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heyyyharry · 4 years

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Chapter 3: Remember Me

(from ‘The Winter and The Crown’)

…in which Y/N finally moves on and Harry returns from the dead.

*this chapter contains sexual content*

Word count: 8.9k

AU: queen!y/n, commander!harry

Description: Y/N and Harry set off on a new adventure to find ‘the cure’ for an ancient curse, meanwhile, the enemies are plotting to take her kingdom.

Wattpad link (Reyna as Y/N)

The ringing of swords echoed among trees. Y/N raised her blade high in the air and blocked her opponent's full-powered attack. Her eyes widened as they met Lance’s, and her opponent took the chance to kick her in the knees. Her sword fell away from her grip and she collapsed onto a pile of snow.

“Stop!” Lance shouted, marching toward them. The Queen’s opponent – the new commander – bowed his head to Lance as Y/N propped herself on her elbow and laughed. “What madness is this?” Lance asked the commander. The man quickly got down on his knees beside Y/N to help her up, but she refused to take his hand and reached for her sword.

“We’re in the middle of training.” She winced. Lance saw a red drop fall upon the white snow, and she forestalled his concern with, “It’s just a scratch.” The Commander, in seeing that he’d cut the Queen by accident, stood rigid with his jaw tight and hands behind his back. “I asked him to give me his best. He was just following orders,” Y/N said dryly.

Lance scoffed. “This is insane, Y/N. You can’t just tell people to go ahead and hurt you. You’re a queen.”

“I trust Commander Robert,” she said, giving the commander a dismissive wave. Lance could tell that Robert could not wait to be excused; he bowed his head and walked off as fast as he could, probably thinking the Queen had lost her mind. And maybe she had. Too bad she was Lance’s problem now.

Lance took a step back as she thrust her sword into the snow and leaned onto it to stand. He was ready to catch her when she fell, but she managed to keep her balance and gave him an apologetic smile — one he’d seen so often in the last couple of months; at first, it’d been a sign of hope, but at this point, it only concerned him.

They both stood under falling snow with bare heads, and Y/N was only wearing a thin blouse with trousers and boots. Lance wondered if growing up here had given her immunity to the cold or she simply didn’t care if she'd freeze to death right on this field. As she put away her sword and wrapped both arms around herself, he concluded that it was the latter.

Lance cursed under his breath, shrugged off his black fur coat and threw it over her shoulders. She didn’t protest and let him wrap her up as her gaze stayed fixed on the red streams trickling down her fingers.

“Let’s go,” he said, holding her by the shoulders, and together they staggered back to the gate.

It’d been ten months since Harry had gone missing. At least that was what Y/N believed. Lance and everyone else knew that there was no way Harry could still be alive.

At first, he’d been convinced by Y/N that there had been a possibility that Harry had been kidnapped, that someone had known about him and Y/N and wanted to use him to hurt her. And so they had waited every day for a ransom letter or for Harry’s headless corpse to be delivered to the castle. But it had been ten months, the folks were still protesting, villages were still burned, and Harry’s life had become no one’s concern but Y/N’s, Lance’s and Jo’s.

Lance didn’t know how long Y/N would continue this hopeless search. For the first couple of weeks, she would be so eager when the search team returned at the end of the day even if there was no news at all. But lately, she hadn’t bothered to ask about what they’d found or hadn’t, for she knew she’d only receive the same disappointing answer.

Nothing.

No matter what she said, Lance knew that deep down she knew they were looking for a ghost. Harry would never come back to her, and it was only a matter of time until she allowed her heart to accept it. It was easier to cling to false hope than face cruel reality and move on. Lance might be the only one who understood what she was going through. He’d held Daliah’s cold corpse in his arms and put her into the ground himself, and yet he still couldn’t accept that she was dead. It had taken him years to get over it. So he was going to try to help Y/N to do the same.

She hadn’t completely gone back to the person she’d once been, but she’d kept her word and didn’t abandon her people. The court had got used to their new Queen, and even though there was no more court gossip (that Lance knew of), Lance could not lower his guards.

Their friendship was the only good thing that came out of this mess. He and Jo would take turns staying with Y/N overnight. Recently, it’d been him more than Jo, and Y/N had let him sleep beside her on the bed. He would hold her every time she had nightmares, and she’d told him that she’d been having better sleep because she knew when she woke up, he’d be there. This wasn’t what Lance had signed up for, but the more time they spent together, the more they grew to rely on each other.

“I’m sorry,” she said to him as they sat by the fire and he was bandaging her hand. There were bruises all over her bare arms and he was trying not to look at them. Although he hadn’t seen it until today, he knew she’d been taking out her anger in those ‘training sessions’ with the new commander, and she’d always come back bruised if not bleeding. He’d never asked her why.

But he didn’t have to.

“I just wanted to feel something,” she said.

He glanced up. The warm firelight illuminated the right side of her face. She’d been watching him bandage her hand and as he stopped, she met his eyes with a tight smile. “Don’t look at me like that, please.”

“Like what?” he asked, his mouth curled.

She tilted her head. “Like you think I’m crazy.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” he said. It was true. “I’ve been you.”

She frowned a bit; he didn’t know what it meant. In silence, Lance proceeded to bandage her hand, and once he’d finished, she didn’t take it away. So he pressed his lips together and gently laced his fingers with hers. “Treating pain with more pain won’t help,” he sighed. “You’ll exhaust yourself at one point and you won’t be able to get up.”

Y/N pouted, then nodded.

Silence ensued.

There was a shift in her expression and his heart started racing as a hundred thoughts coursed through his mind.

“Two more months and it’ll be a year,” she spoke, her voice wavering. The sadness in her eyes was like nothing he’d seen before.

He reached for her other hand and brought it to his lap.

Suddenly, she began to cry.

First came a sob and then tears started spilling out as she hung her head so he could not see her face. “He’s not coming back, is he?” Her voice broke. “He’s dead. He’s dead and...and I’ll never get to see him again. I’ll never get to say goodbye. I didn’t tell him I loved him…”

Lance chewed the inside of his cheek as he slid off the chair and kneeled before her on the carpet, still holding her hands. He didn’t tell her to stop crying because it was the only thing she could do. He let her cry until she couldn’t anymore, then released her bandaged hand to cup her face. “We can continue the search for two more months, and then—”

“No,” she cut him off. There was a heavy pause. “We should tell his family.”

Lance stiffened. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” She didn’t seem like it. He waited for her to change her mind, but she stayed silent.

“All right,” he replied dryly. “But…”

“What?”

“His family don’t live in Theros, do they?”

“They do. What’s wrong?”

“Calanthe. She’s closed the border to us, remember? No letter from Isolde would reach Theros.”

Y/N’s face twisted for two seconds and soon relaxed. “Harry had two friends living in a village outside Isolde. I also invited them to our wedding.”

Our wedding. Lance allowed himself to be temporarily happy about those words before he said, “You want to ask them to deliver the news for us?”

“I want to invite them to the castle,” she said. “I want to tell them in person, and well...treat them like royal guests as an apology for having kept the news from them for ten months.” Then came a sigh. “That’s what Harry would want.”

“Let’s do that,” Lance said.

And Y/N responded with a broken smile.

The next day, Y/N ordered her men to stop the search and announced Harry’s brave sacrifice to the court. They had a quiet feast as a farewell to the soldiers who had lost their lives in the attacks. Lance saw no point in celebrating deaths, but since Y/N wasn’t going to attend, he had to go on her behalf.

He drank just enough, waited for when most of the courtiers had been too drunk to remember their own names and snuck out with two bottles of ale.

It was almost midnight. He knew Y/N was awake and had expected to see Jo with her in her bed-chamber. But then he found Y/N sitting alone by the fire, hugging her legs to her chest and resting her chin on top of her knee. She didn’t flinch when he opened the door.

“There you are.”

He froze, shut the door behind him and gave her a tentative grin. “How do you know it was me?”

“You’ve got heavy footsteps,” she said, smiling a bit as he sat down beside her.

“I believe you told me that once. When I proposed to you in the garden.”

“You call that proposing?” Y/N snorted.

“Find yourself a better betrothed then,” he replied jokingly, expecting her to say, ‘fake betrothed,’ and feeling quite conflicted when she stayed silent.

He handed her a bottle of ale, and she took it without question.

“Where’s Jo?” he asked, watching her gulp down the drink. “I brought two bottles because I thought she’d be here.”

Y/N wiped her mouth with the back of her hand like a man. Lance couldn’t help but laugh. He liked it when she didn’t have to look regal and just be herself.

She returned him a smile. “Since when did you and Jo get along?”

“That’s what the ale’s for,” he said. “Jo’s less cranky when she’s drunk.”

“Right.” Y/N raised a finger. “But since Jo’s not here, this is all for me.”

“Hey! Share.” He lifted the other bottle above his head when she tried to reach for it and they fell to the floor, laughing uncontrollably.

Once the laughter had died down, they sat side by side, staring at the fire and passing the bottle back and forth in silence. Lance let himself get lost in his million thoughts. He was reflecting all that’d happened in the past ten months when Y/N broke the silence with her devastating sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He scrunched up his face. “For what?”

“For all that I’ve put you through. I’d been focusing on my own loss that I failed to realize that the people around me suffered too.” She glanced down at his hand on his lap. “I never asked you how your leg was or what it was like to lose a finger.”

“You did.”

“Did I?”

“Yeah, you just don’t remember.”

Eyebrows knitted together, she cocked her head to the side. “I don’t believe you.”

“You have to.” He beamed. “I’m the only one you can trust around here.”

When she smiled at him again, it took him everything not to run his fingers through her hair and lean in for a kiss. He knew it was wrong. She was still healing. But it’d be a lie to say he’d never thought about kissing her as he watched her sleep.

He’d never felt this way about anyone since Daliah, and he’d been with so many women since. What was it about the Queen of Isolde that had turned him to this? He was only here for the sake of his kingdom. He wasn’t supposed to grow feelings.

Lance jolted with a start when Y/N shoved the second empty bottle back in his hand. Seeing how shocked he seemed, she gave a tired smile. “I was thirsty.”

“And now you’re drunk,” he said, smirking.

She shook her head. “I am not. I can drink until morning!” When she declared that with a finger pointed to the ceiling, he knew she’d overestimated herself. He let out a chuckle and took her hands to pull her up. “Let’s get you to bed.”

She mumbled something in response which he couldn’t make out. It wasn’t until he’d tucked her in and pulled the blankets up to her chin that she repeated, “Will you stay?” with her fingers around his wrist.

“Of course,” he said. Lance never said no to that request, even though it was never his name that she called in the middle of the night. It didn’t feel very ideal to get back to the feast or be alone with a headache, so he might as well stay here and pretend this meant as much to her as it did to him.

He lay on his back. She lay her head on his chest. And as the ale began to take effect, he drifted off to the rhythm of her soft breathing.

Lance awoke when it was still dark. He couldn’t feel Y/N’s warmth beside him anymore.

His head was pulsing and his eyes stung as he propped up on his elbows to find her sitting on the edge of the bed. She was facing the window. The curtains left a small gap for him to see that it was snowing outside.

“Y/N?” he spoke, scooting closer. “Y/N, was it another nightmare?”

Slowly, she turned back to him. He exhaled in relief when she smiled, tired but awake. Dahlia used to sleepwalk, and Lance used to fear that while he was asleep, she’d just jump out of the window in the middle of the night. Y/N had never sleepwalked; she had trouble sleeping.

She said nothing and crawled to him. He rested his head back on the pillow, putting his arms around her as she rested her chin on his chest. She glanced up; the blue of her eyes looked almost grey in the pale moonlight. She placed her palm flat on the left side of his chest and her face twisted with wondering.

“Your heart,” she spoke softly, “It’s beating so fast.”

“It’s because of you.”

Lance didn’t realize he’d said that out loud until she asked, “Me?”

He swallowed dryly, his heart racing even faster as he caressed her cheek. He’d done it once the other night. She didn’t know; she’d been asleep.

“Go back to sleep, Y/N,” he said. “You won’t look as pretty on the throne if you don’t get enough sleep.”

She snorted at the remark, “Are you calling me pretty?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I am not. You’re just drunk.”

But so was he.

Neither of them was thinking straight. He wished he’d stopped her when she pushed up and her face was right above his. He should force her away by her shoulders and tell her this was a terrible idea, that he wanted to kiss her so badly but not like this. Unfortunately, his heart had overpowered his brain, and the next thing he knew, they were kissing.

He’d kissed her once before. She hadn’t kissed him back since it'd only been for their charade in front of the court, and Lance had felt nothing back then. This kiss, however, was something else. This kiss burned. His whole body was ablaze as his fingers knotted in her hair and he flipped them over so he was on top. She gripped his shirt and pulled him closer, her legs wrapped around his waist as she moaned softly into his ear. He was hard. For the first time in his life, he was embarrassed about it. It was probably written all over his face, because she giggled and drew him in even closer. They didn’t say a word as their mouths were busy and their hands began to explore each other's body. It didn’t take too long before they were naked.

