, the ridges of his abdomen clenching as his cock twitches and his release dribbles from his tip, warm and thick as it covers your hand.

his body shakes against yours. you’re pressing your lips to his hot skin again while he comes back down from his climax, breathing hard, sinking further into your body now that you’ve loosened him up even more.

“fuck. need a nap now,” wriothesley rasps.

you giggle, full of affection for him. “then do it. promise i won’t drown you.”

“i would, but baby, this bath is not made for people who are six-foot-five. my back’s starting to hurt,” he says, rising out of the water and stepping out of the bath. fully bare, he looks like a greek god. when he turns back around, you’re pouting.

“maybe you’re getting old,” you quip. the way you stare at him reminds him of a cat.

he quirks an eyebrow. you don’t see it coming when he lunges forward and scoops you up out of the bath, and you’re squealing.

“good, so i’ll be dead soon. won’t have to put up with you any longer,” he says, but he’s wrapping a towel around you and patting you dry, and his icy blue eyes are brimming with a fondness reserved for nobody else but you.

[itsphoenix0724]

All Things Vile (Eris x Reader)

Summary: A recon mission to the Autumn Court gets more heated than you intended. They say Autumn males fuck like they have fire in their veins-you guess you're about to find out.

Warnings: ROUGH SMUT (this is pure filth and I'm not sorry), kind of dark, oral (m!receiving) choking, bondage

Word Count: 2.7k

A/N: It's been a while since I wrote for him, been a while since I wrote in general since I'm adjusting back into my school life. Chapter 3 of MMOTI is drafted and will hopefully be released soon! But anyway here's a smutty Eris fic for all of you <3

The Autumn Court was ablaze in moonlit revelry. The scent of spiced cider and ale consumed the grove along with the smell of the blazing campfire. Fog weaved in and out of the shadow-drenched woods, urging the partygoers to follow its trail into the darkness. You could make out bodies against trees, males and females losing themselves in one another, as you jumped silently along the oak’s branches. It was a simple mission; Get in and get out, that’s what Rhys had said, and that’s what you fully intended on doing. Cloaked in darkness, mask pulled up to hide everything but your eyes, you found your target. 

A drunken blush stained his pale cheeks, and the blood-red silk shirt he wore was unbuttoned so obscenely low you could see the dappling of freckles along his chest in the firelight. His auburn hair was unruly; the waves held down only by the circlet of gold leaves that marked him as the firstborn son of Autumn. His lips were stained from the wine he was sipping and his eyes had taken on a seductive half-lid as he somehow fixed his burning gaze straight onto you. 

Fuck, Rhys was going to kill you. 

Eris stood from his chair in one smooth motion, prowling towards your spot hidden in the woods like a mountain cat, amber eyes burning. You jump down from your tree, weaving through the branches like smoke to try to lose the lordling who’s hot on your tail. Nothing but the sound of your labored breathing and the sounds of footfalls echo through the dark wood. You just need to get to the border, Eris won’t have the gall to cross after you. You can see the green grass of Spring, the pastel pink of the cherry blossoms grotesquely clashing with the russet hues of the forest that currently surrounds you.

You can almost smell the sickly sweet air when a hand encircles your wrist like a hot brand.

The world tips and falls, the grass slipping out from under your feet as you’re dropped into a room, landing on all fours against a hardwood floor. Bands of fire wrap around your wrists and ankles, pinning you to the ground, not burning but holding you there. The tell-tale wave of nausea that means you’ve been winnowed somewhere quickly overwhelms you as you try not to heave onto the plush burgundy rug infront of you.

Eris has taken you to his room at Fir Hall, his private estate away from his life wrapped in court politics, you’re familiar with the home after many spy missions here. Your eyes fix on the Autumn Prince with a burning ferocity, and he does nothing but glare back down at you from where he looms above you.

“Well, well what has fallen into my trap,” He fixes you with a wolfish smile as he pulls down your mask, and your lips peel back into a snarl. “Hello Sweetheart,” he purrs as he tucks a loose hair behind your ears. “I’ve missed you, it’s very nice to see you again.” He tries to run a thumb over your bottom lip, but you snap your teeth in his direction like a feral animal and he wisely pulls his hand away. 

“Bite me,” you growl out as Eris crouches down until he’s at eye level with you. A hound cornering a wild fox, it seemed the hunter had won tonight as he lets out a laugh that leaves a burning caress down your spine. 

“Oh, I intend to.” He promises, stroking his hand along the back of your hair, pulling out the hair tie, and letting it fall around your face. “Now will you mind your manners?” He raises a copper brow, eyes dancing with amusement. The bond buried deep in your chest tries to wiggle free of its restraints, begging you to let it play with the other half of your soul. 

“Never,” you vow to him even as the mischief in his eyes turns to longing. This is torture denying yourself of him. 

But how could you not? 

Beron is still High Lord, if you were to tie yourself to him you would have to abide by his rules. You would rather claw your own eyes out. And if your family ever found out, if Mor ever found out, the shame and guilt would burn more than the roaring fire in the hearth. 

So you have this, you take every mission you can to Autumn and collect all the broken pieces and scraps that you can get. This is what you will allow yourself.

“I thought that would be the case,” Eris gets up and languidly strolls away from you, plucking the bottle of bourbon from the cabinet and pouring himself a drink. You watch with adept interest as his ring-clad fingers tighten around the crystalline glass, he strolls over to his bookshelf and plucks a well-loved novel off the dark shelf. 

Then the bastard settles himself into one of the plush armchairs and starts to fucking read. He ignores you as though you’re nothing more than a potted plant in the corner, he doesn’t even so much as glance at you, fully enraptured in his novel. A few minutes pass when you clear your throat. Eris deigns to look bored as he lazily turns his head toward you. 

“Yes?” He asks, propping the book against one knee and taking another sip of his whiskey. Your eyes track the movement of his throat involuntarily. 

“Aren’t you going to do something?” You push, urging him with your eyes as you lift your head through the curtain of your hair. You hope your gaze communicates everything you cannot bring yourself to voice, fearing your body will refuse to allow you air if you try. 

I love you, please don’t ignore me, I need you, play with me

He chuckles a dark sound and picks up his book again, pointedly flicking a page as the rubies on his hands glint in the firelight. 

“I’m not in the business of playing with unwilling toys,” Eris supplies, purposely staring at the fire instead of you. “Perhaps I should call Rhysand to collect you and tell him I don’t appreciate being spied on. Perhaps, he will never send you back here.” His brows scrunch in frustration but you both know that the threat is empty. It seems he is tired of your games. 

“What do you want?” You barely grind out, still refusing to relent to the signing inside your soul. “Do you want me to beg? Is that it? Princely bastard.” You practically spit, and faster than the blink of an eye Eris is in front of you, fisting your hair in one hand and tilting your chin to meet his smoldering gaze. 

“Are you ashamed of me?” He questions, and you can see the vulnerability dancing in his eyes. You shake your head as the fire binding your wrists recedes and you move into a more comfortable kneeling position, hands now bound in front of you. He soothes his hand along your cheek again as your brows knit together. You thought that the two of you had a kind of understanding. You had no idea where this was coming from. “I tire of this ruse, my love.” If Eris notices the mournful look in your eyes he says nothing. He strokes a warm hand through your hair, admiring your eyes in the firelight. “Why don’t you show me how much you missed me huh?” The wolfish grin is back and you hum your agreement as he runs his thumb along your bottom lip again, pleased at your cooperation as he slides his finger into your mouth. He thrusts it into your mouth and as you teasingly run your tongue over the pad he lets out a moan that shoots straight to your core. 

He undoes the belt at his waist, pulling his cock out with his hand, and your mouth waters at the sheer size of him. 

“I’m going to fuck your mouth now,” he rumbles, pure authority and power radiating off of him. A glimpse at the future ruler he will become one day. You nod your enthusiastic consent as he grips the back of your head and thrusts into your mouth at a merciless pace. Your head empties as he hits the back of your throat, the hand cupping the back of your hair surprisingly gentle compared to the way he was brutalizing your mouth. “That’s a good girl, take me down your throat.” It spills out of his mouth like he can’t even control it as your eyes roll back in your head at his praise. Eris pushes your mouth all the way down to the base of his dick and holds you there for a few seconds as your nose connects with his pelvic bone. He’s relentless as he uses you for his pleasure and you think that he might bruise your vocal cords. 

He spills down your throat as your binds dissolve into nothing, leaving behind a warm tingling sensation where the fire licked at your limbs. 

You swallow what he gave you, opening your mouth in emphasis as whiskey eyes blow wide with lust. You’re drenched at the sight of his cock already stiffening again. He walks to the mountainous bed in front of you, making himself comfortable against the pillows. 

“Come here pet.” He growls fisting his cock in his hand and crooking his fingers with the other. You start to rise to your legs on sore knees, but you freeze when Eris tuts–holding his hand out to stop you. “No. I want you to crawl to me.” The order wraps around you like warm silk, voice sliding against your bones. You lower yourself back down to the floor, humiliation burning hot on your cheeks as you sway your hips in what you hope to be enticing. He stops you quickly and you look up at him from under fluttering lashes. “Strip. Slowly.” Your face burns even hotter and Eris can’t take his eyes off you as you rise, slowly undoing every single buckle on your leathers and letting them fall to the floor, leaving you entirely exposed to him before climbing onto the bed. His body is so warm against your skin as he draws your mouth to his, the burning taste of cinnamon whiskey floods your mouth. He dominates you even here, claiming you as his tongue wrestles with yours. The moan that slips out of you comes out scratchy from the abuse of your throat, and in a flash, you’re below him as he grinds his hips into yours. 

“Eris,” you whimper as his cock brushes against your folds. You need him to fill you to the brim, wanting him as close as possible. He shushes you gently as he bites at your pulse point, the only goal in his mind is to claim as he sucks dark marks into your neck. 

You’ll surely be wearing only turtle necks for a few weeks after this. 

His warm hands skate down your body, pulling and prodding at your sensitive nipples, letting out a dark chuckle as you whine at his ministrations. Eris mocks your moans as he rubs a finger at your center, rolling the sensitive bundle of nerves between his fingers. Finally, he slips a finger inside of you rubbing at the spot that makes you see stars. He knows exactly where to touch to get you to dissolve, his beautiful mate bending to him like water running through his fingertips. That ring-clad hand curls around your throat, cold metal contrasting with his warm hands, and you keen as the pleasant dizzy feeling takes over your whole body. 

That feeling combined with the addition of another finger in your core sends you hurtling through gold-flecked oblivion.

He pulls his fingers out of you, sucking them into his mouth and moaning as he relishes the taste of you on his tongue. Staring down at your shaking form with smugness in his eyes as he circles the skin of your inner thigh, enjoying the way the muscles quiver under his touch. Eris sinks himself into you, inch by tortuous inch until you can’t tell where your body ends and he begins. He strokes slowly and deliberately, bruising you with his intensity as your vision goes white with searing pleasure every time he moves his hips.

You want him to leave his imprint everywhere on your body, that unanswered bond begging you to never leave this bed again. Eris must feel it too, that golden thread wrapping around his heart begging him to keep you, to never let another male so much as look at you. That makes something ugly twist in his chest and he almost snarls at even the thought of another male near you as his instincts take over and he draws your legs over his shoulders to hit an even deeper part inside of you. Your walls are clenching and fluttering around him as his pace turns ravenous, all you can do is try to hold on as your nails scrape jagged lines down his back. Eris scrapes his teeth over your neck, then he moves down to your nipple biting down as you scream his name before giving the other one equal attention. 

“Who do you belong to pet?” He murmurs in your ear in time with a thrust that's so deep your eyes roll back in your head. “Who’s the only one that can make you feel like this?” You can barely give him anything but a whimper as he devastates your body, pinching your clit in a way that elicits a pleasure-soaked sob. “Scream it for me,” he punctuates it with a slap against the apex of your thighs. 

“Yours Eris, I’m all yours!” You scream as you orgasm, tears running down your flushed cheeks, Eris follows soon after you spilling himself deep inside of you.

He pulls out, disappears into the bathroom, and returns with a clean rag to wipe up the mess he made between your thighs. He collapses onto the mattress next to you and pulls you to his chest, warming his hands with his power as he rubs slow circles into the small of your back. You look up at him and he’s taken aback at the vulnerability in your eyes. “Eris I-” you choke, unable to force the words you so desperately want to say past your lips. He shushes you with a kiss against your forehead. 

“I know,” he mutters into your hairline “I know.” You hold him tighter, blinking back tears as you lock the bond back down in its obsidian shackles,“I’ll wait an eternity for you.” It’s the last thing you hear before closing your eyes as you let him soothe you to sleep.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“I trust everything went well?” Rhys asks, raising a dark brow at your form where you stand across from his desk. You subconsciously pull the dark turtleneck further up, the deep purple marks burning like a brand. You scrubbed yourself raw as soon as you winnowed yourself to your apartment, and you’re praying to the Mother that Rhys doesn’t even catch a whiff of Eris or the frankly copious amounts of sex. The thought of Eris enjoying it this morning, pressing his nose against the crook of your neck to make sure it really stuck, before crawling his way down your body to settle in between your thighs makes you triple-check that the steel of your mental shields was still in place.

“Nothing to report,” You rasp, voice destroyed after last night's events. The attempts to clear your throat are doing nothing to help you

“Are you alright?” Rhys questions, wringing his hands together on his desk as he shoots a concerned look. 

“Must just be a chill I caught in Autumn, those woods get cold at night.” You supply and he hums his agreement. 

“Well go rest, you’ve earned it. Perhaps you should see Madja for something to soothe your throat.” Rhys says and you nod your agreement, taking the cue for your dismissal. You wait until his office door clicks shut behind you to let out your sigh of relief, thinking of nothing but soft sheets and warm hands. 

You can only hope you get another mission there soon.

[mcuamerica]

Summer Nights | Tarquin x Fem!Reader

Summary: You're the reason Tarquin fights so hard for lesser faeries. Requested by anon here.

Word Count: 2.7k

Warnings: heavy acotar spoilers, alludes to sex, semi-violent mentions (nothing super specific), bit of sexism, talk of lesser faeries, (lmk if I forgot anything), loosely proofread

Graphics by @saradika-graphics

It wasn't easy waiting for him to come back. It never was. Whenever his cousin called for him to go to Adriata, you were always nervous for his return. Always nervous he would never come back.

"I'll be back in the morning. Don't wait up."

He said it almost every time he left. But those were the exact words he uttered when he left to go to the party hosted by Amarantha. And then, the news came. The High Lord, Nostrus, and all his court that attended the party were stuck Under the Mountain, under Amarantha's command.

In years, you were much older than Tarquin. But in actuality you were just as old as he was when you lost him. You met him when you were 40, but truly 20 in the way your kind of lesser faerie aged. While High Fae aged normally until reaching 18-20, your kind took double the time. However, he was just about 24 when you met him. Meaning you only had 6 years with him until you lost him for 50.

You were immediately enamored by the dark skinned, light haired male. His eyes a bright blue that reminded you of the sea. He was beautiful and took your breath away whenever you laid eyes on him.

At first, he was the prince of your city and you were simply a loyal servant. Lesser faeries rarely had any standing in court, but Tarquin started recruiting a few more of your kind once he met you. Your main task was helping organize the libraries in the manor. One day, he needed a very specific book, which the librarian directed towards you.

He was immediately struck when he saw you, your bright eyes, your silver hair. Clearly, you were of the Summer Court, but not High Fae, as your ears were rounded. "My lord." You said, bowing.

He waved his hand, simply telling you to call him Tarquin. Then, he requested the book he needed. You went deep into the library with him, seemingly losing track of time as you wandered the steps down to the lower levels. You spoke of all things, and he asked you all kinds of questions. Ranging from your work at the library to your heritage and your family.

"Your mother was High Fae from Spring and your father a water wraith?" He asked while you searched the stacks for the books he requested.

You nodded. "Yes, but my mother's High Fae heritage was weak and has never helped me with anything. My father's, however.. I have the ability to control water very well. Like any full water wraith." You said, smiling a bit as you found the book.

"Hmm.. I think that's a testament to how strong you are, not your heritage." He said, taking the book from your hands.

You smiled to yourself as he skimmed the book. "This is perfect." He said. "Now, tell me about your water powers.."

It only continued from there, the frequent visit to the library. The talks while you dug up some obscure book. The way they became harder and harder to find, one day having to go to a completely different library to find it. All while Tarquin escorted you.

