#it occurred to me that the roc might transform back after it was killed

[postalninja]

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33. saccharine

When Prudence had off-handedly mentioned that she would prefer to be given the still-beating heart of her enemies over flowers any day, she'd meant it as a joke. Not that it wasn't true. The usual trappings of romance - chocolates, love poems and the like - did seem excessively trite and saccharine to her. Anyone who truly wanted to catch her attention would need to be a bit more imaginative than that. She'd never really thought of Corazon as an especially good listener, but he proved that he'd been paying attention after a particularly frustrating incident that had had Prudence letting out a string of curses directed at the Roc they'd been fighting. Not only had it dodged three of her Eldritch Blasts, but it had caught her with one of its talons - she hadn't been badly injured, luckily, but it had torn her dress and Prudence hated sewing. Of course, she could get Dob to cast mending on it if nothing else, but it was the principle of the thing! The point was, she loathed that stupid bird, and she was only too happy to see it dead. Then again, she'd been denied the satisfaction of delivering the coup de grace herself, as Egbert had happened to land a lucky hit with his mace, neatly transforming the monster into a lizard no bigger than a dinner plate before he unceremoniously stepped on it, putting a stop to its Prudence-focused tyranny. An unsatisfying end, to say the least. And she'd been stewing about it ever since. She was snappy and irritable as they made camp, so she kept to herself, stalking off into the woods a few dozen feet away so that she could launch Eldritch Blasts to her heart's content until her ire abated. The stump she'd been targeting was entirely blackened and only slightly on fire by the time she sighed and lowered her hands. "Hey, Prudence?" she heard Corazon venture from behind her, his voice uncharacteristically tentative. She turned, her eyes still blazing with irritation. He was leaning against a tree with affected casualness, trying so hard to look cool and unbothered, but tension radiated off of him like an aura. He was inspecting his fingernails intently enough that she wondered if he was expecting them to hand over information. "Yeah?" she called in return, her mouth already curling at the delicious awkwardness she could so clearly sense despite the pirate's best efforts. He strode forward, reaching a hand into his coat pocket and pulling out a folded handkerchief. "I've got something for you," Corazon replied, a tell-tale tremble in his otherwise confident tone as he unfolded the square of fabric. A brief look of distaste flickered over his expression as he picked up the tiny lump of flesh that was smeared onto its centre, his fingertips now sticky with blood. Prudence's eyes widened as she beheld the small but gruesome gift with interest. Even crushed as it was, she could easily recognize a creature's heart. "Is this from... ?" "That Roc, yeah," he confirmed with a shrug of one shoulder. "Figured you deserved a token from it, you know, considering how annoying it was. You seemed annoyed, anyway," he rambled, his gaze flicking anywhere but at her face. "Of course it's lizard-sized and squished, which is unfortunate and probably not nearly as impressive. And I suppose it's hardly 'still-beating' either, but it's the thought that counts, right? I was thinking of casting minor illusion to make it look like it was beating, but I figure you'd know the difference anyway and it might seem disingenuous-"

He cut off as Prudence grabbed him by the collar with both hands, his eyes startled as he finally met hers. Maybe it was the adrenaline from the fight and her residual anger still boiling under her skin, combined with Corazon's anxious energy and stupidly sweet sentiment, but Prudence couldn't help herself. She yanked him toward her until she had captured his mouth in an ardent kiss. It took a moment before he seemingly recovered from his shock enough to reciprocate. The bloody handkerchief fluttered to the ground, the unfortunate lizard heart thumping down with it as Corazon wrapped his arms around Prudence. Stupid or not, she couldn't imagine a more romantic gesture.

#answering asks #writing prompts #oxventure #prudence #corazon de ballena #demonpirate #romantic gestures #myth blossom #thank you for the ask! #postal ninja fanfic #it occurred to me that the roc might transform back after it was killed #but i liked this scenario better