Lance had worked a finger inside her and groaned into her neck at how wet she was. Y/N was squirming beneath him, her nails scratching down his back. And somehow in his drunken daze, he still managed to regain a bit of sense to ask her if this was her first time. She told him she wasn’t a virgin, and he remembered her telling him one night that she had fallen in love with the first man who’d treated her right. She’d probably lost her virginity to Harry. The thought stung a little even though Lance was the more experienced one. He guessed the ale had made him a bit emotionally vulnerable. He wasn’t sure if he liked this side of him.

It’d been too long for both of them, so they didn’t last very long. She came first and he helped her finish before he started chasing his own pleasure, groaning into her neck and nipping gently at her ear.

Y/N fell asleep right afterwards, with her head on his bare chest and a faint smile on her face. And just like many nights ago, Lance whispered, “Goodnight. I’ll be here when you wake up,” kissed her hair, and tried to sleep, hoping he wouldn’t dream.

When Jo came to wake Y/N in the morning, she was horrified to find Lance and the Queen naked and tangled together in between the sheets. She'd expected to find them sleeping in the same bed, but not this. Honestly, she was surprised that she wasn’t jealous at all. While a part of her was confused, another part angry, there was this other part that couldn’t help but feel sorry for Lance. She’d thought he was smarter than this.

Men.

“Jo!” Lance gasped as he tugged the sheets up to his chest. Y/N was still struggling to open her eyes, and once she’d seen Jo, her face burned red as she sunk deep into the pillows.

“Put your clothes on, please. I won’t look,” Jo told Lance as she crossed the room to open the curtains to let more light in. When she turned around, Y/N was shielding her eyes from the morning light, and Lance had already pulled up his trousers and tugged on his boots.

“I’ll be back in half an hour to help you get dressed.”

With that, Jo sauntered out of the room.

“Jo, wait!” Lance called after her but her steps did not falter. He raced her down the corridor, took her by the wrist and spun her around. She tossed his hand away and he sidestepped her before she could storm off again.

“Please don’t be mad at Y/N. It was my fault.”

“I’m not mad at the Queen,” she said. “The room smelled like an alehouse. I assume neither of you remembers what you’ve done.”

Lance rubbed his massive hands over his face, and Jo wondered if he knew he wasn’t wearing a shirt. It was the first time she’d seen him...not calm.

“We weren’t that drunk,” he said.

She scoffed, crossing her arms and looking away. “Y/N is unstable. You know she’s still in love with Harry. Him being dead doesn’t just take him out of the picture.”

“I know. It won’t happen again,” he said. “I don’t think it meant much to her anyway.”

“What about you, Lance?”

She could have sworn she’d seen him flinch. “What about me?”

“You’re in love with her.”

“I’m not.”

Jo rolled her eyes. “You’re not a better liar than me, Lance. I’ve been in love with her my whole life. I know.”

He was quiet for a moment, just studying her face. “Are you going to tell her?”

“No.” Jo shrugged. “And you’re not, either. Just keep this fake marriage fake until she’s really over him.”

Lance pressed his lips tightly together. “Understood.”

“Good.” She eyed him up and down. “Now put a shirt on. It’s really disturbing that you’re half-naked.”

When Lance returned to the room, Y/N had put her nightgown on and was sitting on the edge of the bed, beaming at him. She glowed even brighter than the sun behind her head, and the memories from last night crashed over him, leaving him speechless for a second, just gazing at her.

“Is she angry?” she asked, pulling him back to reality.

“Yes.” He breathed and marched toward her.

“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to her later.”

Lance didn’t comment anything more on Jo. Instead of joining Y/N on the bed, he kneeled down in front of her and grasped her hands that were on her lap. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, and he wanted nothing more than to kiss away her pout.

“Do you remember anything about last night?” he asked.

She giggled, squeezing his fingers. “Yes. Don’t look so horrified, baby dove,” she repeated what he’d said to her in a joking tone. “I told you it wasn’t my first time.”

And that was the moment Lance realized that Jo had been right. This happiness of Y/N’s seemed odd. Hadn’t she told him two days ago that she’d just wanted to feel something? Did she know what was real and what was not anymore? Would she just settle for anything? For him?

“Y/N,” he said, gravely. “I don’t think we should do that again. I felt like I took advantage of you.”

Her face contorted. “You didn’t…”

He shook his head. “I want you. I do.” It was hard to admit it, but after last night, it was clear there was no turning back. “But not like this,” his voice lowered. “I promise that I won’t kiss you again until you've let him go.”

She stared at him with what he didn’t dare to assume was disappointment. She took time pondering over his words as though she was trying to decide for herself how she really felt about him.

Finally, she nodded.

He sighed in relief, though something in him was broken.

Then, he kissed her.

When he pulled back, she had this breathless look on her face and a little confused smile that got him yearning for more. “From now on, I mean,” he chuckled, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip. “I had to do that one last time, in case I can’t do it again.”

To his surprise, a bright laugh crackled out of her as she covered her mouth for it would be considered unladylike.

“I’m not used to the new Lance,” she said, holding his thumb.

“Me neither.” He grinned. “So let’s try to be mean to each other in front of everyone. I think I can still call you ‘baby dove’ in a sarcastic way.”

”I believe you still have that in you, my lord,” she said. “I should start calling you ‘my lord’. What do you think?”

“I’d like that,” he said, then faked an angry grimace. “I mean, I hate that. Do not call me that.”

She burst out laughing again. Lance did too. Then he kissed her hand and got up to finish getting dressed.

Just as he thought the storm was through, however, another one arrived on the next day.

He, Y/N, and the lords had gathered in the conference hall to plan a new strategy to deal with the protests; they could not be careless and lose more of their men. While Y/N was debating with Commander Robert about the food supplies, Lance’s mind wandered back to what she’d told him many months ago. The folks had carried expensive weapons. So someone must be pulling strings behind the curtains. He still firmly believed that it was Calanthe. But how? Calanthe had no access to the North. Northerners would not surrender to a Southern ruler, especially when it was a woman. None of this made sense at all.

Suddenly, the door flew open and a guard rushed into the room. “Your Majesty! You must see this!”

Y/N and Lance looked at each other at the same time and hurriedly dismissed the meeting to follow the frightened guard, who was too panicked to tell them what it was. They were heading to the throne room. And as soon as they stepped inside, Lance could not believe what he saw.

Whom he saw.

A beaten long-haired man dressed in filthy clothes with fresh wounds all over him was being held down by two Isolde guards.

“Harry!” Y/N’s scream echoed within the walls as she launched herself at him, shouting, “What are you doing? Let him go!”

“Your Majesty. He’s dangerous,” a guard said.

“He’s not! He’s hurt! Release him!”

That was when Lance saw it. The way this man, who looked like Harry, glanced up at the Queen. The look in his eyes was cold, vicious, and full of contempt.

“Y/N!” Lance snapped.

“Harry, it’s me. It’s Peach—”

It all happened so fast. The man closed his fingers around her throat and slammed her onto her back with an extraordinary strength that she could not even scream. Y/N could fight back if she were armed but she’d let her guards down. In a matter of seconds, Lance managed to spot the shiny ring on the man’s finger, push the guards aside and knock the man unconscious with the hilt of his sword.

Y/N sprang free, crawling toward Lance as he got down on his knees and put his arms around her. She was gagging and gasping for air. Harry’s fingers had left visible marks around her throat.

“Put him in the dungeon but do not hurt him!” Lance shouted at the guards. “That’s Harry.”

“That’s n-not Harry…” he heard Y/N say. She was crying and shaking in his arms. Lance stroked her hair and shushed softly into her ear as the guards carried the unconscious man out of the room.

That was definitely Harry. But he wasn’t Harry anymore.

That morning, the guards had found two people at the gate. A man and a woman tied to each other back to back. Harry had been instantly recognised, so despite him protesting, the guards had managed to drag him to the throne room and called for the Queen. The woman had been unconscious and taken to the bathhouse to get cleaned. The guards had told Y/N that the woman had been marked with a fire tattoo on her back that belonged to a group of people called The Monks. Fire was for witches. In the old days, witches used to be burned on the stake, and so using fire as a symbol was a way to reclaim their liberty. Ironically, half of this woman’s face had been burned by fire.

Y/N had only read about these people in the books as they’d existed hundreds of years ago but had not been seen for a long long time. So either this ‘witch’ was a fraud and the tattoo was fake, or there was more to this than Y/N had thought.

“Y/N, they’re here.”

Y/N snapped her head to the corridor as Lance walked in with Kenny and Stefan trailing behind him; Kenny was holding a child wrapped in a blanket. Y/N nodded to Jo, who was holding her hand.

Kenny looked slightly puzzled when Jo came up to her and asked if she could hold the child, but all the questions seemed to vanish from her head the second she caught sight of the prisoner in the cell. She let Jo take her little girl and pushed past the guards toward Harry. Y/N could see the light in his eyes when he finally saw someone he recognised.

“Kenny!” He threw himself at the bars. His hands were tied at the front so Kenny reached through the gap to touch his face. “Kenny, why are you here? Did they hurt you? These people are dangerous, Kenny.”

When he said that, he was glaring straight at Y/N. She felt Lance stepping closer and decided to speak before he could. “You tried to kill me, Harry. You didn’t give us a choice.”

Kenny looked at Y/N over her shoulder. Her face turned pale when she noticed the red marks around Y/N’s neck. Y/N felt as naked as ever as she tried to cover them with her hair. She felt Lance’s presence beside her and drew a steady breath.

“Did you tell them?” she asked quietly.

“Yes,” Lance said, keeping an eye on Kenny and Harry. “I also told them not to talk to him about you.”

“Why?” Jo interjected, keeping her voice down. “If we tell him he used to be in love with Y/N, it might help him remember.”

Y/N turned back to the other three. “I don’t trust him,” she said. Stefan had joined his wife on the floor in front of Harry, and Y/N could tell he didn’t take the news of Kenny’s new family very well. From what he remembered, he was still madly in love with this woman. “He’s not himself anymore,” Y/N continued. “He might use what we had against me.”

Then she recalled the look in his eyes when he’d pinned her down and tried to choke her. It was the same look she’d seen on her father and brother whenever they’d shot down the prey whose life meant nothing to them. The thought chilled her to the bones and she unconsciously put her arms around herself.

She heard Lance sigh and felt him brush her hair over her shoulder to inspect the evidence of Harry’s violence. “Does it still hurt?”

She shook her head. If it did, she didn’t notice; she was being tormented by another kind of pain.

Lance rubbed his thumb gently over her bruised skin. His voice was soothing and warm, “Do you want to get out of here?”

In the cell, Harry had his head buried in his hands, his long hair pouring over his face, and Kenny was trying to tell him something that made him shake his head nonstop.

It was agonising to watch.

“Let’s go,” Y/N told Lance, hugging herself as he placed his hand on her back and guided her back to the entrance. Jo stayed with the two guards to wait for Kenny and Stefan.

Once Lance and Y/N had exited the dungeon, a guard rushed up to them, gasping for air. “Your Majesties!”

“What?” asked Lance. Y/N clutched his arm.

“The witch. She’s awake.”

The witch was kept in the deepest room in the dungeon. Y/N had never set foot here as this place was only used to keep the most dangerous criminals, and because her brother had been the most dangerous criminal Isolde had ever known, this room hadn’t been very practical.

Y/N’s heart was thundering as the guard opened the metal door and stepped aside. They all had their hands on the hilts of their swords as she and Lance entered the room. She should have brought her own weapon, but considering how everyone around her was already armed, the last thing she wanted was to frighten the witch even more.

Harry wasn’t talking, so she hoped she could get some words out of this prisoner.

To Y/N’s surprise, it was a young girl. Nothing like what she had imagined. She knew witches weren’t meant to be scary, because Maggie, whose prophecy had been about Y/N being the saviour, who’d saved Jo’s life in exchange for Y/N’s ability to produce an heir, had been beautiful. But Maggie had been exotic. This one, however, looked like a normal maiden.

In fact, she looked quite familiar. Y/N squinted her eyes as she approached the girl who was chained to the wall. Half of her face had been burned, but Y/N could still recognise her.

“M-Mary?”

“Y/N!” Mary cried out and started laughing hysterically. “Thank Gods, you're here! Please, you have to listen to me. Don’t let them hurt me, please. I’ve lost all my powers! I’m too weak. I’ll die!”

“Shhh.” Y/N held the girl’s dirty face between her hands. Behind her, armours clang. The guards were ready to take Mary down if she attacked the Queen, but Y/N knew Mary wouldn’t. Harry had been frightened and furious, but this girl was only frightened. She ordered the guards to wait outside, leaving only her and Lance to interrogate the girl.