You learned much about the prince/general while you walked throughout the libraries. It wasn't a one-sided conversation. And you quickly began to fall for him. And he for you.

It wasn't long until he was taking you on walks in the summer breeze, by the river that flowed through the city. He would show you around to different libraries and book shops. One day, just about a year after your first date, he took you to a beautiful lake. It was tucked away in one of the forests surrounding his manor, with such blue and clear water you could see the bottom of it.

After swimming and making love all day, you settled on his chest as he traced circles along your back. You hummed in happiness, looking up at him. The longer you looked at him, the harder it was to imagine your life with him like this. At least, your life with him in public.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I..." You trailed, thinking of your words carefully. "We can never truly be together." You said, frowning slightly.

He perched his weight onto his forearm, enough to lean over you and move your hair from your face. "I'd say what we just did to be as close together as any two individuals can get." He said.

A small smile tugged on your lips but you shook you head. "I mean.. publicly. I will never be your princess of this city. I can never be a part of your court. Not as a High Fae could be." You said.

Tarquin stroked your cheek with his thumb. "And why not?" He asked.

You narrowed your eyes. "You know why, Quin," using his nickname was like second-nature to you at this point. "Because I'm a lesser faerie-"

"We are both just faeries, (Y/N)," He said, kissing your forehead. "But you are right. At the moment, you cannot be in my court. But one day, when I know it will be safe for you, I will make you my wife." He said. "And until then, I've come up with a plan." He said.

He told you of it for the next hour. And you talked it through. When you could see him, when he would visit. How long you'd have to be apart. You didn't like the idea of leaving him, but it was the best way of staying safe and away from any enemies he might have. With you being a lesser faerie, it was harder for you to defend yourself from threats. Even with the wards Tarquin put up. Still, he was young and inexperienced and didn't want to take any chances.

So, you went to a small fishing village on the Summer Court border, just on the sea. It was closer to Adriata than your home city, but you were glad to finally be by the sea.

Tarquin would visit you each week, as often as he could. However, his visits grew more and more infrequent when Amarantha started taking hold of the courts. And he muttered those words that played over and over on your head when he left for that party. That party that separated you for 50 years.

But you had hope he would return to you. It faltered only for a moment when you heard that Nostrus was killed because of a rebellion. But your partner and lover was named High Lord, and granted every power with it. Even if it was stunted because of Amarantha’s hold on magic.

You made sure the fishing village thrived during the years of Amarantha. Using the knowledge you gained from books and Tarquin’s own training, you helped build a small group of warriors to defend it in case any of Amarantha’s sentries wandered too far towards the village. And with help from a few Day Court faeries that resided in summer, you set up wards to notify you if anyone entered your territory without permission.

You and a few trusted messengers that would go to Adriata for information, but sometimes they didn’t come back. And those were always hard days to talk to their families.

It was one of your trusted messenger that came to you 50 years after Tarquin left to deliver the news of Amarantha’s death. Still worried it could be a trap, you didn’t have the Day villagers lift the wards. Instead, you ad your guards go to the border.

After half a day, one came racing back to the office you had in the village. “The High Lord is here, my lady.” He said, panting.

You stood up, raising your eyebrows. “Tarquin?” You asked. He nodded and you motioned for him to go, smoothing down the summer dress you had on before you took off after him. You got to the border and faltered your steps, catching Tarquin talking to one of the sentries.

“Quin?” You breathed out, chest heaving. He turned towards you, eyes wide as he heard your voice for the first time in so many years.

“(Y/N),” he said, as if the breath was taken from him. You both ran towards each other and you launched into his arms, a bright laugh filling the air. Tears streamed down your face as you held him close, legs wrapped around his waist as you kept close. In that moment, you felt the bond snap between you two. You pulled back and looked into his eyes. You knew it snapped for him. As his bright smile met yours, you leaned down and kissed him deeply. As if everything that was unsaid between you two throughout the 50 years apart was said in one kiss.

“I’ve missed you.” You whispered, tears escaping your eyes. Tarquin set you down on the grass, cupping your cheeks.

“Me too.” He whispered. “I’ve thought of you every single day since I’ve left. And I love you so much.” He said, kissing you again as his own tears streamed down his face.

“Can I offer you something to eat?” You asked, searching his eyes.

A breath of relief came from his lips as he nodded. “Of course, my love.” He said and kissed you again.

It didn’t take long for you to get the hang of being Lady of Summer. You would go from city to city, helping Tarquin with establishing relationships. From being the main leader of your village, you knew how to settle disputes and help with city planning. What you didn’t know, however, was how to interact with the established court.

Many High Fae didn’t agree that a lesser faerie should be Lady of Summer, even if Tarquin put in new laws to make all faeries treated the same. Sometimes, when you were alone with court members, they would say as much to your face. When you brought it up to Tarquin, well,.. those court members didn’t have their positions for much longer. He even issued a Court decree saying all faeries, High Fae or not, had a place in his court. As members of his court.

It was that decree you thought the High Lord of night was coming to talk about when he and the female that saved you all from Amarantha stole the Book of Breathings. You’d never seem Tarquin so enraged before. Or disappointed. He truly thought Rhysand was going to be a High Lord to help him through the Court politics. You tried talking him down, tried convincing him not to send the blood rubies. But he was upset that they didn’t trust him enough to tell him.

Then you had to remind him that there were many things he didn’t disclose to them either. He still sent the rubies.

It was a last ditch effort to go to Varian when Adriata was being attacked, asking him to write the Amren to ask for help. Tarquin was furious when he found out you asked, but ultimately grateful since without the Night Court… Adriata would have fallen.

That’s how you ended up here, at the meeting of the High Lords. After some pleasant greetings from the other High Lords and Ladies, you sat next to Tarquin. Waiting for the Nigh Court and their entourage to arrive.

Tarquin was skeptical of coming, worried it would put you in danger. But you were the Lady of Summer, and if you didn’t show up it would be a bad look. Unless you were pregnant, which you most certainly were not. Especially during a time like this.

You set next to him, keeping your composure as each member of the Night Court walked in, led by their High Lord and High Lady. And you kept quiet until Rhysand asked for support in defeating Hybern.

“Despite my mate’s and Varian’s unsanctioned warning…” Tarquin shot you and Varian a look, which you simply nudged your knee with his. “You were the only ones who came to help. Why?” He asked.

Rhysand’s voice was gruff as he said, “Isn’t that what friends do?” He asked.

You gave a small smile, sure not to show too much emotion, as Tarquin rescinded the blood rubies.

Tarquin and you watched as the rest of the meeting erupted into chaos, Tarquin holding onto your hand so tightly as Azriel pounced on Eris that you thought it would fall off.

“Wives were invited as a courtesy, not consultants. That’s two that spoke out of then. And one from a lesser-“ Beron started once Kallias’s wife chimed in.

“You keep speaking, Beron, and you might find yourself without a tongue.” Tarquin said.

“You watch your tongue, boy. She might be your mate, but that doesn’t discount the fact that she isn’t one of us.” He spat. Tarquin moved to stand up and you could feel the rising anger down the bond. You grabbed his arm, squeezing it gently.

“And yet here she is, sitting amongst us as she should be.” Feyre said. “I was, after all, a human once. And you deemed me worthy enough, or at least pitied me, to give me some of your life force.” She said. “And here I am.”

You continued to watch as the High Lords, and High Lady, talked. And watched as Feyre used only power you’d seen from the day court to practically drown Beron.

You watched Viviane stand and then Cressida, declaring that they would fight for her. You stood up next, giving her a small smirk. “I will fight with you as well.” You said, turning your head to Tarquin. With Cressida beside you standing already, he rose, taking your hand in his. “We will fight with you.” He declared. “Once our armies are recovered, of course.” You added, a small smile tugging on your lips.

You mastered the Court dealings after that. And got to talking with Viviane about how she ran her village during the 50 years just as you had. She was much more successful than you.

And then you had the conversation with Tarquin that had been brewing in your head since the meeting. Since Rhys declared his love for Feyre and why he made her High Lady.

You were lying in bed with him, tracing circles around his chest. “Quin…” you whispered, looking up at him. “I want to ask you something. And I understand if you say no.” You whispered.

He hummed, looking down at you from his gaze at the ceiling. “Just ask, my love. I’ll give you the world if you ask.” He said.

A small giggle fell from your lips before you shifted so you could properly look at him. “I know I’m not High Fae… and that doesn’t matter… but… Could I be High Lady?” You asked.

Tarquin’s smile faltered and your heart almost stopped. You shouldn’t have thought of it. Your shouldn’t have asked such a stupid-

“It’s not stupid.” He said, sitting up. “I was going to surprise you tomorrow morning.”

“Surprise me?” You asked.

Tarquin nodded, smiling as he cupped your cheeks. “I was going to ask you to be inaugurated as my High Lady at the Summer Solstice. Once this is all over.” He said, pushing your hair from your face.

You smiled and leaned up, kissing him softly. “I love you.” You whispered. “And of course, I will be your High Lady.” You said happily.

“I told you, I’ll declare you as my wife for the whole continent to hear.” He said, kissing you again. “And now, I will declare you High Lady of Summer.” He said happily.

“As long as it’s with you, I will be happy.” You whispered.

“It will always be with me. You will always have me.” He said, finally planting a searing kiss to your lips as he moved on top of you. “Shall I show you how you will always have me?” He asked.

You giggled and wrapped your arms around his neck. “Please, Quin.” You whispered.

“Hmm… your wish is my command, my High Lady.” He said with a wink, delving into kissing your neck.

With another giggle, you interlaced your fingers with his hair. Finally, you were happy with him. With Tarquin. With your mate.

A/N: Ugh this was so cute to write. Hope you enjoyed!!!

p.s. I got a request for an Eris one-shot and I’m so obsessed I might just have to write it before I get to my next one tomorrow….

Main Masterlist

[live-laugh-neteyam]

You Have Me ||| neteyam x omatikaya!reader

part one of The Future’s Better Than Yesterday | series masterlist | next |

pairings: neteyam x omatikaya!fem!reader *aged up*

summary: mostly just an introduction to the characters and storyline. bits of reader’s backstory and abilities. featuring sweet and over protective neteyam

words: 2.9k

warnings/notes: fluff, slight angst, mentions of death, reader’s parents are dead, insomnia, nightmares. I’m so nervous about this I hope you like it. Probably some errors sorry in advance. Italics = flashback

Pandora glowed with her breathtaking bioluminescent haze. The forest slowly came to life with the dawn of a new day. Slight breezes swayed the flora delicately. A sweet citrus smell filled your lungs as you took a deep breath. Your home never failed to leave you awestruck. Often you'd spend your mornings admiring the Great Mother's beautiful creations.

There were many places in the forest that you would consider your favorite. Every time you witnessed the majesty of the Hallelujah Mountains you felt your breath catch in your throat. You marveled at the power and elegance they held. Something that mighty made you feel insignificant; putting into perspective that you are just a spec in this vast world.

The Tree of Souls felt safe like a mother embracing her child. And for you, it really was. It was the only way for you to know your parents without having met them prior. Meeting them for the first time terrified you. You were unsure if they'd even recognize you, but there they were with their arms open waiting for you. Nothing is ever really lost.

You found yourself now in a small clearing in the forest. From an outsiders view it wasn't anything special, but to you it was everything. It was a secret spot that no one else knew about, well you and one other person.

Your childhood best friend Neteyam introduced to the clearing when you were children. Ever since, it's been just for the two of you. A place to laugh and goof off, a place for deep thought, and occasionally a place to cry.

***

Your bottom lip was quivering and your eyes glossy. Neteyam knew you were about to cry. Panic filled his body as he didn't know what to do. He always had a plan, being clueless scared him.

That and he'd never seen you cry before.

Placing a gentle hand on your shoulder he turned you to face him. Tears were already starting to fall. You tucked your arms in hugging yourself.

“What is wrong Y/N?”

You felt the eyes of bystanders burning holes into your head. You’d rather have Eywa take you now than to have the entire clan watch you cry.

“I don’t want them to see me cry.” You sniffed.

Springing into action Neteyam took your hand leading you away from the village. Not questioning him you let him take you through the forest. You didn't care where, you just needed to be away from everyone else.

Pulling back foliage he revealed a beautiful clearing. Your eyes widened as you took it in. It overlooked the forest giving you one of the most beautiful views you had ever seen.

"What is this place?" You asked.

Neteyam shrugged nonchalantly, "I found it while exploring. Thought it would be a good place to be alone."

"It's perfect." You agreed.

He led you in and gestured for you to sit. Crossing his legs he sat in front of you. Frowning he noticed the tears still falling down your cheeks.

"Please tell me what is wrong Y/N." He pleaded.

You were hurt. He needed to know what he could do to make it stop. Just the sight of you like this made his heart clench.

"You won't understand." You were looking everywhere but his eyes.

"Let me help you. Please Y/N." He took your hands in his giving a gentle squeeze.

“I don’t have a family Neteyam!” You snapped unintentionally letting all your pent up emotions out on him. Eyes widening you looked up to him in shock. Had you really just said that?

Neteyam was hurt by your outburst but even more hurt by your words. He knew your parents were gone but he thought you were happy with his family- happy with him.

“I’m sorry.” You took his hand, “I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

He nodded at you to continue. He was trying not to overreact, wanting to listen to your explanation before coming to a conclusion. Neteyam was wise beyond his years for a ten year old.

"I just see all the other children with their parents. And then I see yours and I- I want that for myself."

"I know you think I'm selfish but I can't help it. I want my own family. I feel like I don't even know who I am without them."

You never knew your parents. Your father died during the battle with the sky people. A fierce warrior you hoped to live up to. After a complicated birth your mother fell asleep never to open her eyes again. They managed to save you but it was too late for her.

She never even got to hold you.

A part of you felt like you were being dramatic. You've had a good life, fortunate enough to be raised by the people. But it got lonely. You'd spend nights with different families never having a stable home to go back to.

Jake and Neytiri were the closest thing you had to adoptive parents even though they technically weren't. You desperately wished they were. Often you'd day dream about your parents, your mind painted them to be much like the Olo'eyktan and his mate.

"I'm all alone Neteyam." You said between sobs hugging your legs up to your chest.

Quickly as if his life depended on it he locked you into his embrace. He let you cry it out against his chest. Gently rubbing your head like his mother does to calm his siblings down.

“You are not alone Y/N.” He soothes. “You have the people, my family loves you so much, and you have me.” Neteyam softly pulled you away from him so he could look you in the eyes. “You’ll always have me Y/N.”

***

Blinking back sleep you felt your eyes grow heavy. The prior night of not sleeping suddenly catching up to you. Tugging your legs up to your chest you hugged yourself. The day hadn't even begun and you were already exhausted.

You weren't always afraid of sleeping. It wasn't until the visions got worse. You'd rather not sleep than see the images in your mind. This week had been particularly bad. You found yourself here every night trying to stay awake.

"Y/N?"

The familiar voice pulled you from your thoughts. Looking up you were met with the face of your best friend.

"Morning 'Teyam." You sleepily smiled at him.

Neteyam's face lit up at the nickname. His bright cheery smiled reminded you how much of a morning person he was. Needless to say you were not one yourself.

"Getting an early start today Y/N?"

Afraid of disappointing him you kept your gaze on the view in front of you. You were well aware that he didn't like you staying awake through the night. He reminded you every chance he got.

Releasing a heavy sigh he looked over at you concerned. "You haven't slept at all have you?"

"You know I try not to."

"You are going to worry me to death one day Y/N." The boy chuckled but he meant it. He constantly worried about you, wanting you to be healthy and happy at all times.

"How long?" He asked bringing the mood back down.

"About a week." You shrugged.

Rubbing his hand against his face he grumbled something into his palms. He was mad at himself for not noticing sooner. "You've gone a week without sleep? This isn't healthy Y/N. You need rest."

"I know. They just started to scare me again."

The sight of you exhausted and completely defeated broke his heart. Neteyam wanted nothing more than to take the pain away. Even if he'd have to bear it himself he'd do it if it meant you never had to.

Neteyam was one of the only people in the clan that seemed to care more about you than your abilities. Instead of focusing on the miracle from Eywa he kept his eyes beautiful tormented girl in front of him.

He wasn't bothered with understanding the future. It would happen soon enough. All he cared about was you being able to live without being scared of your own mind.

But it got worse as you got older. Your dreams more intense and freighting. The scenes played over and over again until you finally woke up. That's why you made the choice to stay awake. If you never went to slept the visions never came. It was as simple as that.