“No one’s going to hurt you. I can guarantee that,” Y/N told Mary. “But you must tell me the truth. Everything. All right?”

Mary was crying now. The wrinkles on the burned side of her face shifted in a disturbing way. “She made me. She made me do it. It drained all my powers and she tossed me out.”

“Who?”

“Calanthe.”

Y/N’s stomach dipped. Her limbs were frozen.

“She’s behind the attacks,” Mary sobbed, shaking her head. “I’d warned her. She didn’t listen to me. She listened to them and I must follow the orders.”

“Them? Who are they, Mary?”

“The Monks.”

“You’re one of them?” Lance interjected.

Mary nodded fast. “You must believe me. They exist. I’m not lying. They’re helping Calanthe plan the protests.”

“What?” Y/N pulled back. “The protests were all her? How did she get her people into the North?”

“They’re not her people,” Lance said, his face taut with discovery. “They’re yours. They’ve picked a side. The Monks are on her side now and they’re turning your people against you.”

“They practise black magic,” Mary said. “They’re experienced spies and killers. They’d come to Edgar and pledged their loyalty to him when your father passed away. They’d promised to help your uncle fight in the war between the North and the South. What the King did not know was that The Monks had never wanted peace. They believed in one ruler. I’m sure you’ve heard the old tales about the King of Isolde who’d wanted to take over the world.”

“It was a myth,” Y/N said.

“Apparently not,” Mary said. “The Monks believe in one ruler. They wanted to take power from the other three high courts and hand it all to the person they think deserves to rule all one hundred kingdoms.”

“And they think it’s Calanthe?”

Mary lifted her bony shoulders. “Only because you’re not the type of monarch who wants world domination.”

“Neither was my uncle.”

“Oh, no, they didn’t come to Edgar for him,” Mary said. “They’d come for Egon.”

A chill rushed down Y/N’s spine. “What?”

Mary’s eyes darkened. “Why did you think Edgar dismissed all the guards on the night he’d been killed? Your uncle had been murdered by someone he’d trusted. The Monks had lied their way into the Theros court to eliminate the King, put his young wife on the throne so it’d be easier for Egon to win. But they’d underestimated both you and Calanthe. Now there’s a queen in the North and the South. King Javed of the East is easily manipulated but would probably shit his pants on the battlefield. They would have gone for Lance had he not been betrothed to you. Between the two Queens, they must pick the one who was more blood-thirsty.”

Y/N drew in a steady breath and stood taller to mask her anxiety. “I think one of them tried to kill me in the market. I saw him at the Theros court with a group of men in black cloaks.”

Mary nodded. “It’s them. Egon had sent one of them to kill me and my sisters. I escaped and I think Harry killed him.”

“Your sisters…” Y/N jolted with a start. “Was Maggie your sister?”

Mary’s remaining eye gleamed for the first time. “You know Maggie?”

“Yes.”

“Did she...did she suffer?” Mary swallowed dryly. “When she died, I mean...Egon got her and I—You see, we had this thing that let us know if one of us was dead and I-I know both of my sisters are dead. I just have to know if Maggie suffered more than May.”

And so Y/N told Mary everything that had happened. How she’d given up the life of her future heir to bring her best friend back, and that Maggie had travelled to the other world with the pure soul she’d collected. Maggie had also thought Mary had been dead.

“They must have taken it from her so she couldn’t tell if May and I were alive,” Mary said, almost to herself.

Y/N didn’t know what ‘it’ was, but she didn’t want to sadden Mary even more with talks about her sisters.

“And what about Harry?” Y/N asked. “Did you put a spell on him?”

Mary stuttered for a moment, looking for the right words. “It’s not...not just a spell...It’s a reverse love potion...You see, love potion creates false memories so the victim will believe that they’re madly in love with the subject even when the subject is a complete stranger they’ve never met before. For the reverse kind, you erase all memories relating to the subject. Both kinds are equally evil. But the reverse kind requires more time and power to create. Once I’d succeeded, it took my powers and now I’m just a normal person. It’s like a curse for the victim and the witch who’d prepared the potion. And there’s no antidote, not that I know of at least...”

“What is it?” Y/N clenched her jaw, her voice low and brittle. “There’s something else, isn’t it? Is he going to be all right?”

“The potion is deadly.”

“What?” Lance snapped.

Y/N could not feel her body anymore.

“To both Harry and I,” Mary said. “All magic comes with a price. But I’m sure Maggie had told you that. That potion and the process of making it shortens your lifespan tremendously. It takes away twenty years at least. I don’t know how many years he and I have lost, but now I’m magicless, and we might just die tomorrow.”

“No...” Y/N choked out and covered her mouth as hot tears started running down her cheeks. She heard Lance shut the door behind her, probably so the guards could not overhear the rest of this conversation. “You killed him!” she screamed and clenched her fists. She wanted to hurt someone if not herself, and Lance was quick to grab her shoulders and pull her back.

“And myself, too,” Mary said. Y/N asked her why and she did not speak. Y/N didn’t think the girl would say anything else, so she called for the guards to take Mary to a normal cell. As much as she’d like to blame the witch and Calanthe for what had happened, she could not be angrier at anyone else other than herself. Harry hadn’t meant to stay here. When he’d come to her chamber a year ago, he’d asked to see her one last time before he left. She’d begged him to stay with her. Her selfishness had cost him his life. Now he didn’t remember who she was, couldn’t see his family again, and could die any given moment.

“I’ll bring an army to Theros and take Calanthe’s head myself,” she said as they ascended the stairs back to the ground floor. They took a turn into the corridor and Lance yanked her back by her wrist.

He shook her once so she’d snap out of her resentment. “That’s what she wants, Y/N. She wants to expose you to the low courts. Prove to them that you’re having an affair with Harry and our marriage is a fraud.” She jerked her hand away, glaring at him through the tears. Lance did not falter. The man who’d whispered sweet words in her ear the other night wasn’t here anymore. This was what a king looked like. “She’s playing a game with you. To prove that she can burn your villages, kill your people, hurt the ones you love and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“No,” he said. “But once you’ve let that sink in, you’ll realize that all of this effort was only to distract you from the real war. She could have killed you in the attack instead of taking Harry but she let you live. She doesn’t want to win easily. She wants all one hundred kingdoms to see what she’s capable of and that she doesn’t win by luck.”

Y/N steadied her breath and felt his fingers around her wrist loosen. Moments like this and the other night made her question her true feelings. She cared about Lance; he made her feel safe and she’d learned to rely on him. They now came as a matching set, and she’d be lost without him. But now that Harry had returned, the feelings she’d developed for Lance in the past ten months suddenly felt wrong. Harry might not remember her, but she remembered everything, and she wished it’d been her who forgot. But then again, she didn’t want to put Harry through what she’d gone through. Neither of them had had it easy.

“I believe there’s an antidote,” Lance said once he’d made sure that she was calm enough to listen. “All magic comes with a price, but one thing I’ve learned from all my years sailing around the world is that all prices could be bargained.”

“Mary said—”

“That there was no antidote that she knew of. She’s not a powerful witch, Y/N. That was why your brother tried to kill her and the other sister and kept Maggie, right?”

“Right…”

Lance placed a hand on her shoulder. “This is not the end. But you must be careful because Calanthe is dangerous. We both have underestimated her. Who knows how many of your courtiers are on her side?”

Y/N swallowed and gave a slight nod. She suddenly felt ashamed for how she’d reacted. All those months had driven her insane. She guessed she couldn’t put on a good enough show to fool everyone including herself that she was capable of fixing this mess she’d caused.

“I want to be alone for the rest of the day,” she said timidly. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” he replied.

As Y/N watched him go, she wondered to herself if the look she’d seen on his face had meant something more than she’d thought, and if the other night had been more than she’d expected of him.

Y/N had been wrong to send Lance away tonight. And now she couldn’t fall back to sleep after having awoken by another nightmare. This time, she’d been invited to a feast. On the table were three plates. On each one was a head. Harry’s, Lance’s, and Uncle Edgar’s. She’d lost her uncle. Was she going to lose Harry and Lance, too?

Y/N had no idea how, but she found herself standing outside Harry’s cell. She didn’t even remember walking here. It felt like she’d blinked and just appeared in the dungeon. All the other prisoners were asleep but Harry was awake as if he’d been waiting for her. She knew it wasn’t the reason; he didn’t even know who she was.

He seemed better than before. They must have untied him by her order after having given him a bath and had the physician see and bandage his wounds. His long hair was tied into a bun at the back of his head. He’d always been clean-shaven, but now the stubbles of a growing beard had formed a pattern on his face. He looked so different and familiar at the same time.

“Having trouble sleeping?” he asked before she could find the right words to start a conversation.

“You, too?”

“I’ve slept enough during the day,” he said. “Your husband knocked me unconscious for hours so...” He hadn’t said it in a sarcastic or bitter tone, just stating a fact. The old Harry would go insane when Lance looked at Y/N for a moment too long. It was funny how she’d finally started to miss him being overly jealous.

“Is this one of your hobbies?” he asked, getting up from the dirty floor and closing the distance between them. “To come to the dungeon and watch us sleep because you couldn’t?”

He stood with his arms dangling out of the cells and a smirk on his face. He’d looked like this when they’d first met.

She mustered a smile, lifting her chin and wrapping the fur coat tighter around herself. “Yes, watching my prisoners suffer gives me good sleep.”

Harry pursed his lips in mocking wonder. “The scariest thing is that I cannot tell if you’re being serious.”

Something inside her softened. He was telling jokes, meaning he didn’t consider her as a threat anymore.

“You think I’m scary?” she asked.

“Honestly?” He squinted his eyes; they looked more like the eyes she remembered now. “Not at all. Kenny told me we were friends.”

Y/N started. Kenny wasn’t meant to say anything about her.

“Don’t worry,” he said, seemingly amused by her reaction. “Kenny didn’t share any embarrassing facts about you.”

“I don’t know what she’s told you,” Y/N said, “but do you believe her?”

Harry shrugged. “She never lies to me, so yes.”

Y/N ignored the sharp pain in her chest as she said, “I’m sorry you had to find out about her and Stefan this way.”

Harry’s expression remained unchanged. He hadn’t had to hide his true feelings from her for so long that she’d forgotten he was actually good at it.

“I’m sorry I tried to kill you,” he said, grinning.

She rolled her eyes. “Apology accepted.”

Y/N hadn’t realized how close she was to the cell until Harry reached out and touched the marks on her neck. His eyebrows pinched together as he regarded her with a quizzical look. “You didn’t flinch.”

She pressed her lips into a smile. “You expected me to?”

“I hurt you,” he said; there was a sense of guilt in his voice that gave her hope.

“That wasn’t you.”

“You don’t know me anymore.”

“Right,” Y/N mumbled, staring at her feet. “Well, I should probably return to bed.”

“I had a dream about you,” he spoke before she could turn away. She stiffened and blinked at him. He scratched the back of his head, looking slightly flustered, or was it just what she wanted to see – Harry being that awkward boy she’d fallen in love with?

“It’s not dirty or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he chuckled and looked at her with caution to make sure she was listening. “I was walking down a dark corridor,” he began, “when I heard someone crying, so I checked every room until I found one that was not empty. You were sitting on the edge of your bed in your nightgown—Not dirty, I promise.” Y/N let out a laugh and waved for him to go on. “So...I asked you what was wrong. I think I knew you in my dream because I felt like I did. You told me you’d had a nightmare and asked me to stay.”

“And did you?” She could not help but ask.

“I’ll keep that as a secret for now,” he replied, his dimple making an appearance.

Y/N let out a sigh, yet she felt a grin spreading across her lips.

“I feel like you’re keeping something from me,” he broke the silence after a moment.

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like…” He tapped his chin with a finger. That was when she noticed that he was still wearing her ring. “I feel like we were close.”

“We were,” she said and tore her eyes from the shiny object to meet his gaze. “Did Kenny tell you about our journey last year?”

“Yes. She said we became friends afterwards and I agreed to stay with you here.” There was an indecisive pause. “You must have meant a lot to me,” his voice lowered. “Because I wouldn’t just leave my ma and sister behind.”

You must have meant a lot to me. It took everything for her not to tell him that she’d meant everything to him, just like how he still did to her. But she couldn’t. These words might not even come from his heart. He was a conman after all.

“I cannot visit them anymore,” he went on, picking at his own nails. Was he anxious? “Calanthe said she’d taken me from the battlefield, and I lost my memory so I was worthless to her. What I didn’t understand was why she’d sent me back here instead of killing me.”

“Did she ask you many questions about me?”

Harry nodded, their eyes locked again. “But I didn’t know who you were. And when I woke up, I was being dragged away by two guards, and then you showed up and I thought you were one of Calanthe’s people.”