When you were younger you never really noticed the visions. They were mild and always of something pleasant. It was as if they were normal dreams.

Being a kid you of course told everyone everything. For awhile no one paid any attention thinking it was just the normal chatter of a child. But when you started sharing very specific details that later unfolded people started to notice.

One of those people was the Tsahìk herself. After praying and consulting with Eywa she discovered that you had been gifted by the Great Mother herself. Ever since Mo’at took a special interest in you.

You admired the spiritual leader grateful for her guidance. But you knew deep down she kept you close because of your abilities.

“There’s still time, try and get some rest.” Neteyam urged you.

“I don’t know Teyam, I have lessons soon.” You reminded him with a sigh.

“I know, I know. Just try. I will stay and protect you.” The boy grinned down at you.

Not having the energy to argue with him anymore your head plopped onto his shoulder. You were out like a light. Unsure if it was from purse exhaustion or that Neteyam’s presence made you feel safe.

He wrapped his arm around your sleeping figure pulling you in closer to him, careful not to wake you. His cheeks flushed as you snuggled into him. Neteyam could get used to this.

***

Grinding herbs with Kiri the two of you were finishing up your lessons with Mo'at. Seeing your potential she took you under her wing teaching you to become a healer.

It was something you enjoyed. You wanted to be useful and this made you feel like you could give back. Plus Mo'at was also training Kiri. You jumped at the opportunity to spend time with your friend.

While you considered Neteyam to be your best friend Kiri was all that and more. She was the sister you never had. She knew everything about you and you her. You’d thank the Great Mother every day for Kiri, she was truly a blessing.

Pausing you yawned into your elbow. Kiri immediately noticed and frowned. She knew exactly what you had been doing. She had her suspicions but received confirmation when Neteyam told her that morning.

Not knowing who else to tell he went to Kiri. She used it as the perfect opportunity to tease her older brother. However she was also worried about you.

"Do you want to spend the night tonight? It will be fun like when we were little." Kiri asked while cleaning up.

Lifting your brow you glanced over at her. It wasn't unusual for Kiri to suggest something like this. However you felt suspicious because of your conversation with Neteyam earlier.

"Did your brother put you up to this?" You asked with your back still to her.

Kiri's glance softened rushing over to you she put a gentle hand on your shoulder. "I can not lie to you," she started, "he told me that you haven't been sleeping. I thought maybe coming over could help."

"Kiri you know why I stay awake. It's not like I don't want to sleep, I'm just-"

"Afraid of what you will see." Kiri interrupted you. "I know. But maybe tonight will be different. We will not know until we try." She gently tugged on your arm, "at least stay for dinner."

You looked over to the corner of the tent where your mat laid. Once you got older you made one of the healing tents your makeshift home. You didn't want to be a burden to the people.

"Please." Kiri pouted her bottom lip giving her best puppy dog face.

Playfully you pushed her rolling your eyes. "I can't say no to you."

Throwing her hands up in victory Kiri let out a cheer. "Let's go." She practically dragged you out of the tent.

You loved spending time with the Sully’s. The atmosphere was always warm and welcoming. Even though it made you feel guilty, sometimes you wished that you were apart of their family.

Neytiri was cutting fruit preparing for dinner. Little Tuk was playing with a wooden Ikran toy. When she saw you her face lit up. “Y/N!” She exclaimed crashing into you for a hug.

“Hi Tuk.” You giggled as you picked her up. “I’ve missed you.”

Neytiri smiled seeing you and her daughter entering their home. “Ma’Y/N it’s been so long since you joined us for a meal.” She warmly hugged you.

“I know. Next time I won’t wait so long to come back.”

Nodding in approval Neytiri went back to her preparations. Looking around you noticed the men of the family were missing. Lessons had ran overtime again.

As if on cue Lo’ak bursted through the entry of the tent. His eyes lit up when he saw you before turning into a wicked smirk.

“Hey bro your girlfriend is here!” He loudly teased.

Neteyam was next to come in. His eyes huge and his face flushed. “You fucking skxawng.” He muttered making sure to smack Lo’ak on the back of his head.

You hoped the blush on your cheeks wasn’t noticeable. You had a crush on your best friend for a long time, you just thought it wasn’t noticeable. Apparently you were wrong.

“Ow” Lo’ak dramatically rubbed the back of his head. “It’s the truth.”

Shaking his head Jake entered. “You’ll have to excuse my sons Y/N. They insist on acting like children.”

You giggled at the look both Neteyam and Lo’ak gave their father.

After greeting everyone Neteyam quickly made his way to you taking a seat next you. His eyes never left you throughout the evening. He asked you all about your day, because he genuinely wanted to know but also just to hear your sweet voice.

Kiri and lo’ak constantly rolled their eyes. Tired of seeing their brother pining over you.

Later Kiri helped you make up the spare mat. You felt Neteyam’s gaze on you the whole time, trying your best to ignore it.

“Just try to get some rest.” Kiri smiled.

Weakly smiling you nodded. You were terrified. Not only because you were going to try to sleep but you were trying in some else’s home. The last thing you wanted was to make a scene.

Laying down you met his glance from across the room. He looked focused possibly a little worried. You smiled at him. He immediately returned the gesture.

Curling up you closed your eyes praying for a normal night of sleep. It didn’t take long for you to drift off. Neteyam stayed up until he was sure you were asleep. Counting your rhythmic heavy breaths.

***

It looked like the aftermath of a battlefield. Smoke and fire clouded around your beautiful home. Death and destruction were everywhere. Bodies of fallen Na’vi soldiers covered with red littered the ground. Their blood seeping back into the ground, until all you saw was red.

***

You woke up gasping for breath. With a splitting headache and blurry vision you stumbled your way out of the tent. Sitting down outside you tried your best to take deep breaths. You felt like you were starting to hyperventilate.

A few moments later Neteyam noticed you were missing. His whole body filled with worry he went looking for you. It didn’t take him long as you were sitting right outside the tent.

His heart sank the moment he saw you. You were trembling, gasping for breath with tears stinging your eyes.

“What is wrong? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He fired too many questions at you. You were too overwhelmed to answer him.

Gently wrapping his arm around your shaking frame he pulled you into his chest. “Deep breaths for me.” He softy said.

After a few minutes you managed to calm your breathing. “That’s it. Good job.” He praised you gently rubbing his hand on your head.

“It hurts Teyam.” You muttered against his chest.

With furrowed brows he crouched down to look at you. “What hurts?”

“My head. The bad ones hurt.” You sniffled through your tears.

You hadn’t told anyone but as your visions got more intense, they started to affect your physical health. Often leaving you with the worst migraine you’d ever had.

He held you closer trying not to cry himself. The girl he was hopelessly in love with was in pain and there was nothing he could do about it. He wanted to take it all away but all he could do was watch.

Neteyam couldn’t help but question why the Great Mother would gift you with this if it caused you so much pain.

He placed a gentle kiss to the top of your head trying his best to comfort you. “It’ll be okay. I’m right here.” He soothed.

“Will you stay up with me?”

His heart broke at your pitiful frame. “Of course I will. However long you want.”

•••

Ahhhhhh I was really nervous to post this I hope it’s readable

[praetorqueenreyna]

Some Tamlin/Rhysand fluff for Rhysand Week Day 4: Court of Dreams.

@officialrhysandweek

********************

“Hurry up!” Rhysand called over his shoulder. 

“It’s a lot harder when you aren’t cheating,” Tamlin panted. He moved forward doggedly, each step sending his foot crashing through the powdery snow until it hit the rock a foot down. His boots and the bottoms of his pants were soaking wet.

“It’s not cheating. I’m just using my natural advantages,” Rhysand replied loftily. With each step, he flapped his wings, giving him just enough lift that his feet didn’t break through the thin crust on the top of the snow. His light, almost non-existent footprints were a sharp contrast to the trough that Tamlin was creating. “Do you need a break?”

“No,” Tamlin answered, clearly annoyed by Rhysand’s mocking tone. “You said we’re almost there, right?”

“Almost.”

They were hiking up the tallest mountain in the Night Court. Up here, the air was thin and frigid. It burned the lungs and set fire to the skin. Few dared to venture up this far. The mountainside was a barren white field except for small patches of crystal snowflowers. The flowers grew on the surface of the snow, their roots stretching to the bare rock and extracting minerals from it. They were sharp and transparent, and appeared to be completely inorganic. However, once picked, they wilted away into nothing in seconds. 

Finally, Rhysand reached the peak. A few minutes later, Tamlin reached it as well. He flopped down in the snow next to Rhysand, creating a fae-shaped crater that faintly steamed. Rhysand grinned. “Are you okay?” he teased as he sat down.

“No, I hate you,” Tamlin grumbled, eliciting a laugh from Rhysand. It constantly amazed him, how charming Tamlin was when he wasn’t trying. 

Once recovered, Tamlin sat upright and took in his surroundings. Rhysand watched him, a fond smile breaking through his sardonic exterior, as Tamlin’s eyes widened and he gasped in awe. From here, one could see the harsh mountains and dark forests that made up the land of perpetual night. Here and there, glittering lights from cities and villages announced themselves, betraying that the gloomy land was active and bustling. In front of them, the ocean lapped at the distant shoreline of the Night Court. Behind them was the distant glow of Day.

“It’s beautiful,” Tamlin breathed. 

“Yes, it is.” Rhysand was not looking at the view.

Tamlin shivered; now that he was no longer straining himself, the cold was leeching into him. Rhysand splayed out an arm and a wing, inviting Tamlin to huddle against his side. The Spring prince obliged, tucking himself against Rhysand and sighing in relief when the warm bat wing closed around him. Even here, as far from his home as possible, Tamlin smelled like sunshine and roses. 

“I wish I could stay here forever,” Tamlin mumbled. His cold nose was pressed to Rhysand’s throat, his words a soft puff of warm air on his collarbone. 

I wish you could too, Rhysand thought, but it was impossible. Tamlin was too brash, too honest, too impulsive to survive here. The Night Court would eat him alive. 

“Nobody wants to stay here,” he said instead. “You belong in Spring.” 

Tamlin fell silent. A thought probed at the edge of Rhysand’s mind. He usually didn’t bother trying to read Tamlin’s mind; it felt like an invasion of privacy, especially since Tamlin’s mental shields were so poor. Curious, Rhysand let the thought through. He smiled and pressed his lips against the top of Tamlin’s head. 

“I belong with you.”

[some-pers0n]

Y'know somehow after all my years of rewritting WoF scenes for fun, I've never managed to tackle the prologue of TDP. Well, here you go. Blood/gore and character death warning, though you already knew what was gonna happen, huh?

In Hvitur's talons rested the fate of Pyrrhia.

Rain pelted against the IceWing as he flew through the storm, eyes scanning for any signs of shelter; of a place to hide. If he could only make it through the mountain pass he would be safe. The forest and cover of night would keep him hidden from the danger that lurked around.

He kept the egg clutched tightly. It was an unhatched dragon, one from the SkyWing tribe. This was the one night where everything mattered. He had to bring the prophecy to fruition. That was his one task: steal the SkyWing egg, bring it to a safe location, and then spend his years watching over the prophecy dragons. Being a Guardian to them.

Yet, not all of Pyrrhia believed in this prophecy. Some called it a hoax. A false sign of hope for this war to end. Others thought it was doomed from the start, to never be fully realized. However, there were a few who thought of it as an interruption to their plans. They believed it a nuisance. While some sang of peace and dreamed of it coming true, they saw it as nothing more than mad ramblings of harmony.

From the sounds of it, that last group was right behind him.

He glanced back to see three figures soaring only a tail length or two away. Lightning cracked across the sky, illuminating their features. SandWings, with the middle boasting a large, intimidating presence.

She had found him.

"Seize him!" she hissed.

Hvitur tried to fly faster. He wanted to dive, shift upwards, roll to the side, anything. Instead, he flailed as the guards caught up to him in an instant. They swiped their claws at his wings, ripping holes in the membrane.

He let out a roar of pain as he flailed. He attempted to hit them with a blast of frostbreath, but their descent was too fast and too disorienting. The pain from his wings and the falling made his head spin. By the time they hit the ground, he could feel them getting to work holding him in place. He only then noticed them putting a restraint on his snout.

The cool hard earth of the cliff face was what greeted Hvitur. It overlooked a sharp drop, jagged spikes at the bottom. He held the egg still close to his chest. He had to protect it. Pyrrhia's future rested upon him.

But hope dwindled as she drew closer.

The SandWing was large, towering over him. She was covered in a myriad of scars. Burns, slashes, bites, anything. One such scar was a slash mark that trailed from her neck down to her mid-stomach. Her scales were dulled, only a dusty copper red now. Her horns were curved around her head akin to that of a ram's. Her obsidian eyes stared at him with barely contained malice.

"Thought you could use your little ice breath on us, didn't you?" Her forked tongue slithered in and out of her mouth. "A noble tactic, though one easily outwitted. You should've used your spiked tail, or perhaps your serrated claws."

Hvitur merely growled in response. "You are a monster, Princess Burn."

"Queen Burn," she corrected. "I am the true heir to the throne. The eldest and current holder of the crown." Her eyes narrowed. "You talk too bold for a weak, snivelling IceWing." She dragged her barbed tail along the ground, the sound of it scraping against the rocks burrowing into Hvitur's mind.

Her eyes locked onto the odd way Hvitur lay. His wings were over his body and his legs and tailed tucked in. With no hesitation, Burn grabbed hold of his ripped wings and pushed them aside to reveal what was underneath.

"A SkyWing egg..." she muttered. She reached for it.

"No! You can't take it!"

"Make me," she snarled. Despite Hvitur's death grip on it, Burn easily pried him away. She was far stronger than any dragon he had encountered.

"Queen Scarlet's outpost guards had told me of a little thief. I only went after you to add some flavour to my rather boring visit." She looked over the egg in her talons. "I wondered at first why an IceWing of all dragons would steal a SkyWing egg. That my spineless idiot of a sister had a new plan to annoy me. Then, I looked to the moons." She gazed up at the three moons overlooking them. They watched on with quiet apathy to the situation, shining brilliantly.

"The Brightest Night is tomorrow," she continued. "Then it made sense." She quickly raised her barb to his throat, only a claw length away from puncturing his neck. "You're one of those peacemongers, aren't you?"

Hvitur stared at the barb in stunned, shocked silence. His heart was beating rapidly.

"SPEAK!"

"Yes! Yes, I am with them. The Talons of Peace," he sputtered out.

"Yes, yes, whatever name you useless pacifists call yourself." She snorted. "Crying over split blood as if it weren't in our nature to battle. Pathetic. A conflict can never be resolved through discussion. Not this one."

She lowered her barb. "No, this war can only be stopped once the life drains from my sisters' eyes. I refuse to listen to the pleas of dragons who think otherwise. No dragon can tell me when I die or who I bow to."

"Haven't enough dragons died?" Hvitur snapped back. "Twelve years of bloodshed, and for what? Nothing? There'll be only more and more. More lives lost. More families torn apart. More death and destruction, and for what!? For you to rule?"

"Tighten the mouth restraint," she ordered the guard. "Again, crying over split blood. Death and tragedy is what make war. It's what makes those who survive rise above. They're stronger. They overcome and kill any who are weaker. It's only what a dragon does best: kill."

"The dragonets will come no matter what you say! They--" Hvitur was beginning to struggle to speak with the restraint closing tighter.

Burn looked over the egg in her talons. "You say that as though I cannot simply crush this egg." A crooked smile appeared on her face. "Perhaps I could shatter it between my claws. Or, maybe I could stab it with my barb."

"You wouldn't..." Hvitur mustered. Even Princess Burn couldn't hurt a dragonet egg, could she?

That smile twisted into a grin. "Wouldn't that be even more tragic?" she asked. "No 'wings of sky' to save the world. What a sad tale for you worthless little worms. Queen Burn, the ruthless blood-lusting monster, destroying the prophesied egg before it could ever come to fruition." She walked over to the edge of the cliff. "With that, no dragonets came to save Pyrrhia, and she ascended to her rightfully earned throne. Oh, doesn't it tug on the heartstrings?" She held the egg dangerously close to the ledge.

Hvitur looked at her with a wide, panicked expression. He thrashed as she held it over the cliff face. "Please..."

Burn looked him dead in the eyes. She let out a sarcastic, dramatic sigh. "So much for destiny, I suppose." With it, she let the egg slip out of her claws, hurling towards its demise.

"NO!" Hvitur yelled. He tried with all of his might to break away. To lunge at her. To try tearing Burn to shreds for what she did.

"Enough with that!" Burn barked back. She raised her barb, this time stabbing it right through Hvitur's neck. Pain rippled throughout his body as the barb pierced through his scales, going right into his flesh.

He lurched. His mind raced as he tried to process the intense agony. Words failed him. Whatever half-baked insult or threat he could toss at the monstrous SandWing silenced by the blood in his throat.

Burn loomed over the shaking body of the IceWing. She tisked. "This is what you pacifists get." With it, she dragged him closer to the edge, letting his body ragdoll off of the cliff. The barb slipped out of him, and Hvitur fell to his death.

The prophecy was ruined. Pyrrhia was lost.

[anerdinallherglory]

Approaching Sun (37)

CW/Important Note, PLEASE READ: There are two versions of this chapter. This is the edited, non-explicit version. This version is a more poetic, fade-to-black version that adheres to site rules and guidelines. I also wanted to respect readers on these platforms who have not been following me under the impression that this is mature fic, because its original rating is not M. With that being said, there are still implied parts in this chapter that may be sensitive to some readers, so skip ahead, if that is you. 

If you would like to read the full, unedited, absolutely unhinged-in-how-filthy-it-is version, visit my linktree (https://linktr.ee/anerdinallherglory) to find the fic on AO3, where appropriate tags will be used. After reading the tags, you may have decided not to pursue reading that M version. Some may ask why I decided to write an alternate version, and I’m going to say that writing from Sasuke’s, a male’s perspective, seemed a little less delicate than Sakura’s, and after reading it several times, I decided that this version only belonged on AO3 where readers could read the tags and then choose which one to read. The only part that is different is how detailed the descriptions go. I do believe that many would prefer this edited version, but I could be completely wrong for some. 

As always, thank you for reading. Happy early Valentine’s Day. I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

Here is a visual for the chapter.

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36

Chapter 37: Stars and Orbits

The location that Sasuke sought was something he had stumbled upon once on his mission between villages, concealed by pools of shallow water at the base. Now, in the darkness, the cave was near impossible for anyone to locate. Once inside the dense cover of forest, Sasuke had led them directly toward one of the many tree-covered mountains, the one with the fracture in the side that hid behind dense foliage. The falling rain had created flood waters and the shallow brook that Sasuke remembered was now rapidly flowing into the mouth of the cave, disappearing completely, and only Sasuke knew where it came out on the other side. 

The darkness around them had faded infinitesimally, just enough that Sasuke realized night would soon give way to the faded in-between of dusk and dawn. But Sasuke was determined to have both he and his teammate safely tucked away into the mountain’s embrace before any sort of light could reveal them to any potential followers; Sasuke was fairly confident that there weren’t any left in the near vicinity that he hadn’t already dealt with, but he wasn’t going to take the chance anyway—not with both he and Sakura’s depleted chakra levels. And so, he jumped into the rushing waters that had turned into a lapping stream, a tongue snaking out from the sideways mouth of the cave. 

“What are you doing?” Sakura whispered loudly over the roaring sounds of the water and Sasuke could sense her reluctance to follow his lead, most likely not wanting to subject herself to any further waterlogging. 

“It’s a cave,” he informed her, digging his feet deeply into the rocky bed beneath his feet, stretching his arm up to offer her assistance, which she immediately denied to Sasuke’s extreme annoyance. Fine, he thought to himself. He was fine with her indignation because he was just as pissed off as she was. “We are going to have to swim through the entrance to get inside, so there’s no point to waste chakra trying to walk on it just yet.”

As Sakura slid into the black water, tightening her eyes at the shock of cold, the stream swelled up to her chest, pushing her tired body toward him in a jerk before her feet finally reached the bottom. “A cave? Won’t it be flooded?”

“No,” he answered. “Not dangerously so, at least.” He offered no further explanation before allowing the pull of the water to guide him the rest of the way to the entrance. Just before committing himself to the dark fissure in the mountain’s side, the open grin of the cave, Sasuke turned and grabbed Sakura’s uninjured hand and lifted her arm straight up above her head. “The ceiling will lower. Keep your arm extended so you know when you must go all the way under water. I’ll be in front of you, so stay close.”

Sakura’s eyes widened at this revelation before frowning at his command, and when Sasuke realized his teammate’s unbending anger towards him was going to prevent her from asking him any questions, Sasuke pushed forward into the all-consuming blackness. 

The rumble of the water draining into the crevices of the cave was deafening and almost more distracting than the coolness of the water itself, and Sasuke took a minute to be grateful that they were in the dregs of late summer, otherwise they would be wading in critically low temperatures. The narrow entrance scuffed against Sasuke’s single palm as he dragged it along the side of the craggy tunnel. He could hear Sakura’s quick breathing behind him as she followed him, staying close enough where their bodies still brushed one another occasionally. 

When his fingers brushed against the ceiling, Sasuke turned back to Sakura who had been following him in silence for the last fifteen minutes. They bumped together in the dark and Sakura brushed his side with her hand. It was terrifying and disorienting, how unreliable it felt to be this cut off from light. And yet, not even the darkness could dim her presence to Sasuke, that hyperawareness he had for her wherever she was in a room even if he didn’t know she would be there. His eyes would find her, his body would move in her direction, his soul would reach out as if hers were doing the same. He didn’t need the daylight to see her. 

“This is the narrowest part,” he told her emotionlessly, preparing her for the dive that was to come. “It opens back up in about ten meters. Just hold your breath and keep swimming.”

She didn’t respond, only continued to breath raggedly in exhaustion. Even though he was angry, so damn angry with her, that he too, only wanted to give her a stony silence in return, his concern for her in this situation overrode all of that. “Did you hear me?” he hissed in frustrated urgency and Sakura’s echoing, emotionless “yes,” was the only confirmation he needed before he inhaled sharply, filling his lungs to capacity, and diving. 

The vacuum of the current was stronger than Sasuke had anticipated as he felt forward with his arm. Water relentlessly pushed him forward and his knee met a sharp rock, and he grunted underwater as he pushed off of it, hoping Sakura’s smaller frame would avoid her any collisions. His lungs began to burn just when his fingers grasped for the ceiling and found it open. He took a huge gulp of air as he met the surface and immediately ducked back under, waiting and waiting in nervous anticipation before Sakura’s outstretched hand collided with him and he pulled her up with him. Her gasp of air, evidence of her safety, was just as relieving as Sasuke’s own inhaled breath. His body needed it just as much to keep going.

“There’s a drop,” Sasuke spoke quickly, the water still relentlessly tugging their bodies forward toward the cliff-like edge he remembered standing at once before as he looked down at the chasm below with a fireball sailing down to meet the bottom. Now, he only had memory and darkness to rely on in order to spare his chakra. Sasuke held Sakura’s body to him as they drifted. His stubborn pink-haired partner resisted his hold initially until his words registered, and he felt her arms cling tightly in response to his shoulders. With the standstill between them, Sasuke only had a second to hold her before they were freefalling. 

Sasuke fell back-first over the drop, tucking Sakura tight against him, before spinning the both of them until his feet hit the surface of the lake below. He landed lightly despite the force of gravity from such a height, his weight distributing easily across the water as he pushed against it with his waning chakra. “Can you sta—” he began to ask Sakura, but she pulled away from him as soon as they landed, finding her own chakra-enhanced footing. 

“I can take care of myself,” she reminded him, walking forward in the darkness as if she were the one who knew where to go. Her words carried the weight of their impending argument, the temporary peace between them coming to a swift and immediate end. 

“I know you can,” Sasuke hissed as he pursued her footsteps in the dark. “You can stop trying to prove it to me, now.”

She spun to him and Sasuke felt her body accidentally crash with his and repel from him all within a millisecond, like two colliding ninja in battle. “Then why did you follow me? You didn’t think I could handle this on my own?”

Sasuke ground his teeth, because that just wasn’t it. It wasn’t that he doubted her abilities. She had proven herself more than capable—multiple times, in fact, in the last two months. During her most recent encounter with the anti-peace members in the desert after Mako had kidnapped her, Sasuke had arrived post-battle, the pieces of Sakura’s aftermath scattered among the sand like inconsequential annoyances. And tonight, when Sasuke had finally reached her after deposing of an obscure number of pursuers, he had stood on the edge of the clearing, watching her engage in hand-to-hand combat, the black dye of her hair running down her skin like the war paint of the Anbu Black Ops. Seeing her in combat, Sasuke had held himself back with all the willpower belonging to his being contrary to his instincts to act. He hadn’t wanted to intervene, hadn’t wanted to interrupt Sakura’s process because he knew she could easily handle the three ninja who fought with her. He had every intention to watch and let her handle them her way. That was until that last bastard trailed a blade up her stomach and used his own fingers to trace swirls into her skin with the red of her own blood. Not even the most controlled of men would have sat by and watched such an offense against their loved one—watch their woman be violated in any way—and Sasuke… he was not a controlled man. He was the opposite of that. He was an Uchiha who loved. 

“Your silence speaks what you won’t say to my face,” Sakura whispered, disappointment replacing her ire in a moment of transparency. 

Sasuke brushed past her, fisting her arm in the dark and guiding her over to the precipice of land that jutted out of the lake like a domed table. When Sakura’s feet met the rock-strewn beach, she stumbled in the dark and Sasuke held her more firmly as he, too, struggled to find even footing. Jumping to the top of the table-like plateau, Sasuke reached down and grabbed Sakura’s hand to pull her up behind him, but her hand was slick with the blood of her injury, and she threw her other hand up to grab his wrist to accommodate. Exhausted, the both of them fell back on their backsides and scooted away from the edge. 

Feeling the stickiness of blood against his palm, Sasuke frowned. “Why aren’t you healing yourself?” he asked irritably, his carefully concealed anger similarly bleeding out in his tone.

Sakura’s own annoyance was evident in her response, an edged stillness that might have cut Sasuke as deep as any wound might had she meant to do damage with her words. “I have to reserve my chakra. I’m channeling to Katsuyu.”

Sasuke almost told her how annoying she was when she neglected herself, but he refrained, knowing that it would open the floodgate between them. Instead, Sasuke found himself reaching until he found her injured hand. He pulled at Sakura’s resisting palm until he held it out between them, a restorative green globe beginning to radiate from his own hand. They both squinted at the sudden flare of light, a speck in the immense blackness around them, and their dilated pupils suddenly constricted at the emerald glow. The circumference of light was no larger than that of a candle and the roaring cave swallowed the light hungrily beyond their bodies.

Sakura fisted her hand and looked away from him. “Leave it. Save what little chakra you have left.”

Sasuke ignored the command and his irritation momentarily faltered at the redness in her eyes that he could see over the dome of light between them, the tears she held back there. She was desperately trying not to cry at the misunderstanding of Sasuke not having faith in her regardless of his previous reassurances. 

“It has nothing to do with doubting you,” he whispered, answering her question from moments ago. He tried his best to conceal his anger with her, but every word still came out sounding clipped, sounding cross. “You can tell me to stay away. You can trick me and leave me without chakra. You can leave me a damn goodbye letter telling me you love me in case you die.” Sakura sucked in a breath as her skin slowly knitted back together, sewn with the needle of Sasuke’s chakra. “You could be the strongest ninja in the shinobi world, but I am still going to go after you, Sakura.”

“But you have your own mission—The Otsusuki Race—” she began as Sasuke’s hand released her palm, moving down along her arm until he was pulling the fabric of her shirt up and away from the assaulting crooked line of the cut to her flesh. She sucked in a breath when he did so, reacting more so to his touch than the pain of it. She leaned back on to her arms as he hovered his glowing chakra across her abdomen. 

Sasuke’s white-hot anger returned just looking at the damage, and he took a steadying breath as he passed his glowing palm along the gash. When his chakra met her injury, Sakura stopped speaking altogether as she inhaled a sharp gasp of pain. 

“—can wait their turn,” Sasuke finished for her. “I still have time to hunt them down. Your enemies are also mine. Just like I told you back in the Sand Village, I can help you take care of these guys first.” The words were edged, punishing, even though he knew that he had absolutely no right to emphasize those words after years of rejecting her offer to help him with his goals. But he was trying, wasn’t he? Sasuke had let her come with him. He had let her help him just as she had wanted. But she didn’t want it to go both ways?! Or was it that Sakura didn’t believe that Sasuke wanted it to go both ways? What would they be able to accomplish as a unified force if they stopped this tug of war between each other of whose enemies were whose and what missions were hers or his?

Sakura’s eyes found his in the dimming light and she finally pushed his hand away. He knew that she was probably thinking along the same lines, and this was confirmed for him when she whispered. “How does it feel? To be left behind?” Her voice was thick with emotion. If it weren’t so dark, he might have seen tears prick her eyes. 

He internally winced, but leveled a scowl at her, a flame she could no longer see returning to his eyes. He bit back the various answers that came to his mouth unbidden: Torturous. Like the hell I deserve. Like I couldn’t fucking breath every second we were separated. Like the relentless stomach-turning fire of panic, vengeance, and loss all at once. Either because those words would make Sakura’s own past feelings painfully corporeal, because none of them were the apology she deserved, or simply because he was a stubborn, prideful Uchiha who couldn’t admit that she had such power over him, he refrained from voicing them. Sasuke stopped those words on his tongue and bit back the confession. 

Standing, the Uchiha jumped down off the giant stone jutting from the side of the cave and retreated back down the bank and onto the lake’s surface. “I’ll be back in a moment,” he announced to her “Stay here.”

She exhaled silently to the air around her, but Sasuke heard it regardless, no amount of riotous rushing of the waterfall behind them flooding out the sadness in her sigh. He should have told her his truth. He shouldn’t have held it back regardless of the reasons. 

.

.

.

As Sakura waited for Sasuke on the bank, her eyes began to make out just the tiniest pinpricks of light coming somewhere very high above her. Her first thought was that it must be the night sky she was seeing, and as the time passed, it bled into a larger crack across the ceiling, beams of morning light reaching fingers down into the serrated ridge of the clamshell’s mouth, but not able to reach Sakura where she sat looking up at it. She was the pearl at the bottom of the shell that the sun just couldn’t reach no matter how desperately it clawed for her. Even though she couldn’t make out any of the details around her, Sakura was able to follow the jagged edge of the mountain’s opening for what she believed to be about a half-mile sideways before it disappeared into a rocky enclosure. She estimated that the distance between the two halves of the opening were just enough that a very small person might be able to scale down between the walls to find this place. But even if someone had managed to squeeze themselves through the ceiling, Sakura could now see that they would be dangling about thirty-five or more meters before they reached the surface below. It honestly astonished her that Sasuke knew this place so well, but she also understood him to be an individual who traveled to places and dimensions where no other human feet could ever touch. 

After about thirty minutes of shivering in the same spot and tapping her feet in frustration at Sasuke’s absence, the annoyance turning to fear as the time lengthened, Sakura stood and began to strip her clothing. Firstly, she removed her headband, the water-saturated, black coat, and pants until she was in her water slicked shirt that hung off her and hit her thighs. Even if the cave was roughly about seventy degrees inside, her drenched clothing was lowering her temperature quickly. 

As if sensing her predicament, the universe aligned so that Sasuke arrived at that specific moment, shuffling the rocks behind her announcing his arrival. She immediately sought to cover herself before she realized that he wouldn’t be able to see her anyway in this endless depth. 

“Where did you go,” she asked incredulously, continuing to wring and shake out her ditched garments in the peace of blackness. 

“Firewood,” he announced emotionlessly seconds before he directed a trivial fire release of flame at his newly assembled pile. Before Sakura could even ask where on earth he managed to find wood down here, light and heat branded the air around them and Sakura gasped at the suddenness of it. The fireball instantly caught the tiny pyre aflame despite how wet the wood must have been, creating a circumference of contrasting brightness in the black. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Sasuke seethed after catching sight of her and immediately turned his back on her state of undress. Sakura blushed privately to herself as she turned her back to him. 

“You can still get hypothermia in the summer,” she defended as she glanced back over her shoulder at his own drenched body. “I suggest you do the same.” That was the last thing she said before dropping the oversized shirt at her feet. After arranging the clothes to dry out on the ground next to the flames, Sakura settled before the fire, hiding her body behind her knees as she crouched. 