“I would have reacted the same way, too.” She raised a tight smile, and he smiled back. This one, she believed, was genuine.

“It took me until later to realize that when you ran to me, you said you were...Peach?” His head tilted slightly in a playful sort of way. “What was that about?”

She felt her smile widen. “That was what you used to call me. You thought it was funny because I blushed too often.”

“You don’t—Oh wait, here it is. You’re blushing.”

“Stop,” she told him, but he was right, her cheeks were burning.

His dimples deepened. “Peach,” he stressed the word as if to test the sound of it on his tongue. “That does sound like something I would call you. But if we were so close, why don’t you trust me now?”

She blinked. “You don’t trust me.”

“Fair.” The way he said it without any emotion made her stomach clench. One second he gave her butterflies and the next he made her want to cry. She’d better go before this became too much. She wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Maybe we can start again,” he told her. If he weren’t behind bars and she didn’t have his fingerprints on her neck, she’d assume that he was trying to prolong this conversation because he missed talking to her. He held her gaze and offered his hand through the gap. “Truce? I promise I won’t try to kill you again.”

She took his hand and gave it a firm shake. He narrowed his eyes. “Your hand is so cold.”

“Do you always say what you think?” she asked even though she knew the answer.

“Only when I’m nervous.” That was the answer. “It’s not every day that I get to almost kill a queen and then find out I’ve been friends with her all along.”

She studied him with a straight face and remembered Lance’s advice to be careful with everyone in court. How much of what Harry had said could she trust? How much was the truth?

How much of you is still in there, Harry?

“Goodnight,” she said flatly.

He stopped her once again. “Peach, wait.” When she whipped around, eyes wide, mouth agape, he snorted, “You’re right. It does sound funny.”

She rolled her eyes. “What?”

“Can I get a haircut?” he asked, lifting his shoulders. “If I’m going to stay in here for a while, I should get a haircut and maybe shave this beard.”

“What beard?”

“Don’t be mean.” He chuckled.

She shrugged, trying not to smile. “I don’t trust you near sharp objects.”

“You can have someone do it for me.”

“I don’t trust you near sharp objects and my men,” she said, and after a moment of consideration, added, “I’ll cut your hair myself.”

He looked at her as if waiting for her to burst out laughing. She only stared back at him.

“I don’t trust you with a sharp object near me,” he said, looking shocked and amused at the same time.

“Get used to that,” she told him.

He looked less like a stranger than before as he leaned against the bars and pursed his lips. His voice was suddenly warm and raspy. “I’m sorry about your brother and all the protests happening in the North. I can't imagine what you’ve had to go through.”

“Thank you.”

“Good thing you’ve found someone who loves you like the King.”

“Lance?” Y/N schooled her face. “How do you know he loves me? Royals don’t always marry for love.”

“It’s the way he looked at you when you weren't looking,” he said, and something inside Y/N stirred uneasily. She wanted to tell him that he used to look at her like that, but what she actually said was, “Goodnight, Harry.”

“Goodnight, Peach.” Harry’s dimples appeared as he waved at her.

As soon as she’d left the dungeon, Y/N broke into tears.

#harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfics #harry styles angst #harry styles smut #harry styles writing #harry styles series #harry styles #harry styles imagine #harry styles imagines #harry styles x reader #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x you #tctm series

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rueitae · 3 years

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Writing Roundup 2020

This is a writing reflection I’ve been doing for myself every year for the last four years. Its a positive boost to myself see how far I’ve come and look back on my progress for the past year and look forward to the new year.

Everyone is welcome to use this same format if they’d like to do the same!

~~~~~~~

Stats:

Words written:

330,000, which is nearly half of all the words I’ve written on Ao3 in the last three years.

One Shots Posted (all fics plance unless otherwise stated):

In the Arms of the Ever(pink?) Tree (4463 words)

For the Plance Secret Santa exchange. Post s8 date/not date on a snowy moon. Love confession.

Birthday Treats (2129 words)

For Pidge’s birthday this year! Domestic family fluff, breakfast in bed, plance kids.

Begin Again (Together) (4805 words)

Canon divergence from before episode one! Pidge and Lance are established dating when alien intervention brings them to where they are supposed to be: with the Blue Lion. Just a brief look into what the AU would look like.

Common Ground (4521 words)

A treat for my friends who introduced me to Magic Knight Rayearth and pointed out some fun character parallels. There is this beautiful art Arya made to go with it because we’re all trash for both series. Plance meet up with Fuu and Ferio post series for both couples.

Bonded To You (1808 words)

For the Langstron Halloween Exchange! Established plance with a baby Lance is trying to keep safe from a witch who would take advantage of the child’s heritage.

It Tasted Good (6785 words)

Pikelavar for Pikelavar Month! The premise is crack, but it's mostly treated seriously. Pike ate the Jewel of Jitan by accident and doesn’t realize it until Haggar finds them. Meklavar gets Protective.

The Remainder of Days (3188 words)

Part of my Bad Things Happen Bingo. Fantasy AU where Pidge is a minor forest goddess and Lance is her neighbor mortal farmer.

I Love You a Lily More Each Day (3232 words)

Another of the Bad Things Happen Bingo. Canon compliant where Lance is undercover at a flower shop and knee deep in an illegal smuggling operation.

Lease on Life (4978 words)

This one was also part of Bad Things Happen Bingo and was an experiment. It’s POV of an oldest plance kid, canon verse. Her parents’ Paladin days come back to haunt them one night. Some cute family stuff too in there.

Ready to Dance (4135 words)

For the Valentine’s Day exchange! Post series. Lance tries to get back into the party scene and Pidge rescues him from a disastrous night.

Loopholes (5476 words)

Technically I didn’t write this fic this year, but a very kind reader asked if I would post this to Ao3, so it was my first fic of the year on Ao3. It’s Lotura! Originally a gift for a dear friend I’ve had since elementary school. It’s a fantasy AU where Lotor stumbles into Allura’s kingdom needing help.

Next to Me (7311 words)

Also for Bad Things Happen Bingo, this is probably one of my favorite fics of the year. This is the canon verse AU that went all wrong in s7, and Sendak succeeds in destroying Earth. Lance and Pidge end up not only his prisoners, but also two of the last humans in the universe. Ends open ended, but it became a series in the end!

Into Me (14248 words)

The sequel to the above fic. There are two versions, this and the one below. The title tells all. Lance and Pidge come to terms with their new life aboard Sendak’s flagship and do their best to keep the other comforted.

Into Me (non-explicit version) (7228 words)

Exactly the same as the fic above, only this one is SFW

Sunshine (3831 words)

A Bad Things Happen Bingo! One of my favorite concepts. Canon verse. Pidge gets sick while she and Lance are on a scientific mission.

Showoff (635 words)

A really short fic for a friend on their birthday, featuring their plance kids!

Respite of the Heart (4181 words)

A fic I have been wanting to write for a very long time. I love the concept of Pidge as a Disney Princess in the sense she has the forest guardian theme and all these animals love her. So there’s some play on that as the Paladins stop for lunch on their journey back to Earth in early s7. Lance comes to a realization and they have a chat surrounded by the animal friends. @anchoredtetherart did a phenomenal piece to accompany it. Please look at it in awe here.

The Hardest Part (3960 words)

For Bad Things Happen Bingo! An AU of the episode The Reunion where Pidge doesn’t return when she’s supposed to.

A Planned Sacrifice (4988 words)

Another Bad Things Happen Bingo. Canon verse. Pidge assumes that being a sacrifice for the ‘forest god’ is strictly ceremonial and at worst a wild animal. It’s actually Sendak, who no one has seen since Shiro shot him out of the Castle. He remembers Pidge and is far too pleased to see her again, tied up on a silver platter.

Almost Forgotten, but Not Gone (3946 words)

Bad Things Happen Bingo. AU sometime in s1 where Haxus isn’t as dead as Pidge thought.

Touch (7519 words)

Written for the Lance Goes Boom bang! It was inspired by @fenixseraph ‘s amazing art here! It’s a different take on The Way Forward, where Pidge and Lance are separated from the rest of the team and placed in their own cell. And the Red Lion causes issues.

Chaptered Fics started/added to:

Wolf In Thieves’ Clothing (4516 words)

An AU of The Castle of Cagliostro from Lupin the Third series. Lee, you have my thanks forever for making me watch this finally. Pidge is a literal princess whose kingdom is in the middle of an internal coup. Lance is a gentleman thief who rides with his best buds Hunk and Matt. Their paths are destined to cross again when Lance goes back to the castle he used to call home.

Game of Love (4593 words)

The most crack of the bunch. AU of Fall the of the Castle of Lions where Sendak and Haxus get away with it all. Pidge and Lance are prisoners on Haxus’ new ship, and Lance finds an opportunity for eventual escape when he learns that Haxus has a crush on his second in command. Operation matchmaker begins. (happy ending planned for all)

What Tides May Bring (20704 words)

Collab with the fantastic @anchoredtetherart for MerMay! Established plance as mermaids and guardians of their elements with adorable mer child. Then angst because they are all captured by a ‘research’ institute.

Seasons of Magic (16546 words)

I actually added a chapter this year! Ongoing collection of one-shots with mage Pidge who lives in the country and cultivates her plant magic and makes potions with the assistance of her dragon familiar, Lance. Mostly domestic fluff.

Too Soon and Not Soon Enough (11438 words)

Added another chapter this year to my Keith-centric AU. It’s basically VLD but five years early and they’re all literally child Paladins. Keith gets to meet Krolia earlier and its fun to go into tween friendships as they try and navigate the reality of their situation.

Seeds (48833 words)

Added a ton earlier this year. A collection of plance fics all or mostly under 500 words. All meant to be adopted by others if interest strikes. Covers many genres.

Chaptered Fics Finished:

Resolve to Fly (75799 words)

Written for the Pidge Angst Bang. My artist @alchemie0 did an outstanding job capturing the feel of the fic. Look at the art here! Canon verse AU where Pidge encounters Haxus, who has crashed on Earth. She helps him repair his ship in excitement and good faith, which he pays back by kidnapping her. For two years she survives as little more than a housepet on Sendak’s ship. Gen.

Who's Protecting Who? (28989 words)

Also technically not written this yeah, but posted. A collab with Hush waaaay back in 2018. It's a plance Altean AU with Pidge as distant royalty and Lance as a bodyguard.

A Dish Served Cold (21533 words)

Finally finished this one! Canon verse in which Pidge accidentally runs into Sendak on an isolated planet. Sendak takes advantage of this encounter and tries to return to the Empire with her in tow. Much Pidge whump. Gen

Reflections:

Best title

I still really really love Too Soon and Not Soon Enough (11438 words). Because it's too soon for the Paladins to be Paladins, and for Keith it's not nearly soon enough for Krolia to return. It just feels like it has a lot of heart to it. I hope I can keep it going, but my ideas are incredibly scattered for it.

Worst title

Touch (7519 words). Yeah it’s a play on ‘Don’t you touch her’ but it feels soooo dry.

Best/worst last line

Best: This was really, really hard choice this year, but ultimately, making up for the terrible title, its Touch (7519 words)

“It feels good to escape the ship with all of his teammates, secure in the knowledge that he has a way forward not just as a Paladin, but also with Pidge.”

- Not only did I manage to fit the title of the episode in there, it's got that hopeful tinge to it and reflects on personal growth both internally and with Pidge.

Worst: This one isn’t necessarily bad from Begin Again (Together) (4805 words), but it could be better. It didn’t get quite the epic sense I was hoping to pull from it.

“Okay,” he smirks, hand firmly on the throttle. “Operation save Earth starts now.”

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Definitely wrote way more. Even with posting two fic that are essentially the exact same, I still ended up writing nearly half of my total Ao3 word count this year. (330,000/670,000). Doing Bad Things Happen Bingo was a bit part of that - I was very inspired at the beginning of this year - but also there were many events I participated in (8 total!!) on top of my personal projects.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

A really hard decision this year, because there are several that make me really happy. I think oddly enough though, it’s Game of Love (4593 words) because of its potential and how much crack it is. It has such whacky rom-com energy to it but also that underlying angst of the situation I can fall back on. My favorite trope to explore is what happens to the characters when they’re captured. I just really enjoy the concept and the challenge to make such a concept believable with minimal suspension of belief.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Using kudos as my gauge (and not counting the chapter fics), the winner is:

Respite of the Heart (4181 words)

Not surprising because Ivy’s art is STUNNING.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

I think that’s It Tasted Good (6785 words), the pikelavar fic. Pikelavar is underappreciated in general

Story that could have been better?

For all I was excited to write Sunshine (3831 words), it didn’t quite fall the way I had imagined in my mind. I don’t know if it was the structure or I was running out of steam or what. All i know is that I wanted more but all I could concentrate on was that scene where he’s caring for her in bed. Maybe I was just too ambitious.

Sexiest story?

No brainer it's Into Me (14248 words). Literally. Which really shocked me that it happened. Didn’t think I’d write any smut at all, let alone this year. This particular fic just kinda called out for it

Saddest story?

The prequel to the above fic: Next to Me (7311 words). How much more sad can you get than Earth being destroyed, being Sendak’s prisoners all while trying to tell each other ‘i love you’ without seeming weird because you’re the last humans in the universe.

Most fun?

I think it's Ready to Dance (4135 words). Just Valentine’s fluff and impromptu slow dancing in the park at night.

Story with single sweetest moment?

I’m picking What Tides May Bring (20704 words). Listen, mer Lance and mer Pidge playing with their mer baby in their domestic paradise is probably one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. Dad Lance has my heart.

Hardest story to write?

The last chapter of A Dish Served Cold (21533 words) was like pulling teeth. I’m pretty happy with it in the end but at the time man it was so hard.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I wrote smut. It was...weird? But also strangely calming. I wrote more for another fic but it's still a WIP. I definitely need to be in the mood to write it.

Proudest Achievement:

The Pidge Angst Bang. Resolve to Fly (75799 words). Look at that word count. I only wanted something under 3k at first, so it was just going to be Pidge meeting Haxus. But by the time I finished that part it was already 10k. So even though I was going through a rough part of my life, I just kept going and it ended up being my therapy. I’m really proud of the fic and I love my artists’ pieces. It really lifted my spirits. (You should all really go check out the Ao3 collection of all the bang stories and art they are AMAZING you won’t regret. If you love Pidge angst they are all must reads.)

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

I’d like to finish my Bad Things Happen Bingo card and then focus on my current WIP, that includes the Seeds collection. There are days I still feel a bit overwhelmed, and I’m still trying to find a routine after moving. I’d like to do more events too, but I think I need to be more selective about which ones I do. I don’t want to burn myself out.

Apart from that, I’d really like to try and give back to the community more. I’d like to start consciously writing fics for others without an event to go by.

Past Years:

2017

2018

2019

#plance #pidgance #rueitae #writing roundup #my writing #vld #2020 writing roundup

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glacecakes · 3 years

Text

Alchemy Lullaby (17/17)

Of all the changes that came with living in the castle, becoming a father was not one he anticipated. When Eugene encounters a small child suffering like he did, he gives them the opportunity to grow up the way he never did… helping them both heal. (AU where Varian is 4 and gets adopted by Eugene)

Varian reunites with his real family. Fred gets dunked on. Eugene and Rapunzel surprise each other.

WE ARE AT THE END OH MY GOD ;-; sorry this took so long I have not been vibing but yknow. It be like that. First off, a big thanks to everyone who has helped me on this crazy journey. The scar and 7K server being my serotonin machine (if you wanna join dm me), AJ and Gues for helping me with ideas, and of course Finn, my partner in crime, the platonic love of my life, without who this crazy mess would probably not have been completed. And of course, all of you who have commented and kudos'd and bookmarked. This fic just passed Only as Strong in hits and that totally blows my mind.

I have so many lil baby ideas that were either too short to go here, or happen after AL, or didn't go with the story flow that I want to write! I'm debating whether to do it like VVO where they're all in one fic or just spam the varian tag. As always please leave a comment if you enjoyed this, thank you so much! If you have any specific requests for baby oneshots I'm always open!

Ok ok enough rambling

The moonstone clattered to the ground, dull and quiet like any other rock.

For a few moments, no one spoke. The only sound was Quirin’s heavy breathing, exhausted, as he slumped over Ulla’s slowly cooling body.

“Well…” Eugene finally breathed. “That was… something.” The adrenaline finally began to wear off, replacing a feral desire to protect with burns and shaky hands. In his arms Varian doesn’t stir, the soft breath against his arm the only sign he’s still alive.

“Understatement of the fucking century,” Cassandra groans. The decay incantation settled deep into their bones, making every movement painful. The only one unaffected was Rapunzel, protected by the golden pulse in her chest. She moves her hand to reveal a golden stone, similar to the moonstone.

“Millennium ago, a phenomenal event had divided an ancient power in two. The Sundrop and Moondrop fell to Earth; two elements waiting to be reunited…” She glanced up at Quirin, confusion written all over her face.

Slowly, shakily, she stood up and stumbled over. This was the one time she wanted shoes, what with the blood pooling at her toes. The man at her feet said nothing, simply staring down at the body with empty eyes. She heard whispers of soft footsteps behind her, indicating Eugene had followed with Varian in tow.

Quirin’s mind was a whirlwind, chattering faster than he’d ever spoken. What ifs, curses, screams, but despite all that…

He didn’t feel guilty. Not in the slightest.

Was that wrong of him? He just killed the mother of his child, the only woman he ever loved, and he felt nothing. Well, he felt relief. But regret, guilt, sorrow? None. Was this fatherly protection? His devotion to his king? Did he fall out of love? Maybe it was a mix of three. But then again, the woman he fell in love with and the woman he just killed were two wildly different people. Had she always been crazy and he’d just been blind, or did the moonstone corrupt her from its place in her womb?

It seems parenthood can change you for better or worse.

The princess kneeled down next to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. When he glanced up she smiled briefly, before glancing down at her breast. “Is this…?”

“The sundrop,” Quirin breathed, awe-stricken. “But how?” He glanced down at the woman (corpse) at his feet, and then over to Eugene and Varian.

With a grunt, Rapunzel ripped it free from her body. It hummed faintly, bathing her in a golden glow that illuminated her hair back to blonde. How magnificent and haunting all at once; the source of her power that caused so much pain to her family, that caused her kidnapping… that caused her to meet the love of her life.