She watched as Sasuke’s entire posture grew rigid at her nearness, his spine replacing itself with a rod of steel, and even with his back to her, Sakura recognized the curved shoulder and bowed head mannerisms that revealed he was pinching the bridge of his nose. Sighing, the Uchiha yanked a scroll from his jacket and knelt on one knee as he activated the summoning seals along the parchment, revealing two sets of clothing that materialized instead of the weapons she was expecting. The clothing was thrown forcefully in her direction, and they hit her body in a way that his words weren’t needed to communicate the command. 

She was wet and cold and didn’t hesitate. She pulled one of Sasuke’s gray long-sleeve shirts over her shivering frame, never so grateful for a piece of fabric in her life. Trying not to get even the slightest bit elated over the fact that she was wearing one of his shirts like the teenage version of herself might, Sakura stripped herself of her still-wet undergarments before yanking on a loose-fitting pair of his clean black pants. 

She watched as Sasuke released a defeated sigh from the other side of the fire and begin to pull his own clothes off, replacing them with his own set of dry clothes. Sakura did her best not to delight in the show, turning her beat red face away to give him some privacy. She mentally berated herself for her perversity. She wasn’t Naruto, Kakashi—or even worse, Jaariya, was she?! 

She cleared her throat. “Where did you manage to get firewood?” she asked, desperate to fill the awkwardness. 

He sighed as he shuffled on his own pair of pants. “There’s a back entrance. Even more discreet than the way we came in.” 

“Won’t the smoke give us away if it’s daylight?”

“No. The fire is small and it’s a long way to the top. The ceiling opens up which will prevent the cavern from filling with smoke, but it’s a long way to the top. It will disperse before it exits.” 

“How did you find this place?”

“I’ve looked in every corner of the Land of Fire for any trace of Kaguya or her white Zetsu army. It was the very first thing I did.”

Sakura’s heart panged, knowing he had been so close, sleeping nightly in the Land of Fire during that first year away from home after the War when she longed for him the most, when they had just gotten him back. 

When Sasuke turned and walked over to lay out his clothes next to hers, Sakura felt the shift in his mood again. It was remarkable how her body knew his without even an exchange of words or a shared look between each other; Sakura could read every line of him, sometimes written in cursive roundness and sometimes written in sharp jagged, hidden scripts. She had always known every motion that made up Sasuke, even when they were younger. She had known when Sasuke wasn’t fairing well after Orohimaru’s cursemark, Sakura had known when he was in pain, when he was changing and no one else could tell; she had even known him well enough to intercept him as he left Konoha after he had decided on his path of revenge. But more recently, Sakura didn’t realize until now that she had spent the last several months learning and coaxing out new, infrequently used symbols she had never seen until now. Sakura guessed that Sasuke was currently struggling to sort out emotions he wasn’t used to feeling and after what had happened a mere few hours ago, she didn’t know if that was all entirely a good thing. 

Sakura’s eyes flicked over to where he stretched out his black cloak with jerky, angry movements, snapping it loudly after wringing the literal life from it. His jaw was tight and Sakura crossed her arms as she scowled, trying to decipher what had him so vexed. Wasn’t she supposed to be the angry one? Hadn’t he interfered in her plans?

“Did Kakashi know?” came Sasuke’s question after he decided to join her by sitting across from her, the small fire offering no protective emotional barrier between them. Sakura frowned more from Sasuke’s question than she did the diminishing fire as it burned, his anger feeling suddenly hotter than any fire ever could. 

She leveled him with her own scowl, feeling defensive at the abrupt question, not quite sure what he was inquiring about. “What are you asking—”                                           

He averted his eyes for a moment, before locking them firmly with her own, deciding he didn’t want to miss a fraction of her reaction to his clarifying question. “Did Kakashi know you would be using your body in a brothel for your covert mission?”

Sakura’s mouth fell open. That’s what this is about?! He thought she had gone through with it, being completely committed to her undercover persona as a prostitute in order to gain information. Sakura could certainly see how he, or anyone else for that matter, might connect the dots and make that assumption, but the forthrightness of his interrogation shocked her. She was always so accustomed to his silent brooding. 

“Sasuke—” she began, and she leaned forward, trying to immediately assuage his concerns, but he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity. He must have thought she was deflecting, changing the course with an explanation, because his next words cut her off. 

“Did he?” he bit out, breathing the words out lowly and urgently. “Answer my question.” 

Feeling rushed for an answer, she admitted quickly. “Of course he knew…some of it. He’s the Hokage. I told him what I was planning.”

Sasuke’s face turned white, and he closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him for letting you run off and do such a thing for the sake of the Leaf Village—or for yourself—it doesn’t matter! You’re one of us. He’s supposed to—”

“It’s not what you’re thinking it is,” she tried, but his questions kept coming. 

“How often? How often have you done this type of thing for a mission?”

“You’re misunderstanding—” 

He leveled her with his challenging stare again. “Am I? I saw you. I saw you in the memories of that girl. In the lap of that ninja with his hands in your hair.”

Sakura gasped at his confession, not because she was distressed that Sasuke had seen her with Rugo, but knowing that he had actually tracked her to the bathhouse and searched for her in the girls’ memories of her just as she feared he might. It explained how he knew what location she had been planning to go, but Sakura dreaded knowing what else he must have seen in those memories of the brothel she had used as her stage for Act 1 of her plan. 

Sakura could see his misinterpretation of her reaction settling into the shadows under his brow line. It darkened his eyes and he raised his chin as he mentally braced himself. He thought her gasp confirmation of all his worst fears. 

“What you saw—it wasn’t what you’re thinking—”

“Did you sleep with him?” he breathed the question, not wanting to ask it but needing the truth all the same, desperately. “The man whose clothes you’re wearing.” The words were cold.

“Sasuke!” she shouted, aghast at his bluntness. 

“Did you?!” he snapped, the same type of emotion he used when arguing with Naruto now flooding his voice. 

“No!” she finally managed to get past him. “I didn’t have to. I have never had to sleep with anyone, nor would I. Not even for a mission.”

His face went into his hands and she felt his audible sigh as Sasuke focused on regaining his emotions, trying so desperately to shove them behind the black wall of granite where he kept them once more. She watched his entire body slacken in relief, surrendering to the exhaustion of chakra-depletion. Had it been his fury that had kept him going until now?  

“What you saw was just an unexpected occurrence during the mission,” she bit out, using his temporary silence to get out what she had been trying to say for the last few minutes.  “Rugo, the man you saw me with, recognized me, and I had no choice but to play along not to blow my own cover. Choosing that route, I knew I would have to take some calculated risks.”

He was silent, but Sakura sensed the war with himself to say more, ask more, but exactly what she wasn’t sure. She waited. But he bit his lip and looked away.

“I’m a woman. There are always going to be men who try to take advantage of me in that way.”

She saw his jaw set, his teeth clench. She knew he was holding back whatever it was he wanted to say. She saw his eyes land on her stomach, searching for the concealed wound there, and she knew he was recalling the man who had dared to touch her. Self-conscious, Sakura covered the freshly healed scar with a hand over the fabric as if he might be able to see through it. 

“Then I will make you untouchable,” came his final reply. Sakura’s skin prickled at the acerbic promise. 

“I am already untouchable. I have made myself untouchable. Every predatory touch on my person was calculated, allowed. But nothing will happen that I do not allow.”

Sasuke scoffed, but it was the type of scoff that admitted he could not win the argument. The type of scoff that eased the tension between them. 

Sakura stood and stepped around the fire, coming to kneel before him, his glare doing nothing to hold her back. “You’re going to have to trust me. Trust my abilities and trust my decisions,” she said to the Uchiha as she turned to sit down beside him, using her proximity to soften the harshness further. “I can handle myself.”

He sighed in irritation, leaning his head back against a low, darkness-concealed boulder that Sakura hadn’t realized he was perched against until she had come to join him. Again, Sakura was reading him, could tell that his anger with her was being pushed back and categorized in his brain to handle on his own. “Annoying,” he exhaled, and Sakura recognized it as the full-stop he used to end a conversation, to end the argument and concede to her points.

“My turn,” she announced after a moment of de-escalating silence, and Sasuke’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as he rolled his head to the right to look at her. 

She plucked up his hesitant right hand and entwined her fingers with his to help with what she was going to say next. He didn’t pull away. 

She was recalling his episode in the clearing, the torturous screams of the man who had been ignited with the flames of the Amaterasu. She spoke for him and others like him now, even if he didn’t deserve her representation. But it wasn’t on their behalf that she chose to do so. She recalled his words to her in Konoha after he discovered her collaborative plan with Gaara to be used as bait: ‘If something happened to you, I don’t know who I would become again.’ She loved Sasuke. Cared about Sasuke. She needed to say this for his sake more than anyone’s. She wouldn’t be the person responsible for his moral deterioration.

“I don’t want to become a detriment to you, Sasuke. I don’t want to be what breaks you. Earlier—” she stumbled, casting her eyes down at the narrow space of fire-lit ground between them. “It was all too familiar.”

“I know.” He responded quickly, unwilling to let her give voice to his actions any further. Sakura realized it was an attempt to keep his sins within his own personal head so that neither of them had to bear witness to them a second time. “It’s a part of me. No matter how hard I try to eradicate it, there’s a monster in here.” He brought her hand to his chest. “And we both know what he’s capable of. Even now, I don’t feel regret when I should. I have absolutely no desire to apologize for my actions tonight. But that look on your face is the same expression you looked at me all the times I’ve been lost. I don’t want to see that anymore.” 

“You’re not a monster,” she stated as a fact, her focus hung upon that derogatory word. “Naruto and I will not let you be a monster. Even if you were to fall again, we would force you up. We will not let you become lost again.”

“I know,” he breathed, suddenly going very still and gazing at her as if the truth of her words were the only thing allowing him to cling to sanity. “It’s why I can choose you and the world will not pay for it.”

Using their conjoined hands, Sasuke tugged her toward him slowly, his fingers releasing her to find the back of her neck. His fingers were calloused but warm, hooking into the vertebrae of her spine like his fingertips were just another part of her—like they belonged there just as much as her spinal cord or her skin or her hair. She would let him permanently bond them there if only he never stopped touching her. 

“Three days ago, you told me you weren’t going anywhere. But you left anyway.” His words were a shared breath between them, so close that Sakura could taste the abandoned shapes of them. 

Sakura recalled the moment Sasuke talked about, a broken promise she had given him in their shared sleeping quarters in Sunagakure. A promise she had stamped with a peck on his lips and a promise he had accepted with a rare smile and the decision to brand the promise into her lips more fully.

“I know. I’m sorry,” she whispered, feeling ashamed despite all her reasoning.

“Can I remind you why you said it?” It was a question. And Sakura instantly recalled her reasoning back then: ‘I can finally do this.’ But Sasuke wasn’t going to push her without her consent, and Sakura realized his request was an attempt to give her voice back the power so many women didn’t have, the power that other men would have tried to take from her if she had stayed in that brothel.  

Sakura held her breath and nodded, and then his mouth met hers, slowly, carefully, parting them with his own. Sakura didn’t need to be fluent in the script of Sasuke Uchiha—nobody who bore witness to this moment would—in order to grasp the intensity of how he truly felt about her.

.

.

.

When their kissing had evolved, Sasuke had stilled the desperate hand that had slid across his cheek and into his hair. It had been so difficult to once again be the one to halt something that he had started, but Sasuke had to stop. He wouldn’t be able to bring himself to do anything more. Not after what he’d seen tonight. Not after he had watched Sakura in that vision, pirouetted in front of ravenous men like she could be any of theirs to handle, to claim, to devour. 

Sasuke couldn’t touch Sakura in the ways he desperately wanted to in this moment, because he couldn’t distinguish the color of his wants from the various shades of cravings of those men. He couldn’t see the difference between himself and them in this instant, because Sasuke had begun to desire her just as feverishly, just as frenziedly. His eyes had lingered over the planes of her body just as theirs had. Sasuke couldn’t erase the words from his mind that were whispered to her as she was being bloodily fondled before his very eyes: “But he won’t mind if I have my fun with you first before he gets here.” And the rage returned at the thought of it and that type of rage would disappoint Sakura. It disappointed himself. He didn’t want to be with her in this way right now feeling how he did. He didn’t want to be able to still feel those emotions as he attempted to smother them with his own desires of her. It would be the same as tangling threads together: a blue cord of worry, a black fiber of icy wrath, the blaring red string of his love for her, the violet twine of possessiveness, a white piercing strand that Sasuke couldn’t identify as need, hunger, or desire… He wouldn’t be able to sort them out in time and touching her with a greedy hand would stamp all those interwoven emotions into his memory forever, and Sasuke didn’t want his memory of such actions with Sakura tainted in his mind. 

“What’s wrong,” she asked when he broke their contact just before it had really started, his forehead falling against hers. She misunderstood his labored breathing, hand moving to his forehead. “Are you okay? Is it your Rinnegan?”

The question reminded Sasuke of his weariness. Both of their current states and exhaustions. He always seemed to forget how tired he was when his lips would meet hers. Her breath gave him life. He brought her against him until her chin rested on his right shoulder like a bird returning to its nest, as if her chin belonged to that very spot, and Sasuke buried his face into her neck just to inhale her in. They both smelled damp, like mud and rainwater, but there wasn’t a man alive that had worshiped a scent like Sasuke did now. Because it meant that she was alive, here with him in a cave he had once refuged, not knowing then that he would return to this very spot and hold another person urgently as if the very purpose of his existence was so that he would end up here again, with her. 

“Sasuke?” he heard Sakura whisper when he became lost in his silent reverence of her. 

“Hn,” he responded in the crook of her neck, not ready to pull back and face her. He was afraid he’d get lost in her liquified green eyes and lose his resolve. 

Her delicate fingers came up his neck to touch the black, feathered tips of his hair. “Maybe you should try to get some sleep. I’ll take first watch—”

But Sasuke was already pulling her to the ground next to him, the small fire warm against their skin. He turned Sakura so that she was closer to the heat and Sasuke curled her into himself, trapping her back to his chest. “Only if you sleep, too,” came his response. “No one will be able to find us here.”

Even with her back to him, Sasuke could feel the smile spreading across her face as they lay together, tangled and sleeping, for the very first time. Sasuke felt lucky to be doing so. And as he dozed off beside her, he tried not to think of her in the ways of despicable men, despite how tempting it was to do so with her in this proximity, wearing his clothes as if it were already the after. He buried his nose into her half-dyed hair, frowning at the dulled shade of it. He found her neck instead and inhaled until sleep found him.

. . .

When Sasuke roused sometime later, the lack of her body against his was almost painful despite the novelty of it. As if their bodies where they had lain touching had been sewn together while they slept, and Sakura had risen at some point, unknowingly cleaving the delicately fabricated web between them. Sasuke sucked in a panicked breath, the fire now extinguished and leaving nothing but a consuming blackness that Sasuke desperately tried to adjust his eyes to. 

“Sakura,” he rasped, his throat dry from disuse. How long exactly had he been sleeping? Hours? Days? He had no sense of knowing in this submerged world of black that left you feeling as if your soul simply floated in an abyss somewhere free of time and space. Thankfully, his eyes adjusted, and he could make out a few isolated stars puncturing through the craig above. By the lack of the deafening sound of collapsing water, Sasuke assumed that the waterfall had lessened, most of the floodwaters now pooling in the cave and flowing to the exit. Asleep for the day, then, Sasuke concluded.

“Over here,” Sakura calls out, somewhere across the cavern, her voice skipping across the water like a thrown stone. Sasuke couldn’t help but focus more on the distance than the direction. It was much farther than Sasuke would have ever liked it. His panic gave way to a small irritation as her tone seemed absolutely confident and unharmed. Sasuke recalled his irrational fear the last time she had snuck off on her own while they had slept in the forest between Konoha and Suna. And then again in Kaguya’s tower. Sasuke was starting to realize this was an annoying habit of hers. He huffed to himself as he rose to his feet, adorning his now-dry cloak.

“There’s a glow,” she spoke again and Sasuke traced her echo across the river. Some of his chakra had returned and when Sasuke’s feet met the edge of water, he summoned his energy to the bottoms of his feet to walk across the surface to where she stood. “Just over there. Do you see it?”

When Sasuke neared her, the glow she claimed to see began to register in his vision. A distant sphere of blue light somewhere farther down a tunnel. And then Sasuke was remembering the sight he beheld the first and only time he had come here to hunt Kaguya. He had forgotten about it, since he had learned that the natural phenomenon bore no connection to the Otsusuki race. 

Reaching out to search for his hand, Sakura asked, “What do you think it is? A jutsu?”