It would be so easy to simply… reclaim it. To reabsorb its magic and regain the power to heal. But when she glanced around, at the destruction caused by its counterpart…

“The only way to destroy the moonstone.” She said with an air of finality, clutching it tightly in her fist. “Is to reunite it with its equal.” Quirin nodded in agreement. It was kind of amusing, that the destruction of a cosmic entity was merely an afterthought in this scenario.

Just tying up loose ends.

In another reality, maybe Rapunzel and Eugene and Varian would have sought the moonstone out. Maybe they would have debated whether or not to reunite the stones, unsure of the damage it would cause to Rapunzel.

But maybe someone else would have stolen it, harnessed it, and caused even more suffering untold. To her, to her friends, to her family…

A moan came from Eugene’s arms as Varian squirmed. His eyes remained shut, but he reached out a tiny hand for his dad to grasp. Internally, Eugene gave a massive sigh of relief. He’d been so worried that his son was gone, that he wouldn’t wake up without the moonstone. If that had been the case… god, he didn’t know what he’d do. Well, actually, Eugene knew exactly what he’d do (that being to reinsert the moonstone), but whether or not Quirin would let him is a whole other story.

“Bluebird? Can you hear me?” He whispered, gently shaking the boy. It was weird to see him without his signature hair stripe, almost as weird as long-haired-brunette Rapunzel.

“Daddy… m’ tired,” Varian whined, curling into a warm chest and breathing in familiar cologne. He sighed, content. He would’ve fallen back asleep if not for Eugene gently rustling him.

“Sorry bud, I need you to wake up for a little bit,” he whispered, biting back a smile. With an overdramatic groan, Varian opened his eyes. It was a familiar routine. Almost as if they were back home and he was just waking Varian up for the day. “How do you feel? Does anything hurt?”

“My throat...” he was cut off by a weak cough.

“Aw bud, I’m sorry, we’ll get you checked out at home, ok?” At Varian’s nod Eugene let out a massive sigh of relief. “I think Rapunzel needs you for a second.” He raised his eyes up to his girlfriend, who was now trailing a finger down Varian’s cheek.

With a small smile, she helped Varian out of his dad’s arms and placed him onto the ground by her side. “Would you like to help me get rid of the rocks?” She asked, and he bit his thumb while nodding shyly. His eyes had trailed over to Quirin and… Rapunzel was quick to move her hair in the way. He didn’t need to see that.

With a heavy, shaking hand, Quirin’s gloved hand reached out for the moonstone. He hesitated briefly, anxiously. What if it was absorbed by him? No, he couldn’t falter. He’d waited this long, salvation was within reach!

He grasped it tight. It didn’t react. Perhaps it knew the sundrop was close? Or maybe it knew Quirin didn’t want to use it? Regardless, he didn’t question it. Shaking, he stood up to his full height and ambled over to mother and son. He and Varian locked eyes for a moment. The boy’s eyes were troubled, clouded with hazy fear, confusion, but also… acceptance?

Quirin smiled. He held the stone out. “Would you like to do the honors, young man?” He whispered.

“Um. Yea, ok.” Varian said and took it into his tiny hands. He was so small, what was dwarfed in Quirin’s hands required both of Varian’s to hold. He looked up at Rapunzel, who’s own stone began to flare with power as it sensed its other half.

Eugene placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”

“Nope!” Cassandra snorted at the kid’s candor.

“But whatever happens…” Rapunzel said, “We’ll face it together, as a family.” She looked pointedly over at Cassandra, who rolled her eyes.

“Alright alright, I’m coming,” She said.

“Yes, Auntie Cassie, join us!” Eugene chimed, earning an elbow in the arm.

She stood on Rapunzel’s side, supporting her best friend as she held out the sundrop. Eugene readjusted so he was holding onto Varian from behind.

Quirin stood aside, finally content.

The stones touched.

Varian skipped down the hallway with Ruddiger and cart in tow. The raccoon reached his tiny hands out, determined to swipe an apple from a nearby display. Just a little closer…!

The raccoon blinked as the apple vanished. He could’ve sworn it was there just a second ago… confused beady eyes glanced up at his best friend, only to chitter in delight when he saw Varian had stolen it. The child took a bite before handing it to Ruddiger to finish.

“Excuse me!” Varian said to one of the maids (Faith? Felicity? Names are hard) “Have you seen mommy and Auntie Cassie?”

The maid giggled. “In her highness’s room, I believe.”

“Thank you miss!” He called. Faith shook her head, smiling. That boy was awful at sleight of hand, considering his father, but no one would care about a single apple.

Things had been pretty quiet since coming home, in all honesty. In Varian’s opinion, a bit boring even.

Well, the first few days home weren’t so quiet. Upon arriving at the palace all had been rushed to the infirmary, only to be let go with minor injuries. The only exception was Varian, who was confined to bed rest for a week. Getting poisoned half to death will do that to you.

He’d spent the week constantly in the presence of his family who rotated out. He’d wake up to Rapunzel’s soft voice with breakfast handmade by Lance, light exercise with Cassandra (that usually involved learning how to use a wooden sword). Then Arianna would come teach him something, either basic Coronian history or math. He’d nap with Ruddiger, and finally Eugene would spend the rest of the day with him, from dinner to bedtime. It was paradise to the little boy.

At some point during the week, Hugo came by with a get well soon gift. He’d gushed to Varian nonstop about all they’d done in school, how cool the castle was, and hey is that a raccoon?

Hugo’s mom (who apparently knew Ulla, judging by her crestfallen face upon hearing her fate) watched over the boys while the king and Quirin got chewed out. Less so Quirin, since he already made up for it by, y’know, killing his ex.

“Let me get this straight, you changed the law after my kidnapping so birth parents always have primary custody?” Rapunzel rubbed her temples, frustrated. Frederick, for his part, at least looked guilty.

“I wasn’t sure if you would’ve wanted to stay with whoever was raising you…!”

“I feel like any little girl who finds out they’re a long lost princess would rather live with her birth parents,” Eugene muttered.

“I was so worried about getting found out, that once it happened, I didn’t bother to actually look into it, I just… UGH! You should’ve at LEAST repealed it the second I came home!”

“I… forgot?”

“SERIOUSLY?”

In the end, it was agreed that the law not only hurt Varian, but dozens of other abandoned kids who could never be adopted now. Suffice to say, it did not survive the day. In fact, Rapunzel immediately got to work creating a service for saving abused kids, and appointed Eugene in charge.

“There’s no one here who could do better than you,” She said. “You suffered under our systems, and then saved our boy from the same fate. Twice. I trust that you’ll figure it out.”

Eugene smiled wetly, pressing his forehead to Rapunzel’s. “Sunshine, you’re going to be an amazing Queen, you know that?” He brushed a lock of hair out of her face. Now that her hair was breakable, she’d debated whether or not to cut it. Long hair was a part of her identity, after all, but without it’s magic she wasn’t sure it was worth the upkeep. In the end, she decided to cut it back, not as short as before, but rather a comfortable bob.

“And you’ll be amazing by my side.” She said, placing a kiss.

Eugene wasn’t the only one to get an upgrade. Apparently Cassandra and her dad working together on the breakout plan meant he got to see her in action, as well as her dedication to protecting the royal family. Now, she was officially a royal guard, training to replace her father someday.

Which meant Lance, as instructor, was her boss.

Eugene feared for his life.

Varian turned a corner before lifting Ruddiger out of the cart. He was getting heavy, and the cart couldn’t do stairs well on its own. Together they bounded up the steps into his mom’s room.

“Hi Mama!” he cheered, running into her embrace. She easily scooped him up and twirled him around, prompting delighted squeals. Ruddiger curled around Rapunzel’s neck, joining Pascal.

“How’s my baby boy today?” She chimed.

“I’m good! Miss grandma said to come here,” He had no clue what to call Arianna; between the queen insisted she be grandma, the king wanted her to be addressed by title, and Eugene calling her ma’am, it all jumbled up in his head.

“Yes, we need your help!” She said.

Cassandra grimaced. “You need his help, I want no part in this.”

“Aw, don’t be like that!”

“Listen, Raps, I adore you, but your taste in men is atrocious. And coming from me that’s a low blow.” She stuck her tongue out at the little one who let out a squawk of protest. With a wave, she left the room.

“What’s wrong with daddy!?” He cried after her, raising a fist. “Fight me!”

“Let’s not fight family, ok? Remember how well the last time turned out?” Rapunzel hissed between her teeth. Varian cocked his head, confused.

“But I won last time.”

Can’t argue with that.

“Speaking of that…” Rapunzel hummed, carrying Varian over to her walls. From floor to ceiling paint covered nearly every surface, detailing her life and all the people in it. Front and center was a portrait of their family. Varian was nestled in between his mom and dad, with a beaming smile. “I know you won our fight for Eugene’s love but, I still love him. You know that, yea?”

“Mhm.”

“Well…” Her eyes trailed over to another drawing, this one much smaller; that of her coronation, when she’d turned down his proposal.

It’d been about six months since that fateful day, six months that Varian has been with them. In that time Varian turned five. While they didn’t know his exact birthday, Quirin had been helpful in estimating around when Varian had been born, and they picked a random date around late March. It had been a pretty small party, what with everyone still reeling a bit. But it was nonetheless momentous for two reasons: one, Eugene’s gift to Varian had been his official adoption papers, and two, Rapunzel had decided she was ready to marry Eugene. Seeing her son so happy in the man’s arms… she wanted that. She wanted it forever.

Hence why she asked Varian to come see her.

“You know what marriage is, right bud?” At his confirmation, she continued. “Well, me and your dad aren’t married… but I want to change that. If we got married, I’d become your mom officially, like how Eugene adopted you. Do you… would you like that?”

Varian blinked a few times. The gears in his head whirred to life, slowly cranking out a response. Finally, his sky blue eyes lit up in understanding and happiness. Mama wanted to stay with him forever! He nodded so fast it hurt, and he had to stop after a few seconds.

“Thanks, baby,” Rapunzel said, overcome with joy. “Now, you can’t tell anyone about this, ok? I want it to be a surprise for daddy.”

“Can I tell Ruddiger…?”

“Yes, you can tell him.”

“What about Hugo?”

“I mean if you want…”

“Uncle Lance?”

“No, he’s terrible with secrets.”

Eugene hummed under his breath as he helped Varian get ready for the day. Both mother and son had been all giggly and whispery the day before; clearly they had a secret between them. “You gonna tell me what you and mom were talking about?”

Varian cocked his head in confusion. Oh gosh, it never got old, still just as cute as the first time!

“Last night,” Eugene clarified.

Varian gasped, covering his mouth. He shook his head in despair. Daddy didn’t like keeping secrets from him, he said it was good to tell the truth… but mommy asked him to keep it to himself! Would she be mad if he told him?

“Don’t wanna spill?” Eugene teased, chuckling. He helped Varian into his new shirt. He never did find out what happened to Varian’s sailor outfit, the one he wore when he was with Ulla, but when the house blew up there was no way it survived. Now Varian wore a dark purple school uniform, with white buttons and ascot. His shoes were shiny and black, the pristine boarding school kind. There was a hat that went with it but Varian never wore it for more than a few minutes.

Varian shook his head.

Eugene smirked. “Alright, how about I share a secret with you, hm? Maybe then you’ll tell me?” He took the silence as an invitation. “I’m gonna ask Rapunzel to marry me.” He almost said again, but Varian wasn’t there the first time, and he still wanted the kid to think positively of him. It felt nice to tell someone; he’d tell Lance but he was terrible with secrets.

Varian looked like he was gonna explode.

His dad burst out laughing. The kid’s cheeks were so puffed up you’d mistake him for a blowfish, and his face burned red. He opened his mouth, but bit down on his hand to muffle his words, and stomped his feet in frustration. Frustrated tears bubbled up and, had it not been for his dad’s calloused hands, would’ve fallen down.

“Oh, bud,” Eugene wheezed. “It’s ok, you don’t have to tell me, alright? But I wanted to tell you that. I was going to propose tonight.”

Tonight!? Rapunzel and he were planning for tonight too! He was gonna sing a song! At his distraught face, Eugene quickly backpedaled.

“Bluebird I still love you! I know you technically won that fight but I’m still gonna love her, but you’re still my little boy! Are you mad?”

“No!” Varian whined. He hated that he couldn’t tell him why he was upset! Daddy was so good at cheering him up.

“No?”

“No.”

Exasperated, Eugene picked his son up and left his bedroom for the day. “Well when you’re ready to tell me, you come get me, hm? No pouting.”

He pouted the rest of the day.

It sucked.

Eugene could tell it was stressing Varian just as much as it was stressing him, but because Varian refused to talk, it made the whole situation that much worse. He thought maybe he was just mad at him, but apparently he wouldn’t even talk to Lance! And he loved Lance!

Varian hated being quiet! He was the biggest chatterbox when he wanted to be! The last time he was this quiet towards his family was back when he first moved in. But still the boy held his tongue. If he didn’t, he might accidentally tell someone! And he couldn’t even tell Rapunzel or Cassie, since they were busy all day!

Maybe today’s just an off day, Eugene thought as Varian pushed his food around at dinner. He looked so miserable, like he was near tears, and it pulled at his heartstrings. Eventually Varian gave up on trying to eat, and that was Eugene’s cue for an early bedtime.

For his part, Varian didn’t really complain all that much. But then again, if he complained, he might slip up!

“Just double checking, bud.” Eugene said after he tucked the boy in. Varian’s little onesie was so precious, covered in clouds and a sun on his chest. “You’re not upset about me proposing to Rapunzel?”

In all honesty, he was more worried about nightmares. All of their hard work building up Varian’s confidence had crumbled like a stack of cards thanks to Ulla. He was wary of guards and staff, unsure if any of them would turn them back over for experiments.

Even though Eugene had explained to Varian that his momma could never hurt him again, that he was safe and no one would ever take him away from him, that really wasn’t true. For one, Rapunzel was living proof of that. But more importantly, Ulla’s claws dug deep into the boy’s mind, haunting his dreams. At least once a week, even now, Varian would wake with horrible screams and visions of electric chairs and amber formulas and rocks. He was bouncing back a lot faster than the first time around, but there was a reason he’d started looking around Corona for a child psychiatrist.

“No…” Varian sighed. He may be bummed about their plans, but if the end result was the same, he couldn’t really be too upset. Right? He picked at his sheets. “Just wanted to see mama…”

Eugene smiled sadly. “I’ll have her come see you after our date, ok?” With a kiss to the forehead, the father left the room.

Varian waited a few moments.

Then he slipped out of bed.

Regardless of whether or not his and Rapunzel’s plans were ruined, he’s not missing this proposal! Honestly he was a little offended Eugene didn’t ask him to help. He could’ve been like, “Will you be my mommy?”. But then again, Rapunzel already was his mommy. So maybe not those exact words.

Whatever! The point remained!

He peeked down the corner, where Eugene and Rapunzel were talking. Ruddiger’s tail swished in Varian’s face, making it impossible for him to make out what they were saying. But judging by the box Eugene hid behind his back, and the chest Rapunzel hid behind hers, it was something about a surprise on their date tonight.

Man, adults were weird. Why all the secrets and cryptic speech?

They walked side by side, neither looking at the gifts hidden away, nor at Varian trailing behind them like a lost puppy.