And Sasuke realized in that moment what had caused her to tear away from him in his sleep. Sakura thought they had been found, the faint glow a sign that someone was performing a light release through the tunnel. 

Sasuke smirked to himself in the dark, knowing the truth of the light would be a welcome surprise for once. “Come. I’ll show you.”

.

.

.

When they reached the mouth of the cave, Sakura still only saw an indistinct glow coming from an angle farther down the tunnel. It was a vibrant blue-green and it became brighter as she followed Sasuke, clutching desperately at the fingers of his hand, unsure of what they would soon face. 

Sasuke rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand to reassure her and Sakura tried not to let the affectionate action distract her. He was surprising her, Sakura admitted to herself, more and more every day, as he slowly let his guard fall, the pretenses drop, the ice melt away for her. She had never slept so contentedly as she had in Sasuke’s embrace, only broken moments ago. Her entire life, she had reached across her bed, her bed roll, the forest ground whenever she woke in the dead of night, fingers searching for the outline of a person who had never really been next to her, but who her heart told her that should be. As if the delusion of her passion was real and existed between the realm of sleep and wakefulness, an imprint belonging to someone from an alternative universe still etched into the space beside her, only available to her in the subconscious. How right it had felt for Sasuke to nestle his nose into the back of her neck, as if Sakura’s very soul had known all along that the lover of her intuition had a face, had a name she already knew and called out for, but that only time separated them for this long. 

Rounding the corner, Sakura refocused her thoughts on the illumination and gasped at what she beheld before her. A galaxy worth of stars hung above her, twinkling like distant blue supergiants in an abyss of black. Sakura’s mouth dropped at the spectacle, astounded by the millions of tiny orbs of light splayed beautifully across the onyx walls and tops of the tunnel. 

“What are they?” Sakura finally asked, glancing to Sasuke’s face, now alight with the blue-green light, his black eyes a mirroring universe for the pinpricks of fluorescence to glow against. 

He smirked and confessed. “I’m not entirely sure you will want to know.”

Because they weren’t stars. Of course, they weren’t, being thousands of feet deep inside a mountain cave made that an impossibility. As Sakura observed them carefully, walking forward on the glimmering water, Sasuke in tow, she began to notice the fidgeting movement of the lights. Thin, sparkling, silk-like strands hung from each light, every star bearing a comet's tail that made them look as if they were shooting up toward a sky they would never reach. It became clear to Sakura suddenly that this was an organism— many living organisms.

“I suspect bioluminescence is at play?” Sakura asked as she immediately assessed the sight with a medic’s mind. 

Sasuke nodded in confirmation, and Sakura saw the gleam of approval in his eyes, as if he were impressed that she solved it so swiftly. “When I stumbled upon them the first time, it took me a minute to realize what they were. When I came here searching for the Otsusuki race, they caught my attention at first, but I dismissed them after I realized they were of no relevance. I had forgotten about them until now.”

“How on earth could you forget such a sight?” Sakura questioned him, eyes roaming the ceiling as she paced forward once again, her neck straining to hold her head as she stared. “I’ll think of it every night. When I saw them, I thought of stars. But now when I see stars, I’ll think of them.”

Sasuke rubbed the back of his head, and Sakura could tell he was hesitant to ruin the moment with further details. “It can’t be that bad. Are they insects? I’m a shinobi, Sasuke, and a medic. Such things don’t bother me.”

The Uchiha smirked at her again and Sakura was hopelessly falling for that rogue smirk. She hoped he would do it for her the rest of his life. “Worms,” Sasuke revealed. “Larva, actually. And that’s mucus and excrement hanging from the ceilings.”

Sakura’s mouth dropped, not in disgust, but in absolute awe that there were threads of mucus hanging as long as two feet from the ceiling at a distance she could never reach unless chakra came into play. Sakura’s medical nature had her standing on her toes to look closer. Instinctively, she wanted to take samples, research them, and learn all about the ezymes responsible. 

She heard Sasuke’s signature half-laugh, the ejection of air through his nose, the “hmph” resounding in his throat as she appeared to be completely unbothered by the truth of what she was seeing. Sakura didn’t care what it was. It was no less unusual than learning that stars were giant orbs of floating rock and gas giants. 

“The light is predatory,” Sasuke informed her again, but Sakura had already guessed as much. “To draw moths and other insects to their flaming blue light. The mucus acts like a spider’s web.” 

“Fascinating,” Sakura marveled, grinning and pulling Sasuke closer to further inspect one particular cluster of mucus strands that suspended on a low hanging rock. 

“Ironically, like you,” he teased, pulling her back against him as she faced the depthless tunnel, the lights a never-ending trail into the void.

She laughed, elbowing him in the side, “Are you calling me an insect?”

“Insects are annoying,” he goaded, and Sakura realized she would have punched anyone else, but the tongue-in-cheek from his lips was like the saccharine additive she put in kids’ medicine. 

She spun around in his arm, sending him a grinning glare. “Don’t make me give you another black eye.”

His smirk turned into a feral smile and the sight of it left Sakura breathless. He was so beautiful. More beautiful than the glowing worms. More beautiful than the cosmos. Who was she kidding? It wouldn’t be the stars or the larva that she thought of each night before she slept. It would be this smile. This moment between them as they lay hidden from the rest of the world, hundreds of feet underground in their own starry space and time.

The air stilled between them as both their smiles fell away. Sakura couldn’t help herself and she knew Sasuke could immediately sense what she was about to say. She would say it again, though, with the stars that existed below a mountain to witness. “I love you,” she breathed, staring into his glass-like eyes. “I want to tell you now, so that every time you see the stars at night without me, you’ll remember.”

And something snapped in Sasuke’s expression, a carefully constructed guard that Sakura didn’t even know was there. Because his mouth was on hers. Gently at first and then so very hungrily. Sakura was surprised at the fervor of the kiss. Like an inevitable collision that they had both anticipated for so long. And he wasn’t stopping. And she wasn’t stopping. Tangling her fingers in his hair as he guided her to the wall where the water turned into shoreline. She hadn’t even known there was a spot high enough out of the water to sit, but Sakura was soon placed upon it and she let out a gasp when Sasuke released her lips to press his open mouth against the throbbing of her pulse in her carotid artery. She bit her lip to hold in the sound she wanted to moan as the heat of his tongue brushed against it, and then further down, until he was peppering kisses along her clavicle. He was moving slowly despite Sakura’s reassuring fist in his hair. It felt like a burnt offering to her body. The most delicious string of fire igniting a path along her skin. She bit her lip harder to stop herself from making the noises she knew would flood from her mouth. And Sasuke realized what she was doing and returned to her mouth, freeing her lip from herself as he pulled it between his own teeth. The sound she had held back until now escaped into his mouth and he swallowed it as if he wanted to taste the sound. 

The glowing spectacle around them was forgotten because it paled in comparison to what was finally happening between them, but Sakura tried not to get ahead of herself. Sakura had gotten her hopes up once before, believing their progression would lead to the inevitable, the release of years of sexual tension and pining. But Sasuke had slowed the last time she had hoped, halted their intoxicating, careening fall, just as he was doing now. Kissed once more. Waited. Then just once again more as if he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to do it again once he regained some control over himself. And then stopped, looking to her face, anxious of her reaction. 

“Don’t stop,” she pleaded as he stilled. “Please don’t stop. Just this once.” 

“I can’t do this without knowing that if I had just—” he breathes heavily, trying to fumble for the words that had never come to him naturally. “I have to be sure. I need you to be sure. I’ll never forgive myself if this makes you suffer.”

“The only thing making me suffer is you kissing me like that and then stopping.” It was simultaneously a hiss and a plea. 

In the glowing dampness of the cave, Sakura could see her words registering in his starry eyes and the smirk playing at the corner of his freshly abrased lips, but he grew serious again before it could spread into something more. “We won’t be able to go back from this. This life you’ll be choosing. If I am your choice—I’m terrified you’ll come to regret it.”

And Sakura realized what he was trying to say. What crossing this line for him would mean. That it wouldn’t be ‘just this once.’ It would mean them. This act would make it impossible for him to deny that they were together, officially. Maybe forever.

“I have already chosen you a thousand times,” Sakura sighed, clutching his cheek with the palm of her hand and bringing their faces closer together. “The only thing I will regret is knowing we were so close, but we chose to stop.” She glances up to the celestial larva above them, and Sasuke follows her gaze. “Even if we spend our lives like orbiting stars, passing one another in the night…The miniscule amount of time I spend next to you will be more than I would want with anyone else.”

Sasuke’s eyes soften. She watches his resolve waver. “I’m not very much like a star, unless black holes count,” he states sarcastically, punctuating his frank admission with the slowest of kisses. The kind that wanted to feel every microscopic inch and relish in every millisecond it took to join their mouths, just in case she changed her mind. Instead, Sakura wanted to tell him that she believed he was her sun, a central point in the glazy that captured her with its immense gravity, a sun that grew warmer as it approached her. 

.

.

.

She had said, “Just this once.” And Sasuke had internally flinched at such words because that’s exactly what he was afraid of: their combined inability to leave it at “once.” It was never going to be just once between them and crossing this line would be rolling the snowball down the hill. It would be igniting the bang to the universe of them. Once Sasuke had her, he knew he would crave her forever afterward, and the rest of what came with it: the relationship, the label, a life with her. He would want everything as badly as he had ever wanted revenge or to find the Otsusuki race. 

This past month traveling with Sakura, Sasuke had been like a man wandering the desert, starved of water, and following the mirage of a future, seeing it before him in the distance, telling himself he could have it, have her if he only reached out and grabbed it. That he might be able to choose Sakura after all. And that’s what Sasuke had been doing, stepping one foot in front of the other toward the mirage knowing that it could very possibly not turn out to be the reality he hoped for, but wanting it badly all the same. 

And now this beautiful mirage was pulling his mouth to hers again, offering to become substantial. To give him a drink of her.  And Sasuke knew it was better not to drink, because he was always going to be that man in the desert, unable to grasp an ever-fleeting illusion of happiness. But Sasuke also knew that if he got a taste of her, he would drink and drink and drink and want more, and he would suffer in the desert of his future knowing she was out there, and he couldn’t even see the mirage of her anymore. It was better for him not to even taste her. 

But she had gone and said that, the devotion of two celestial bodies orbiting around their common center of mass, reuniting as time allowed them. And Sasuke had decided at this moment that until the time came where their orbits were ripped apart, Sasuke was going to love her, and spend every day waiting for their orbits to align again.

Her fingers pulled at his shirt and lifted it from his skin, and Sasuke sucked in a breath as her fingertips met the coils of his flesh beneath the fabric. He didn’t stop her because like any man wandering the desert of loneliness, stumbling upon the oasis of love and happiness, Sasuke was going to drink because he needed her so badly it physically hurt. And he wasn’t going to be able to stop drinking until he was satiated. 

He breathed her in, knowing his resolve was gone. Shuddering with anticipation, Sasuke cupped her knees and pushed her back further along the ridge, following up after her. “We can start with once,” he breathed as he found her mouth again. And like a starved man, he drank.

In between their exploration of one another, their combined sighs and gasps that echoed off the cave walls, Sasuke made loved to her for the first time, both of their first times, ever, but it was such an inconsequential term for what they were experiencing. They both realized they weren’t as inexperienced as they had thought. Sasuke was both amazed and not surprised to find that they were both fast learners, but Sakura was obviously an academic with a complete understanding of anatomy. And Sasuke delighted in discovering the truth of what his instincts led him toward. 

“Wait,” he pleaded before it evolves further. “I have to tell you. That I love you. You must already know, but I have to tell you now. Before.” 

Tears began to brim her eyelids after he said it. She doesn’t need a further declaration, his worship of her body speaking beyond what words are even capable of. 

And as soon as their bodies finally align, joining together, Sasuke thinks faintly somewhere in the back of his mind about orbits aligning and how the wait between orbits would be worth it if they always came together in this way at the end of it. Finally uniting into one solid, burning star. And then, if Sasuke had anything to say about it, their two orbits would fly off their trajectories and collide as they were now. Sasuke didn’t know collisions could be this beautiful. Absolutely nebulas.

 “I love you, too,” she breathed into his mouth as they break into a million pieces together. 

In the vast cathedral of blue green celestial after, as Sasuke made up for the slow and tender kisses he had skipped for other forms of reverence, he reached behind her to trace between her shoulder blades. The crest, an uchiwa fan had never belonged on any Uchiha’s back the way it did on the woman of his choosing, the woman that Sasuke Uchiha loved.

“What are you doing?” Sakura gasped, the realization of what he was tracing dawning on her. “That symbol—“

“I’m making my vow to you in this underground temple,” he whispers unapologetically, never as sure of any other words he had ever spoken to her before. “I told you what this would mean. That there would be no going back” 

Sakura’s green eyes widened, as she lets out a whispered “What?”

He only pulls her closer, not retracting his statement despite her effort to give him a chance to take it all back, to clarify. “How do the words go?” 

Sakura breaks into a sob as she buries her tear-streaked face into his neck and murmurs, “I am yours. And you are mine?” He can tell she can’t even believe this promise he was making her to be true. Because she had dreamed of it all her life and now it was happening.

“Those ones.” He leans forward and kisses her softly, suddenly sorry for the relentless pace of their first time. He would make everything up to her, including all his previous wrongs, in all the ways only a lover could, a husband.They had forever, didn’t they, even if it would be few and far between. A life with her was no longer a mirage in the desert. What was the next line? Ah, “Until death,” he announces to the air around them, voices it aloud for her so she will never forget the memory. He rubs the center of her forehead with his thumb. “Good thing that stars take forever to die.”

[throughtrialbyfire]

“Cycle of the Serpent”

Chapter 24 - Fort Hraggstad

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preview:

  Fort Hraggstad, once an outpost meant to fortify the roads against bandits and their throngs, had been reduced to an outcropping of stone clinging to the cliffsides of Haafingar Hold with bone-frail fingers. The roads, congealed with mud and snow to create a slush that pervaded the pathways towards the fortress, sucked at the bottom of the trios boots like the tendrils of Hermorah beneath the seas maddening waves.    Wyndrelis drew in a breath and crept silently behind his companions. The mountain air, familiar and thin, eased itself into his lungs. His home town had been deep into the mountains of Cheydinhal county, where the lush green gave way to thick stone and craggy cliffs, northern flowers of Skyrim familiar in their shapes. He sent a quick glance to Athenath, who seemed to be struggling against the trudge up the paths from their huffed murmurs and subtle puckering of their chin, the smallest indicator of a pout, much to the stifled amusement of the Dunmer. Then, he made the slow shift of his eyes to Emeros, the grave intensity of his amber gaze outmatched by the slow, cautious pace he took in his stride. The Bosmer knew the sort of work they were getting into, whose hands they were dirtying theirs for. And by his posture and his subdued scowl, his aim was to get this over with and pretend the work was not for Tullius, but for his companions, and solely them.   The sun rose like a draugr from a coffin, the waves of the sea anxious paces along the cliffs and marshy shorelines. Quick meals had in the inn and supplies packed, the three elves barely shed a word as they got ready. The journey would take roughly half the day, at least. Wyndrelis observed the grave looks on his friends faces and wondered how they would fare when they approached the fort. None of them thought themselves ready to do this, truth be told. He certainly didn't. But choice wasn't a luxury they could afford. And when Emeros outlined the quickest route to and from the fort, Wyndrelis merely peered down at the paper and gave approving nods, while Athenath tucked their tambourine inside the chest at the end of the bed, along with any other items the elves may want to leave behind for now.   They'd begun the hike up the ancient pathways early that morning, when uneasy clouds ghosted the growing blue of the skies. The waters tossed up the carcasses of albatross birds shot down by practicing Imperial archers, and the mudcrabs fed off the rotted remains. The stretch of road the group had elected to take wound them along slick and well-worn stone paths, each flinching at the sound of wildlife out of sight, keenly aware of the attention of any living creatures in this part of Haafingar. They were far and away from any help, no guards to save them should they be cornered by a pack of wolves on the mountainside. The forests thickened with pines, swaying on their rakish centers in ways that made Wyndrelis uneasy. The mage pushed his glasses up his nose, his breath creating clouds of fog that warmed his face as he walked through them, white irises skimming the landscape. Emeros clutched the map, nails digging into its papery surface.   The Dunmer fanned his fingers between lengths of his raven-dark hair, pushing the feathery strands against the winds that tousled it around the back of his neck, tickling the skin. He cursed quietly, but knew it was no use. Here, the wind was a perpetual thing, only cut by the rail-thin trees pushing up through the snow like needles through an incision.    He grimaced. Scrunched his nose.