“I heard Varian was cranky today,” Rapunzel snickered at the face her boyfriend made in response. He looked like he’d swallowed a lemon. Which, to be fair, wasn’t too far off from his “smolder”. And he wondered why she didn’t fall for it.

“Yea, a bit,” he said. “He didn’t want to tell me what you two have been up to.” At this, she raised an eyebrow. In all honesty, she expected him to cave. Her sweet little boy kept it together! Well, maybe not emotionally. She’ll grab a cupcake for him later.

“Well, I think he’ll be in a much better mood tomorrow,” she hummed. “I was surprised you wanted to go on a boat ride instead of our other plan.”

“Yea well, I had an idea.”

“A good one?” She shrieked when he jokingly poked her stomach.

Varian followed them quietly, his padded footsies keeping him undetected. The night chill nipped at his cheeks, turning them red as an apple. But he didn’t care. He kept following until his parents approached a boat and rowed out a small ways. It was far enough that Varian probably couldn’t swim it, but he could still see them. The soft sound of waves filled his ears, the moon’s lullaby trying to soothe its kin. But Varian’s focus was solely on his family.

“To think, about a year ago we were out here…” the princess glanced up at the starry sky. “And now…” She glanced over to see Eugene’s warm, loving smile.

“So, are we going to share gifts now or later?” Eugene joked. “It’s kinda funny, since today’s not really anything special, but we still got each other gifts.”

Rapunzel hummed, smiling. “This one isn’t just for you.” She glanced down at the box, an ornate, mahogany chest her mom gave her for the occasion. “It was supposed to be ready at Varian’s birthday but I figured I’d just give both of them to you.” Eugene’s smile turned even softer, if that was even possible. His heart was so warm, he half expected to burn from the inside out. The chest creaked open, and he gasped.

“Oh, blondie…”

There were two crowns sitting on plush blue velvet. Eugene’s was a dark silver, almost black under the moon’s shine. It had three prongs, not unlike Rapunzel’s tiara, though these were much pointier. Embedded on the middle prong was a gleaming violet stone, reflecting the color of Corona. Varian’s was relatively simple, more of a circlet. Also silver, it had the same loops as Rapunzel’s, with a myriad of blue stones instead of her red.

Eugene let out a shaky breath, almost nervous to touch them. “Rapunzel, these are…!” It felt almost wrong to have them. A year ago he’d tried to steal hers, and now he’s getting one of his own? But he couldn’t deny how much he wanted this. Not the crowns per say (well, that’s a lie; he may not be a thief anymore but he still loved the finer things in life) but to belong, to match with the loves of his life.

There was one nagging question though. “How’d you get your dad to agree?”

Rapunzel snorted. Around the same time she’d blown up at her dad, she’d found out about the nobility’s haggling in regards to him and Varian. “I told him we’d give him another grandkid.” Eugene choked on his own spit. “Uh, can we, um, raincheck on that? Varian’s already enough,” He wheezed. With his anxieties soothed, he reached out, fingers brushing against the cool metal. “I gotta say, these are pretty nice. Just big enough to not mess up my hair! Aw, blondie, you think of everything.” He struck a pose. “How do I look?”

“Like a king,” Rapunzel beamed. She reached into her pocket, ready to give him the other gift. “Speaking of king-”

“Hold that thought, it’s my turn!” Eugene said, holding up a finger. He missed his girlfriend’s pout.

Across the bay, Varian pouted as well. “This is boring,” he whined to Ruddiger.

“So, speaking of kings,” Eugene said, and Rapunzel rolled her eyes fondly, but softened when Eugene’s face turned more serious. “I know the last time I asked was… less than perfect. And in the time since that… so much has happened,” that was an understatement, and they both knew it. “You asked me to wait, and I just want you to know that I am fully willing to wait still. But… I just wanted to… check in?” He opened the box to reveal a cupcake. But before Rapunzel could question it, Pascal grabbed the cherry, revealing a ring on top of the frosting. She gasped.

“Rapunzel… will you marry me?”

Her eyes brimmed with tears of joy. She sniffled, reaching into her pocket. “Only if you marry me,” she laughed, revealing the golden band she had. Eugene’s face lit up, and smiled harder than he ever had. The night was full of silence, just the two of them as they swapped bands.

“HEY! DID YOU DO IT YET?”

Eugene burst into silent laughter, burrowing his face onto Rapunzel’s shoulder as his own shook with mirth. Honestly, he didn’t know why he expected any less. Of course Varian would try and follow them. His fiance (!!) grabbed the oars, rowing back to shore where their son bounced up and down with impatience.

The moment they stepped out onto the dock, they got an armful of child. “Oof!” Eugene wheezed. “I thought you went to bed, young man?”

“Nope!”

Rapunzel hummed. “But didn’t your daddy put you to bed?”

“Uhuh. I just got up again.”

Eugene barked out a laugh, sweeping Varian up into his arms, much to the boy’s delight. He shrieked with joy, clutching his dad’s neck tight. Rapunzel couldn’t help but join in, wrapping both of them into a bear hug.

The small family’s laughter rang out into the night air, up towards the moon.

It shined just a bit brighter.

#varian #tangled the series #tts #tts varian #tangled #tts eugene #eugene fitzherbert #tangled eugene #team awesome

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mimiplaysgames · 3 years

Text

Terra Week Day 3 (Dreams/AU)

Summary: Terra hears stories about Xehanort during his apprenticeship. Everyone has something to say about his face. | Word Count: 3,954

Read on AO3

A/N: For Terra Week 2021! You can find that account on Twitter!

~*~*~*~*~

The Tenets of a Master, Ch. 3

To Dream is to risk. To risk is to show bravery. To show bravery is to embody strength. To embody strength is to Dream.

In the middle of construction, Radiant Garden looks as though it’s been dealt an iron fist. Some neighborhoods need their roofs replaced and there’s now what they call an automatic trigger alarm system that is run by motion sensors. They are still clearing rubble from the streets on the west side. The east looks good as new, slowly filling back up with tufts of flowers.

Terra has never been inside Ansem the Wise’s castle (well… him, not him anyway) but it used to be beautiful. It used to stand on brick and alabaster stone, graciously presenting a giant clock mechanism that made it look Grandfatherly, a home away from home, carefully placed gears running three pendulums. Now the remains are held up by pipes. Cranes pull up missing spires that have fallen off. The only part truly original to the castle is still that clock piece. Grandfather had a rough night but at least he’s cleaning up nicely.

Ven jogs to keep up with Terra’s strides. “I saw you talking to Naminé last night,” he says.

“You saw right.”

“I’m worried.”

Terra is worried, too. Aqua, not suspecting anything, is leading the way up the stairs to the front entrance.

“You’re going to have to distract her for me,” Terra says, keeping his tone hushed.

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Stall her when you get the chance.” At which Ven rolls his eyes. “Just for a short while.” Checking to see if Aqua has turned her head, Terra pretends it’s a casual conversation. With a (painted) smile, he says out loud, “Race you to the top.”

Ven groans and lags behind.

At the top, Aqua greets one of the guards, a tall and meaty man with waist-length dark braids and slick sideburns that might as well be shaped by the edge of a knife. Terra has to push aside the question if this is one of the men who had kidnapped people for the sake of Xehanort’s experiments— the people he will meet today are not the same as they were. He has to remember that.

“Terra,” she says. “This is Dilan.”

Dilan. Terra doesn’t recognize that name.

Speaking of, Dilan takes one glance at Terra before bursting into laughter, haughty and rich.

“Aeleus,” he calls, his tone piercing like lances. “Come and see whose Somebody has finally decided to grace us with his presence.”

Aeleus. Nope, not this name either.

Ven cowers behind Aqua when a head of orange curls appear around the corner.

If Dilan is tall, Aeleus is a beast, a walking fortress with muscles bigger than Terra’s head. It’s impressive enough to make Terra keep Earthshaker close at his fingertips. Aeleus has what looks like a permanent scowl—so woven into his skin that when he smirks, no other muscle moves with it. It must be the eyebrows, but it leaves Terra wondering if he’s going to get his nose caved in at any moment. These men do have reasons to hold resentment, after all.

“I’ve given up on expecting a visit,” Dilan says when joined by his comrade. Two gatekeepers. “And I hardly ever expected to… feel this much when I would come upon your face again.” He grins and its equal parts amused and hurt.

Aeleus grunts in agreement. He crosses his arms and Terra swears it makes him grow another inch.

“If I may,” Dilan continues, “there have been quite the corrupted experiences in our history.”

Terra steps back. Corrupted. Before he can feel too sick, he feels a gentle hand on his wrist, Aqua stepping near him as she waits for his cue.

“I’ve carried such regret since,” Dilan says, hands wrapped behind his back. “I watch every face that passes by this castle, and at the end of each night, I’m left with this vacant pit in my chest, asking myself if we ever shared a shred of self-awareness, would we have pursued our dreams differently?

“Now that you are here,” he presses, angling down. “I realize it matters not what you remember of that time. I know when I see that shackled look in your eyes. I am not alone in this. For that, you’ll have no choice but to share the weight of that debt forever.” He smirks. “What say you, Aeleus?”

Aeleus measures Terra with his eyes. His voice is deep and as dense as rock. “You’re puny.”

Dilan spits into another bout of laughter.

Their roast of him eases Terra. He doesn’t know these men, and they know less of him, but they have a mutual friend called Burden, sharing the cheer. Aqua gets the message that all is fine, and lets go.

“Well...” Terra starts, too self-conscious of the way he speaks. The sound of his voice must be entertaining for Dilan, who’s containing himself. “I’m here to make some things right. Can we come in?”

Dilan sustains a grin and raises a hairy eyebrow, nodding off to Aeleus in some silent conversation. “Did you really think you can have access without telling us the secret password?”

“A password?” Now he feels like a dork. “Can I have a hint?”

“You can give us your heart,” Aeleus says, and Dilan can’t control himself any longer.

With a clap of their hands, the castle doors open, and they spread apart to let Terra and his friends through. Terra has to wonder if normal will ever bless him with its visit ever again. If he could be normal when he hears of others’ stories, when some jokes hit too close to home.

“Come back to train,” Aeleus says, giving Terra a hard knock on the shoulder that pushes him forward. “You need more muscle.”

The castle doors shut behind them with controlled weight, cutting off Dilan’s lingering amusement with a bang. Terra is left with hot ears, massaging his biceps to see if he’s gotten smaller.

“I think they like you,” Ven says.

Pipes line the crooks between the walls and the ceilings. Like a respiratory system, it steams and churns, pumping humid life into the castle. Some of the halls are dark. Parts of the floor are chipped and if not, grimey. They have a long way to go before it looks pristine.

And Terra apparently has spent years here. But nothing gives him that spark. Nothing makes his stomach turn or drops a loaded bout of nostalgia. The very thought of having lived here sounds like an alternate reality that was never recorded, so at best it’s just a story, at worst a lie.

“Soooo…” Ven says to Terra, hands casually behind his head. “Does this place bring back any memories?”

Aqua scoffs. “That’s an awful question to ask, Ven.”

“You mean you’re not curious?”

Terra groans. It’s not the invasive nature of the question, but the fact that he asked Ven to lay low about this mission not several minutes ago and here he is nearly sabotaging it. He flicks Ven at the ear.

“What? I just want to know!”

“I don’t,” Aqua mutters.

Stars. Terra’s pocket buzzes with notifications from his Gummiphone, but he ignores them. Now’s not the right time.

A man steps from around the corner, knee deep in a long, white lab coat with coiffed wrist cuffs and a folded handkerchief on his collar. He walks so quietly that they don’t hear him approach. Clean cut except for the hair—too clean, actually, and brushed over the front, like linen pulled too far to one side of the table.

“Master Aqua,” this man greets with a bright and timid smile behind the curtain. “How pleasant to finally meet you to face to face.”

“Likewise, Ienzo.”

Ienzo. Terra only recognizes it because Aqua keeps in contact with him.

Likewise, when Ienzo looks over her shoulder, he lights up.

“I’m Terra.”

“I can tell.” Ienzo clears his throat. “Pardon, I shouldn’t be so forward, but… You look so much like him.” He clicks his tongue. “I shouldn’t have said that, either.”

“It’s fine,” Terra says, though it’s not.

“I-I can show you around the castle.” He adjusts his collar. “It may seem unhomely now, but I assure you, it warms up in time.”

It’s already too warm.

“This has been home for you for a while, right?” Aqua asks, a plastic quality to her voice as if she’s trying to patch things up. Nothing needs patching though. It’s just awkward.

“Since I was a child.” Ienzo glances back at Terra. “May I say something?”

Everyone has something to say. Terra considers researching a magic spell to alter his face. “Sure.”

Ienzo tightens his collar again, the knot knuckling into his throat. “I really admired him. Xehanort.”

It doesn’t feel like a punch to the stomach but more like his breath was sucked out by a hand after it slapped him in the face. “Um…”

“I don’t mean to be rude. Or forward.” This guy apologizes too much. And will choke himself if he doesn’t stop. “But for some time, ever since I’ve heard word of who you really were, I wondered what it would be like for the two of us to meet. I held no expectations. And yet… Everything about you is so foreign to me.”

There goes Aqua again, standing near and giving Terra gentle notice that she’s there. There goes Ven, gawking up at him and being completely unsubtle about how the conversation has turned.

“Everything about this place is foreign to me,” Terra says, trying to be polite and failing at somewhere closer to aghast.

“I apologize.” Ienzo turns his nervous ticks to his wrist cuffs, effortlessly attempting at cutting off his circulation. “I suppose you could say Xehanort was a profound presence in my life.”

When Ienzo finally catches on to what he’s doing to his clothes, he exhales and puts his hand to his face, thinking deeply, maybe about a time in an alternate universe where lies and stories were real. It makes him look like a child.

“You would have been,” Terra says, keeping himself sweet, “very young when you met him.”

Ienzo nods slowly. “I was a child and taken in to study. Science was a language he spoke with ease and I wanted in every way to emulate that when I grew up.”

Terra can relate. “Was that hard on you?”

“Not in the beginning.” Ienzo slowly finds some courage with every word. “He wasn’t kind… Not like you are. He was polite, however, and he was focused. If anything, Xehanort had a sort of quality that made you believe all the possibilities were in your grasp. No matter what they were, or your age, or level of intelligence. He was magnetic. I grew up thinking I was capable of anything because of his support.” Ienzo stares down at a small puddle building up from the steam. “I wanted to impress. I believed in what he believed, and never once did I think—I justified everything I did. I did not know about you. And I am so very sorry.”

“I get it,” Terra says softly. “He made you feel like you were worth the time and effort.”

“Yes. Exactly.”

And it came with a cost. Terra doesn’t need to say it, and neither does Ienzo, a quiet acknowledgement passing in the moments they nod and paint a smile between them.

“I appreciate you giving me the time to release these thoughts,” Ienzo says. “I’ve struggled with them for some time, especially after waking up again.”

“Happy to help.” Actually it hurts, but Terra can deal.

“Now I must reciprocate my efforts.” Ienzo turns to Aqua. “You are looking for your Keyblade.”

Aqua, for the second time that day, lets Terra go. “Did you find out anything new?”

After a moment, he says, “It is blue. Before you raise your hopes”—he lifts his hands in defense—“neither of us can recall what Xehanort has done with it. I don’t believe I have ever seen evidence of it during my time as a Nobody. We are regressing quite a few years in the past.”