{ read on ao3 }

[murderandcoffee]

what's your story about? i saw your post about your friends not reading it and i'm curious! do you have any snippets you wanna share?

it's a fantasy story about a royal heir who, in order to be viable as the next ruler of her kingdom, must complete her education in a neutral territory located between the four kingdoms of her homeland. however, a war between her kingdom and one of its neighbors forces her to attend the academy under a false name, with only a handful of people aware of who she really is. during her stay at the academy, the resurgence of the war, the outing of her identity, and the uncovering of a long-buried evil all threaten her life, as well as the lives of those she cares about.

I know that's vague, but if I go into much more detail I will literally rant for an hour fjdskalfjsdk

here are the introductions of a couple of the main cast of characters! (under the cut)

Theo knew that he shouldn’t go any farther. The caves beneath the Academy were dangerous to be in, even for those who knew them well. Cave-ins, rock slides, and floods could happen in the blink of an eye, and if he was caught in one, Theo’s body wouldn’t be found for months, years, decades. But Kings, did he want to keep going. The light of his lantern illuminated a hole in the wall before him that was just wide enough for him to squeeze his shoulders through, and which had definitely not been exposed the last time he was here. From the way the light was swallowed up in the next cavern, he was sure that it was sizable. A place like this was exactly where brutes liked to lay their eggs, tucked away safely deep underground. Theo could hear his mother’s voice in his head, reprimanding him for doing something as foolish as what he was about to do. He’d gotten hurt in the caves dozens of times before, and each time his mother had forbidden him from going back into them, but curiosity always got the better of him. It was his duty, wasn’t it? Even with the Academy’s efforts, dragons still only numbered in the hundreds. Theo had to do whatever he could to find viable eggs in order to conserve the species. So, Theo thrust the arm that held the lantern into the hole in the wall, found a place to set the lantern down, and proceeded to wriggle into the hole head-first. The process took him a couple of minutes—he didn’t want to tear his sweater, as it was awfully comfortable, and one of his favorite colors—but after much cursing, panting, and squirming, he slid to the cool stone floor on the other side. Theo allowed himself to regain his breath before he stood, grabbed his lantern, and looked around.

...

Cait had only seen dragons a handful of times before. Their migratory path rarely brought them far enough north for her to glimpse them rollicking through the skies or darting between boulders and trees in the vast forests that engulfed her home. The weather was often too cold for the dragons to be comfortable, and the mountain winds were treacherous. But there had been a few years, scattered here and there, when the city bells had rung an uncommon, exuberant song that called the people out into the streets, where they all turned their gazes skyward and watched as glimmering figures danced in and out of the clouds. The last time Cait had seen the dragons, she had been just shy of fourteen. Now, seven years later, she tilted her head back and followed the path of a long-necked dragon with scales that were the same shade as the early spring growth on the trees below it. The dragon circled like a carrion bird before folding its wings in and diving, hurtling down towards the bottom of the valley that cradled them. It disappeared below the tree line, swift as an arrow. Cait smiled. A hand snatched Cait’s wrist, its grip firm and steadying, and Cait didn’t even realize she’d been falling until Toby righted her. With a sigh, he said, “Please watch where you’re going. That’s the second time you’ve nearly tumbled right down the mountainside.” The stones that had come loose beneath Cait’s step rolled away, disappearing into the grass. The valleyside wasn’t exceptionally steep right here, but a fall like that would have been by no means pleasant. Cait scooted closer to the center of the path. Toby, always vigilant, moved between her and the edge. Tobias Fischer, Cait’s personal guard, best friend, and brother in every way but blood, towered over Cait by nearly a foot. He was a very handsome man—he had broad shoulders, a strong jaw, warm brown eyes surrounded by a faint dusting of freckles, thick ruddy hair, and an old scar across one tan cheek that was impossible to see except for when the lighting was just right. His posture was impeccable, and at a glance he looked meaner than a mountain lion. Cait loved him dearly. “You can’t just expect me to not look at the dragons,” she said after a minute of walking in silence. “I would never ask you to not look at the dragons,” Toby replied evenly. “However, if you almost fall into a ravine again, you will be looking at the dragons from the safety of the wagon.”

[momentspassd]

❝ for the spirit of adventure to keep alive the soul ❞

Age: 45

Gender & Pronouns: cis female & she/her

Neighborhood: Forest Lake

Occupation: alpinist & professional photographer

Positive traits: adventurous, dreamer, empathetic, & deep

Negative traits: stubborn, wandering, detached, & unsatisfied 

Length of time in Blue Harbor: just arrived!

Faceclaim: Rachel McAdams

mismatched furniture, a stack of unsent letters held together with fraying string, worn photographs tucked into the pillowcase, sentimental jewelry and thrifted sweaters two sizes too big; hard conversations while hiding in an unfilled tub, chugging another sip just to speak, home isn’t a house it’s where your heart is, facing down ghosts and demons no matter how bleak the outcome might seem; messy hair, haunted eyes and vacant stares, a heart that aches with too much want and longing, goodbyes she’ll forever be regretting; working overtime to avoid being alone, leaving texts on read and not answering the phone; figuring shit out while half falling apart, torn between old love and a fresh start; scattered cups of coffee and the dregs of red wine staining the bottom of a glass, bitten lips, bloodshot eyes, hot baths, dried tears on a pillow and open boxes of photographs, refusing to cry.  

infidelity tw, death tw

Born in Tennessee and raised in Big Sky Country, Montana had a profound effect on Selina. Her father had a solid career as an architect and builder, working with a development to build multi-million dollar homes in the the Spanish Peaks. It was a project that had the Vales moving from Tennessee when Selina was barely two. She and her three older brothers grew up loving the wide open spaces, the picturesque mountain backdrop that surrounded them, and all the possibilities of endless adventure that was in abundance. With four children all somewhat close in age Selina's mother was the stay at home type. Something that worked for the best regardless given that the Vale children had boundless energy.

At the tender age of twelve, approaching her formative years, Selina seemed to find her meaning and purpose in life. It was rather young for anyone to find their calling yet it came for the small blonde girl when tagging along with her brothers during one of their Boy Scout's trip. With her father as one of the chaperones for the weekend camping trip there was really no way little Selina was going to sit back at home. Not when all of them were in the thick of adventure. Something she craved so heavily. Luckily families were aloud to come along for camping and hiking as it was where she immediately fell in love with climbing mountains. Aging into her teens Selina had big dreams and huge goals set for her path ahead in life, and already at thirteen she was working on them. She became a junior ranger and park/mountain guide and spent her teenage years on the peaks and in the wilderness of Montana.

School was different, she just couldn't force herself to care about it. Selina wanted to be out in the world and thankfully both her father and one of her brothers share the very same passion with her that she held dearly within her adventurous heart. Much to her mother's dismay, her father would often pick up Selina and her brother, excusing them from school and take them off to the mountains so that they could do climbs. At first they started with all the top summits in the United States, then they began to branch out and travel to different parts of the world to climb the tallest mountains. When her brother had graduated high school he'd gone on to become a firefighter and his adult life took him away from the frequency of their adventures together. That left it to be mostly Selina and her father conquering mountains as they took trips together. It was the ultimate bonding experience.

At just twenty years of age Selina had already topped three of the seven summits. Usually she kept a journal and wrote about her experiences, and not only the climb would be the subject, but also the entire adventure surrounding the trip. The focus was certainly on the ascent up each mountain, she took pictures and eventually had put everything onto a blog and shared her detailed experiences with the world. Or whatever audience she could capture. Often magazines, newspapers, and publications would reach out in the hopes of sharing her experiences. Before she'd graduated university Selina had been fortunate to have her words and photos published in the likes of National Geographic and beyond. Many of her photographs were sold and published, plenty were made it to prints that were sold as artwork and Selina was astonished by how, without ever intentionally trying, she'd carved out a career for herself that had everything to do with her passion. Post university Selina completed three more summits in three years and began a career as a professional photographer and sometimes writer, travel blogger.

When she'd gone off to university Selina had found herself in another new adventure and experience, a part of herself that she'd never explored or opened up to, always having been content with her life the way it had been. She'd not only met someone and had fallen in love, they supported the passion Selina had for the world, for climbing, for constantly seeking new adventures. One thing the long-term relationship and her partner hadn't accounted for in entering into a union with her had been just how much it would keep Selina away. The fact that she was rarely home and seemed more in love with the mountains than anything else had taken a huge toll on the couple. Her partner couldn't always accompany Selina on the trips and they weren't a climber, at least not to her level, and they'd begun to drift apart. Selina wasn't aware that they'd begun a relationship with someone else and it wasn't something she'd find out until she'd completed the most difficult yet honorable challenge of her life.

Everest.  After preparing for a year, Remi finally made it to the most captivating and dangerous climb of her life.  The climb was nothing short of trying and challenging, tested her will and strength numerous times but Remi persevered through all hardships and made it into the exclusive Seven Summits Club.  She had never felt happier or more accomplished in her life, it was the most amazing feat to have tackled and conquered but arriving home a day early in surprise, Remi found her significant other in bed with another.  It was devastating but she understood after a long talk.  Their relationship was over and their love broken but Remi still had her work.  She stayed in DC for a while, writing up her stories and book, even went on a trip for the magazine but her life felt empty without having someone.  As independent as she was, Remi loved being in a relationship and having someone to be close to in that way so with the suggestion of a friend, she looked into relocating and giving herself a much needed fresh start. Denver was perfect with the Rocky Mountains right there, and so close to where she grew up that it seemed the right place to settle for at least a little while.

Everest. It'd taken an entire year to prepare for the most captivating and dangerous climb of her life. Summiting the greatest peak in the world had been nothing shy of trying and challenging, it tested her will and strength numerous times but Selina persevered through all the hardships and had made it in the exclusive Seven Summits Club. Standing at the top of the world, all accomplishments made and goals met, she'd never felt happier nor more fulfilled. It seemed such a great victory in her life would come at a cost, and that was arriving home little early to find her partner in bed with someone else. As devastating as it was, Selina understood after a long conversation and walked away without a fight. It was something that had taken her a long time to heal from, and to get through Selina threw herself into her work. Whether it was a photography excursion or writing up her adventures, she kept herself busy. Plus, there were always more mountains to climb and escape onto.

In the most random of places it seemed that Selina would find a connection once again, one that she was actually open to for more than something fleeting and easily dodged and moved away from— a forum. The message board for bird watching had only come to her attention because of of her nature photography had ended up there, some of the members having individually emailed her about some of her captures had drawn her to check it out. It went alone with nature, of course she loved wild life, and owls were among her favorite animals. So a few comments on a board, a post would turn into full-on debates. Then the debates and conversations would turn private through direct messaging. It was something that simply seemed to expand and expand, easily grown by how often it was watered and tended to. Never would Selina have imagined that she'd want to check a birding message board first thing every morning. But that was exactly what had happened. Until it had become even more personal and she and a person named Terry had started a courtship, unbeknownst to either of them.

Nearly a decade later, after having lived together and intermingling their families, the longest and most serious relationship Selina'd had fell apart. They had adventured together, once more she thought she'd found the one but even better, because Terry had actually seemed to appreciate what she did and what it meant to her. In the end, the downfall had been of Selina making the same mistakes. She prioritized her freedom and adventure and never realized how left behind and alone Terry had been made to feel. Instead of being able to fix the relationship, repair and put time into making things better, Selina was ripped to shreds by the person she'd considered herself common law married to. Suddenly nothing mattered anymore, what she'd thought had been her purpose and her calling had been reduce to playing with rocks by the person she loved more than anything, by the person she would've moved mountains for. Cut so deep by their end, Selina left quietly and without engaging in a fight.

The stop in Blue Harbor is due to her father dying and Selina fulfilling a last wish. He'd left a letter for Terry, someone he'd considered part of the family and had accepted wholeheartedly as Selina's partner, and she'd tracked her ex down to deliver it. There's no plan to stay, no plan to have a conversation, there's nothing to be nostalgic about. Terry was supposed to have been the one and that's not heartbreak that ever really stops bleeding. The one-two loss of Terry then her father has changed Selina some, made her more reserved and not so open with her love and energy anymore. No matter the great things she'd accomplished thus far in her life, it all has felt so empty now that there's been no one to genuinely share it all with.

[throwra3882]

TES Shiptober 2023 Dream

This is about Derkeethus. An interesting soulmate concept.

You fall asleep and wake up in another soulmate dream. You watch through your soulmate’s eyes as he swims through a river. Silvery fish flash in the water, vanishing into the colorful rocks on the bottom.

You watch as scaly, dark green arms cut through the water with ease, making his way to the shore before pulling himself out of the water, a knee flashing into your vision as he uses it to pull himself up onto the bank.

He stands, scanning the landscape, and you see mountains, old pine forests, clear, cold water.

He’s in Skyrim somewhere. You’re sure of it.

You’re wandering across Skyrim, trying to find that mountain view. A few more dreams, a few more hints. You can sense you’re getting closer. Then one time you fall asleep and wake in another soulmate dream. It’s dark. Is it nighttime? Your soulmate looks up, and there’s a thin stream of moonlight shining through a distant hole in the rock ceiling.

It reflects off the water on the floor, faintly illuminates the bars of a cage. He’s still looking up, but the image jostles, like he’s shaking, and you snap awake, surging to your feet, sleep forgotten.

Your soulmate’s trapped and in trouble. You have to go.

You come across a mining village. Darkwater Crossing. It’s not much. Just a few small buildings, a little campfire that the miners gather around at night, and of course, the mine. But there’s the cold stream, that mountain view. He lives here, you know it.

“Do you know where Derkeethus is?” a girl asks.

You gather as much information as you can and go searching for him.

You fight your way through the falmer when you hear a voice calling for you.

“Is there someone there? Please help! I’m down here!”

It takes a while, but you find the entrance to his cage and make it down to him. You’d recognize that shade of green anywhere.

You protect him on your way out, and he tucks himself behind you. He was equipped for a short swim, not a bloody fight out of a dark cave filled with twisted creatures.

He still doesn’t recognize you, even when you leave the darkness of the cave. Does he not dream of you? But then you see him staring at your hands, and you think he might. You decide not to take him away from his home. He’s not a fighter, your Derkeethus, but you’re building a home where he’ll be safe. Once it’s completed, you might ask him to move in. And if you spend more time staring at your reflection, well, you’re just making sure he’ll be able to recognize you when you return.

[yuniemaki]

The warmth of love

series: genshin impact pairing: beidou x ningguang rating: G genre: canon, fluff crossposted on AO3 Summary: Beidou surprises Ningguang in the lonely winter season.

Winter has a way of seeping through fur and skin, snugly settling into bone like water filling cracks in stone. Snow gently falls over Liyue Harbour, coating rooftops in a layer of fine white powder; the sun peeks from two ashen clouds like a shining pearl within a clamshell.

Ningguang draws her cloak tightly around her shoulders, watching her breaths escape in little puffs of warm air. The Jade Chamber is always particularly cold at this time of the year, when even stone cannot resist winter’s icy embrace. Her footsteps are light as she tiptoes to the window of her bedroom, peering out at the vast expanse of faded blue surrounding the tall peaks of Guyun Stone Forest. The air is crisp and fresh, but rests like frozen lace on her skin, delicate and cold.

A letter sits on her bedside table, its creases worn from constant folding and unfolding. It speaks of storms that do not match the tranquility before her eyes; it speaks of profuse apologies and white lies.

At the dressing table, Ningguang pulls her hair up into a bun, sliding a ginkgo hairpin through it. Her hair is the colour of snow still drifting onto the pavilions below, blanketing her balcony in an unblemished layer of white. When she reaches her office, she runs her fingers through her hair like how she slides them across the windowsill, brushing away the fine powder persistently gathering on its smooth surface.

Her secretaries are gone, having been dismissed for their annual break this winter. It is just the Tianquan, her mountainous pile of work, and the lonely visage of falling snow. 

The Crux Fleet encountered unexpected delays at sea, having left Port Ormos behind schedule. Winter has a way of seeping into the ocean, too, and this cruel mistress does not favour the fleet. When the Alcor docks at Liyue Harbour, she will see the first buds of spring.

Ningguang had hoped this year would be different. She had hoped that perhaps she could show Beidou how the winter sun shyly hides behind ashen clouds, or how the snow congeals on the balcony, glistening like her name. She had hoped that perhaps Beidou could point out the constellations in the night sky — the brightest they will ever be in Liyue — and tell her all about the celestial bodies that write their destinies in the heavens.

She catches a snowflake on her finger and watches it melt like the hope she still carries.

Well, she tells herself, moping will get her nowhere. Ningguang quells the loneliness with a deep breath, willing the cold to permeate her very being. She settles at the desk, picks up a scroll, and begins writing. Her brush dances across the parchment, each bold stroke a declaration of her will that can move mountains.

But it can do nothing to the sea, much to her chagrin.

A soft tap draws her attention to the open window. There, neatly tucked into the snow coating her windowsill, is a splash of rouge against pristine white. Slowly, Ningguang approaches the object, fingers brushing through icy snow to find a plain red packet. Within it lies a star carved from jade.

Her eyebrow raised, she holds up the star to the light, turning it around slowly in her fingers. It catches the sunlight and shimmers; she finds no flaw and presumes it was carved from a single piece of noctilucous jade. 

How puzzling— 

“Oh shi—”

Something suddenly shoots up from the bottom of the windowsill, slamming into her chin. Ningguang falls onto her butt with a groan, the jade star clattering across the floor. Before she can even open her mouth, the thing tips over the window and crashes into her with a thump, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

“Oof!” A gruff voice groans, and then: “Oh— oh crap!” 

The warm pressure lifts from her chest and a strong hand pulls her up by the shoulders. Ningguang groans, glaring daggers at a brunette wearing a red eyepatch over her left eye and covered in snow.

Beidou grins sheepishly, dusting flecks of snow off Ningguang’s qipao and adjusting her skewed ginkgo hairpin. “Hi, baobei.”

“You almost killed this baobei,” Ningguang deadpans as she massages her sore chin and wonders if it’s broken. Should she call Baizhu?

“You weren’t supposed to be standing at the window after opening the red packet,” Beidou argues, “You were supposed to go back to your desk so I could pop in. At least” — she scratches her head, releasing more snow onto her carpet — “that was the plan.”

Still rubbing her jaw, Ningguang stares at her blankly. “The plan? What plan?”

“The plan to surpri— oh shit, did I hit you?” The captain pauses, cradling her cheeks. 

“You tried to break my jaw, yes,” Ningguang mumbles, scowling as Beidou squishes her cheeks together. “Wuh— Beh-doh—”

“You look fine to me,” the pirate says, planting a kiss on her lips.

Ningguang’s cheeks burn. “And the letter?” she mutters, face now aflame, “Was that part of your plan?”

The wide grin on Beidou’s lips fades a little. “It wasn’t,” she says earnestly, wrapping her arms around her slender waist. “We were indeed going to miss winter — but the winds changed overnight. The tailwind was fierce, it carried us home in just a few days.”

Or perhaps, the gods heard our prayers.

Ningguang stares at this irksome yet lovable captain — this insane woman who decided she’d rather hang below her windowsill in winter and break in like some robber, instead of sending her a note and walking in through the front door. 

“Oh,” Beidou says, nodding at the jade star lying forgotten on the floor, “I guess you must’ve liked my gift too, since you were still at the window a whole thirty seconds after you opened it.”

“You only gave me thirty seconds to admire a star carved from noctilucous jade?” Ningguang replies primly, “That was an oversight on your part.”

“So you like it.” 

“I did not say that.” 

“Sure you did.” Beidou shrugs, spinning her around so that she faces the door. “Since I’m here, you ain’t gonna do work over the winter break, are ya?” the captain begins, ignoring Ningguang’s feeble protests as she steers the Tianquan out of the office by the shoulders. “Man, I’m hardly ever here in winter, I had no idea Liyue looks this pretty! Wonder what the night sky looks like from the chamber…”

There is also a warmth, Ningguang thinks, that seeps through fur and skin, snugly settling into bone like water filling cracks in stone. It is the kind of warmth that radiates from those who love as easily as they breathe, who laugh as easily as they blink. It is an unwavering warmth whose heat is as noticeable as a warm rock under the summer sun, yet melts winter ice with a single spark.

While Beidou gets the hot water running in her bathroom, Ningguang catches another snowflake on her finger. 

This time, it melts with the warmth of love.

[strengervinay]

Ever Wondered About the Kareri Lake Height?

Tucked away in the serene landscapes of Himachal Pradesh, Kareri Lake is a lesser-known gem that attracts adventurers and nature lovers alike. With its crystal-clear waters reflecting the towering Dhauladhar range, Kareri Lake offers a pristine retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life. 

But what makes this lake truly special is its impressive elevation. At an altitude of 2,950 metres, the Kareri Lake height not only adds to its allure but also makes the journey to this high-altitude wonder an unforgettable adventure.

The Allure of Kareri Himachal Pradesh

Kareri, a picturesque village located in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, serves as the starting point for the trek to Kareri Lake. 

Unlike more popular trekking destinations in Kareri Himachal Pradesh remains relatively untouched, offering a more peaceful and secluded experience for trekkers.

The trek to Kareri Lake is an adventure that takes you through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the region. Starting from Kareri village, the trail winds through lush forests and pastures, with the sounds of birds and the rustling of leaves accompanying you along the way. 

Exploring the Dharamshala Kareri Lake:  A Journey Through Natural Beauty

Dharamshala, located approximately 30 kilometres from Kareri village, is the perfect base for those planning to trek to Kareri Lake. Known for its rich Tibetan culture and the residence of the Dalai Lama, Dharamshala is a spiritual and cultural hub in Himachal Pradesh. 

Many trekkers choose to start their journey with the Dharamshala Kareri Lake, spending a day or two exploring the town’s cultural sites before heading out on the trail to Kareri. This route not only enhances the adventure but also provides a deeper connection to the serene landscapes and vibrant culture that define this part of Himachal Pradesh.

The Dharamshala Trek: A Moderate Challenge to Kareri Lake

The Dharamshala trek to Kareri Lake is moderately challenging, making it suitable for both seasoned trekkers and beginners with a reasonable level of fitness. 

The trail from Dharamshala to Kareri Lake covers approximately 9 kilometres from Kareri village and can be completed in 6-8 hours, depending on your pace and the weather conditions.

Reaching Kareri: A Rewarding High-Altitude Experience

Reaching the Kareri Lake height is a reward in itself. The sight of the pristine lake, with its clear waters reflecting the surrounding mountains, is nothing short of breathtaking. The lake is fed by melting snow from the Dhauladhar range, and its waters are incredibly clear, allowing you to see the smooth stones at the bottom.

The tranquillity of Kareri Lake is one of its most appealing features. Unlike more crowded trekking destinations in Himachal Pradesh, Kareri Lake remains relatively undiscovered, allowing you to enjoy the peaceful surroundings without the usual tourist hustle. The calm waters of the lake, the crisp mountain air, and the stunning views create a perfect setting for relaxation and reflection.

For those who wish to extend their adventure, there are several camping spots around Kareri Lake. Spending a night by the lake, under a sky full of stars, is an experience that adds to the magic of this high-altitude destination. The cold mountain air and the warmth of a campfire create a perfect contrast, making it an unforgettable part of your trek.

[amankingdomglitter]

Exploring Hidden Gems: Offbeat Destinations to Book Flights to

Book cheap flight tickets and hotels- https://cheaptravelfirst.com/

In a world where popular tourist destinations often steal the limelight, there lies a treasure trove of lesser-known gems waiting to be discovered. While iconic landmarks and bustling cities undoubtedly have their charm, there’s something uniquely enchanting about offbeat destinations that offer a glimpse into untouched beauty and authentic experiences. So, if you’re a traveler seeking to wander off the beaten path, here’s a curated list of hidden gems around the globe that are worth booking a flight to.

1. Chefchaouen, Morocco

Nestled in the foothills of the Rif Mountains in northern Morocco, Chefchaouen is a picturesque town renowned for its striking blue-washed buildings. Often referred to as the “Blue Pearl,” wandering through its narrow cobblestone streets feels like stepping into a surreal dreamscape. From browsing artisanal handicrafts in the medina to hiking in the surrounding countryside, Chefchaouen offers a perfect blend of cultural immersion and natural beauty.

2. Zhangjiajie, China

Tucked away in the Hunan province of China, Zhangjiajie is a realm of towering sandstone pillars, lush forests, and cascading waterfalls. This UNESCO World Heritage Site served as inspiration for the floating mountains in James Cameron’s blockbuster film, Avatar. Visitors can ride the Bailong Elevator, the world’s tallest outdoor elevator, for panoramic views, hike along the glass-bottomed walkways of Tianmen Mountain, or explore the otherworldly landscapes of the Yuanjiajie Scenic Area.

3. Lofoten Islands, Norway

Situated above the Arctic Circle, the Lofoten Islands boast dramatic fjords, towering peaks, and pristine beaches that defy expectations of Norway’s icy reputation. Whether you’re chasing the midnight sun in summer or the elusive Northern Lights in winter, Lofoten offers a myriad of outdoor adventures, including kayaking amidst rugged coastlines, hiking to remote fishing villages, and sampling freshly caught seafood in quaint seaside eateries.

4. Raja Ampat, Indonesia

For those seeking an underwater paradise, Raja Ampat in Indonesia is a diver’s utopia teeming with vibrant coral reefs, exotic marine life, and crystal-clear waters. Comprising over 1,500 small islands and cays, this remote archipelago is renowned for its unparalleled biodiversity, making it a mecca for snorkelers and scuba enthusiasts alike. Beyond the reefs, visitors can trek through lush rainforests, encounter indigenous tribes, and unwind on secluded beaches fringed with palm trees.

5. Svalbard, Norway

Venture to the northernmost inhabited region of Europe, and you’ll find Svalbard, a remote Arctic wilderness where polar bears outnumber humans. Despite its harsh climate, this archipelago offers intrepid travelers a chance to witness untouched landscapes, from vast glaciers to rugged mountains, and encounter unique wildlife, including reindeer, Arctic foxes, and walruses. Whether you’re embarking on a snowmobile safari, exploring abandoned mining towns, or witnessing the ethereal beauty of the Northern Lights, Svalbard promises an unforgettable adventure.

6. Socotra, Yemen

Located in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Somalia, Socotra is a surreal island that feels like a scene from another planet. Renowned for its otherworldly flora, including the iconic Dragon’s Blood Trees and umbrella-shaped Bottle Trees, Socotra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a biodiversity hotspot. Beyond its alien landscapes, visitors can explore pristine beaches, swim in natural pools, and delve into the island’s rich cultural heritage.

7. Bhutan

Nestled between India and China, the Kingdom of Bhutan is a land of breathtaking Himalayan landscapes, ancient monasteries, and vibrant Buddhist culture. With a strong emphasis on sustainable tourism and Gross National Happiness, Bhutan offers a unique travel experience unlike any other. From trekking through pristine valleys to attending colorful festivals and immersing in traditional Bhutanese hospitality, this Himalayan kingdom is a haven for mindful travelers seeking spiritual renewal and natural beauty.

8. Faroe Islands

Situated between Iceland and Norway, the Faroe Islands are an archipelago of rugged cliffs, grassy moorlands, and cascading waterfalls. Despite their remote location, these North Atlantic islands are easily accessible by air and offer an array of outdoor activities, from hiking along coastal trails to birdwatching at seabird colonies. With their dramatic landscapes and welcoming locals, the Faroe Islands are a hidden gem waiting to be explored.

In a world where travel has become synonymous with ticking off bucket list destinations, it’s easy to overlook the charm and allure of offbeat gems. However, by venturing beyond the familiar, travelers can uncover hidden treasures, forge authentic connections, and create memories that transcend the confines of tourist hotspots. So, the next time you’re planning a trip, consider booking a flight to one of these offbeat destinations and embark on a journey of discovery unlike any other.

[wisetheoristphilosopher]

Exploring Hidden Gems: Offbeat Destinations to Book Flights to

For more features please visit https://trailtravelz.com/

In a world where popular tourist destinations often steal the limelight, there lies a treasure trove of lesser-known gems waiting to be discovered. While iconic landmarks and bustling cities undoubtedly have their charm, there’s something uniquely enchanting about offbeat destinations that offer a glimpse into untouched beauty and authentic experiences. So, if you’re a traveler seeking to wander off the beaten path, here’s a curated list of hidden gems around the globe that are worth booking a flight to.

1. Chefchaouen, Morocco

Nestled in the foothills of the Rif Mountains in northern Morocco, Chefchaouen is a picturesque town renowned for its striking blue-washed buildings. Often referred to as the “Blue Pearl,” wandering through its narrow cobblestone streets feels like stepping into a surreal dreamscape. From browsing artisanal handicrafts in the medina to hiking in the surrounding countryside, Chefchaouen offers a perfect blend of cultural immersion and natural beauty.

2. Zhangjiajie, China

Tucked away in the Hunan province of China, Zhangjiajie is a realm of towering sandstone pillars, lush forests, and cascading waterfalls. This UNESCO World Heritage Site served as inspiration for the floating mountains in James Cameron’s blockbuster film, Avatar. Visitors can ride the Bailong Elevator, the world’s tallest outdoor elevator, for panoramic views, hike along the glass-bottomed walkways of Tianmen Mountain, or explore the otherworldly landscapes of the Yuanjiajie Scenic Area.

3. Lofoten Islands, Norway

Situated above the Arctic Circle, the Lofoten Islands boast dramatic fjords, towering peaks, and pristine beaches that defy expectations of Norway’s icy reputation. Whether you’re chasing the midnight sun in summer or the elusive Northern Lights in winter, Lofoten offers a myriad of outdoor adventures, including kayaking amidst rugged coastlines, hiking to remote fishing villages, and sampling freshly caught seafood in quaint seaside eateries.

4. Raja Ampat, Indonesia

For those seeking an underwater paradise, Raja Ampat in Indonesia is a diver’s utopia teeming with vibrant coral reefs, exotic marine life, and crystal-clear waters. Comprising over 1,500 small islands and cays, this remote archipelago is renowned for its unparalleled biodiversity, making it a mecca for snorkelers and scuba enthusiasts alike. Beyond the reefs, visitors can trek through lush rainforests, encounter indigenous tribes, and unwind on secluded beaches fringed with palm trees.

5. Svalbard, Norway

Venture to the northernmost inhabited region of Europe, and you’ll find Svalbard, a remote Arctic wilderness where polar bears outnumber humans. Despite its harsh climate, this archipelago offers intrepid travelers a chance to witness untouched landscapes, from vast glaciers to rugged mountains, and encounter unique wildlife, including reindeer, Arctic foxes, and walruses. Whether you’re embarking on a snowmobile safari, exploring abandoned mining towns, or witnessing the ethereal beauty of the Northern Lights, Svalbard promises an unforgettable adventure.

6. Socotra, Yemen

Located in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Somalia, Socotra is a surreal island that feels like a scene from another planet. Renowned for its otherworldly flora, including the iconic Dragon’s Blood Trees and umbrella-shaped Bottle Trees, Socotra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a biodiversity hotspot. Beyond its alien landscapes, visitors can explore pristine beaches, swim in natural pools, and delve into the island’s rich cultural heritage.

7. Bhutan

Nestled between India and China, the Kingdom of Bhutan is a land of breathtaking Himalayan landscapes, ancient monasteries, and vibrant Buddhist culture. With a strong emphasis on sustainable tourism and Gross National Happiness, Bhutan offers a unique travel experience unlike any other. From trekking through pristine valleys to attending colorful festivals and immersing in traditional Bhutanese hospitality, this Himalayan kingdom is a haven for mindful travelers seeking spiritual renewal and natural beauty.

8. Faroe Islands

Situated between Iceland and Norway, the Faroe Islands are an archipelago of rugged cliffs, grassy moorlands, and cascading waterfalls. Despite their remote location, these North Atlantic islands are easily accessible by air and offer an array of outdoor activities, from hiking along coastal trails to birdwatching at seabird colonies. With their dramatic landscapes and welcoming locals, the Faroe Islands are a hidden gem waiting to be explored.

In a world where travel has become synonymous with ticking off bucket list destinations, it’s easy to overlook the charm and allure of offbeat gems. However, by venturing beyond the familiar, travelers can uncover hidden treasures, forge authentic connections, and create memories that transcend the confines of tourist hotspots. So, the next time you’re planning a trip, consider booking a flight to one of these offbeat destinations and embark on a journey of discovery unlike any other.