“Oh.”

Ienzo blinks. “I was uncertain if I had dreamed of it, but when I was a child, I would take walks around the castle at night. A ritual I felt I needed in order to sleep. One of those serendipitous nights, I had walked past Xehanort’s personal office.” He glances at Terra, opens his mouth to say more, then thinks the better of it and addresses Aqua instead. (You, but not you.) “He had left the door open. He was studying a large object, electrifying it and concocting different spells to get it to react. I want to say it was blue, but I was not certain what I was looking at.”

They all stare at him in silence.

“He was… toying with it?” Aqua asks.

“I am not sure.”

“Maybe he was trying to activate it?” Ven says.

“Perhaps.”

“How was he that night?” Terra asks, a distinct acidity to his throat and so help him stars, he might just spit it out in the next minute. It’s natural to hold your friends’ Keyblades. This is different.

“Frustrated,” Ienzo says. “I almost want to say that he was on the verge of giving up, as though it had given up on him.”

“That makes it sound like he was attached to it,” Aqua spits.

“That is a possibility. But whatever it was, it didn’t want to work with him.”

Aqua smirks and lifts one elegant shoulder. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Let me escort you to our records room.” Ienzo gestures with an arm to the hallway behind him. “I’ll show you some of his earlier journals. Perhaps there is a mention of it?”

They start ahead except for Terra, who waits until they move several paces before they noticed he opted to stay behind.

“Actually,” Terra says slowly, finding opportunity here and swallowing the acid down. It’s going to take at least two meals to remove the taste. “Being here and listening to all of this makes me a little dizzy.”

Anything involving discomfort with her friends set off panic with Aqua. “Are you okay?”

Ven gives Terra a warning glare.

Robin Hood would have tweaked the truth for the better good. What a horrible thought, stars, Yen Sid has got to be humoring Aqua in getting Terra prepared for his Mark of Mastery.

“I’m just overwhelmed,” Terra says. She believes him.

“Maybe you should step outside.”

Ven puffs out.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Terra says, pressing Ven with a glare back. Have my back. “I won’t be gone for long. I want to be around to help you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Aqua says, checking his eyes for signs of exhaustion. “Get your rest.”

It’s that easy and yet Ven walks away defeated. It shouldn’t take long. All Terra has to do is pull out his Gummiphone and find—

“Naminé.”

She’s back near the entrance. Thank the stars she prefers to use full sentences and could direct him where to go to meet her. When she sees him, she signals to be quiet and gestures for him to follow her. They go down a different hallway, one that is much more well kept than the one Aqua and Ven are taking. They pass by labs this way, some filled with computers, others with flasks, half of a library, and infirmary beds. Nothing so far that looks menacing or painful, but maybe Terra is overthinking the whole Xehanort-tortures-people legend. Or maybe the castle is designed to hide such things.

She takes him to a room with a recliner and several computer screens that are running some diagnostics about the security systems outside, and closes the door behind them.

Someone is already waiting here.

“Riku?”

“Terra.”

“What are you doing here?”

Riku holds his waist and draws out a long exhale, like a tired schoolteacher. “Ven was worried.”

“And spilled the beans.” Terra scoffs.

“And spilled the beans.” Riku smirks and it lightens up his whole face in a way that only fits with him. Terra never has to take anything too seriously for too long when he’s around Riku. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

A mixed feeling of anxiety and relief wash over Terra like a lumpy massage on his shoulders. “I don’t mean to do this in secret.”

Riku shrugs. “I would have.”

“I need to say something,” Naminé says, her arms wrapped around a lineless notebook. Even when announcing to a room, she keeps herself soft and small. “I’m not entirely confident about this.”

Riku snorts.

“How is that funny?”

“It’s not, I’m sorry.” After noticing how she’s staring at him with utter confusion, he waves at her. “You’re a lot more capable than you give yourself credit for.”

Unconvinced, she sighs and motions to the recliner. “Please get comfortable, Terra.”

“What is this going to look like anyway?” Riku leans on the dashboard behind him, a ghostly light silhouetting him like a grim reaper on guard.

Naminé pouts. That same light gives her an eldritch glow, illuminating her white dress. “I’m going to attempt to connect Terra to Xehanort’s memories.”

“Nam,” Riku says, crossing his arms, suddenly serious. “That’s not a good idea.”

“Attempt.”

“Xehanort is dead.”

“But memories stay with you,” Terra objects. They do. He can play them in his head, over and over. He already has for years.

Eraqus lives as long as Terra can replay his voice.

“From what I understood,” Riku says, leaning on his thighs, “you don’t remember being Xehanort. So how can you connect to his memories?”

But death is a one way door.

“He was in my body,” Terra says. However, that Riku is skeptical of this suddenly makes Terra uneasy.

“Would you say you were bonded with Xehanort?” Naminé asks, so quiet it’s a shy whisper, afraid to ignite a bomb with the soundwaves of her voice.

“Does irreparable damage count?”

“That may hurt you in the long run,” she says, pulling a stool aside Terra and opening her notebook on her lap. “What I mean is, the memories we share with other people form the bonds. They link together, like chains.”

Chains. Terra winces.

“You choose who you bond with, in all the decisions you’ve made in the past,” she continues.

In some way, Terra has chosen to bond with Xehanort, hasn’t he? He chose to confide in him, and he carries the shackles all these years later.

“But you are trying to access memories you’ve played no role in,” Naminé says. “There is nothing to link between the two, except for the body.”

“That isn’t enough?” Terra sits on the recliner. It’s stiff and unyielding, but he leans on his back and looks up at the monitor, illegible script running numbers upside down.

Riku groans.

“If you were still carrying Xehanort with you,” she says, “I think I could have made an artificial connection there.” Slowly flipping pages, she grimaces until she finds a blank slate. “Kind of like I used to do. I can create false memories. I can break chains and rechain them. But I cannot propel you to a time you did not exist.”

“I did exist,” Terra says softly.

“What she’s trying to say,” Riku says, getting up on his feet and pacing,“is that you’re doing what Sora did before he disappeared.” Sora, a warning to keep you from getting lost in the woods. “I’m not comfortable with this.”

Naminé splays out crayons on the nearby table: one orange, one blue, a green and a red. She looks sickly. “But Sora went too far.”

“So,” Terra starts, obviously a fool even to himself, “you mean if I don’t go as far, I can be okay.”

Naminé fiddles with her fingers. “I can’t guarantee that. I don’t know what you will end up seeing.”

Terra pauses. He’d be testing the limits of chance in putting Aqua and Ven through this grief again. It’s hard to imagine—Aqua getting the news of something happening, choosing not to cry in front of people she doesn’t know. Robin Hood would have made better choices.

But Aqua would grieve anyway if she goes through those books, picturing no one else but Terra doing all those horrible things. He’s heard some of the stories: the screaming at night, the monsters, the disappearances that start with the children and later swallow the entire family, where neighbors never see them come home again. Xehanort happened to all of them.

“I don’t mean you will disappear.” She lets loose a nervous chuckle.

“But I could go nuts,” Terra says with a painted smile.

“That’s why Ven asked me to be here,” Riku says, that edge of his sanded out some. “I’ve lost count how many times I’ve beaten Xehanort. Or Ansem. They’re the same really. I don’t think you’d be too much of a hassle.”

“Well, thanks,” Terra says, and Riku replies with a fisted nudge on his shoulder.

What’s the fun in playing the game if you already know the outcome? Terra doesn’t know why he’s thinking that way, but he’s absolutely stupid for taking the gamble. There’s no way Yen Sid seriously considers him for Mastery.

And Aqua would grieve anyway.

“I don’t want to let it come to that,” Naminé says, eyes on the floor.

“Are you going to make me watch Xehanort?” Terra asks.

“That’s up to you.” She starts with red. “I can’t make you do anything without writing memories for you.”

“Should let his heart guide him?” Riku asks.

May your fickle, sickly heart be your guiding key to oblivion and all the ridiculous delusions you hold dear.

“It’s a safer way to approach it,” Naminé says, not nodding but not shrugging either.

“Why am I not surprised.”

Terra doesn’t know why she sounds so insecure about her skills when he’s heard nothing but amazing things. “I suggest letting your mind move with your feelings,” she tells him. “Don’t force a thought, and don’t get lost in the emotions. Just sit. Does that make sense?” She taps the crayon to her chin.

“It does.” Terra counts his breaths. In three, out five. In five, out seven. Xehanort. He doesn’t know what to think about Xehanort. Hatred is useless. Revenge is futile. Anger will sabotage his way to Mastery. While Terra has tried his best in his meditation exercises, he’s only done them for the sake of earning good marks in his classes. Settling down, not thinking, relaxing—those are things Terra’s never claimed to be good at, especially lately.

Xehanort walked through these halls with Terra’s body. Should he try and picture himself instead? In the same lab coat Ienzo wears? With white hair, most likely. And definitely too much hair gel.

“What’s it going to be like?”

“A dream,” Naminé says, her crayon drawing loops on the page, though Terra cannot see what it is.

“It already feels like I’m dreaming,” Terra says, watching the ceiling ebb and flow with running lights from the computer monitors behind him. Ever since he stepped in here, it’s felt like he lived a lifetime away from home. No start, no ending, moving pictures that he loses as soon as he blinks. Nothing stays, like waking up and forgetting a whole night.

“I have to warn you,” Naminé says, her voice quieter, “I may have to unchain the memories you want linked together if it gets too hard for you.”

And there, in the midst of wondering if he’s ever going to get this right, he thinks of a white door he’s never seen before.

#kh terra #terra #kingdom hearts fanfiction #kh fanfic #dilan #aeleus #ienzo #namine #kh riku #i'm so exhausted it feels like I'm sprinting #my fic

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anchoredtetherart · 4 years

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Ever since they were kidnapped, Katie has always sought out Lance for comfort. She felt safe in his arms and would crawl into his bed whenever she was anxious or had nightmares. This became a pattern even as they grew older but Lance doesn’t mind in the slightest. He welcomes the comfort in the strange and terrifying reality they’ve been thrust into.

And I can imagine Lance has been woken up numerous times from Katie shifting in her sleep and poking him with her horns

From the AU Shatter and Tessellate.

#plance #galra!plance #galra plance #flirtyrobot #pidgance #vld lance #vld pidge #galra lance #galra pidge #galra au #vld au #plance au #shatter and tessellate #anchoredtether #anchoredtetherart

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victorlimadelta · 4 years

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my best shitpost-an-au work is done on my drive to work so please take this shitpost of a witcher au that i’m affectionately nicknaming ‘school of the lion’

characters are in no particular order with bonuses at the end

hunk: eskel analog. that boy has never done anything wrong a day in his life but got thrown into a combat-intensive lifestyle by basically being sold into slavery and he makes the most out of it that he can. prefers being a ‘captive’ witcher of a locale or noble for the job security, and so he doesn’t have to take so many dangerous contracts. strongest sign: yrden. accidentally fell in love with an elf named toruviel. disaster duo with lance.

lance: jaskier analog. nickname ‘dandy lion’ because he’s a flirt and a bard. manages to attach himself to a witcher’s side just to be an absolute bisexual disaster and a true pest. better with a song than a weapon, but can and will snipe you with filavandriel’s bow just as well as with his lute. always managing to get himself into trouble with his extracurricular activities and needs his ass saved by a witcher, more often hunk than not.

pidge: ciri analog, but more w3:wh ciri than show/book ciri. child surprise of the white lion, she and the white lion have an extensive history and he thinks of her as an adoptive daughter. her family has been kidnapped by the wild hunt and she will not stop until she finds them. acts as a magical conduit, or ‘source,’ and can’t really control it; angry at needing to be babysat so she doesn’t hurt those around her. can manipulate space and time and slip into alternate realities just by forcefully rearranging reality around her until it suits the reality she means to manifest. (in other words, magic, but in exploiting infinitesimally unlikely possibilities.) knows some tricks from the school of the lion but can’t perform signs and has not undergone the mutations (nor could she, as she’s a girl). small, slight, dangerous, and just a little bit fey.

keith: a weird combination between lambert and yennefer. every time i write keith in an au he truly becomes a child of two worlds and this one isn’t any different. he’s one of the ones that’s a means of payment for a contract, of the type of ‘take the first thing you see when you walk in the door,’ when he had already been left by his mother and his father had died, leaving him a ward of the local village and absolutely unwanted. he’s undergone witcher mutations, went through the first few trials, then basically said ‘fuck you and fuck this’ and fucked off from the school of the lion stronghold to seek out where he comes from and why he feels so attuned to signs, like even moreso than most witchers. turns out his mother was a mage, but not an aretuzan ivory-tower politicking-to-control-the-world type. he’s taken in by his mother’s people and taught to the limits of his ability, as fast as he can learn, and his latent abilities are impressive. his magic is chaotic and destructive and dark, barely-controlled and terrifying in its intensity, and he still has witcher combat training on top of it. unwittingly used as a spy by the brotherhood, then lodge, in their complicated games of politics; not sorry to see either of them fall. because he’s a wild sorcerer, he hasn’t, ah... how do i say this delicately. he can still have children, basically.

shiro: the white lion of garrison. not only did he undergo the standard witcher mutations, but he put himself under a second, more lethal round voluntarily, to prove a point. when he was sold to the school, he was a mutant of a child, twisted, weak and deformed. he came out of his trials with supernatural swordsmanship, adept signing, expert alchemy, and the encyclopedic knowledge of monsters that it takes to become a traveling witcher-for-hire. of course, the trials took his arm, and the color from his hair. dares anyone to say anything about his predilections, because it’s in bad taste to mock the one person who can save your family from, let’s say, a striga. does in fact create an errant destiny bond with keith due to a horrible misadventure with a genie that was, apparently, trying to kill lance. (i guess in every au they’re just supernaturally bonded. keith will always be shiro’s first, last, only, and every wish.) truly one of the last of a dying breed, misunderstood by most and finding solace only in his close friends.

the best part is that this au leads to things like shiro’s personal moral code being ‘if i’m to choose between evils, then i prefer not to choose at all.’ or keith flirting with shopkeeps by saying ‘i’ve never been shy a day in my life.’ or shiro telling keith ‘every time i’m near you i say more in five minutes than i’ve said in weeks.’ or lance introducing himself to shiro just all ‘i love how you just... sit in the corner and... brood.’ or the concept that shiro and pidge are destiny-bonded family that will always, always find each other.

#Δ ooc #φ alternate reality #φ the witcher: school of the lion

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greenflamedwriter · 3 years

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S8 Second Chance [Ep1-4]

I wrote them as Episodes, these are just notes. I’m not writing it becuase I’m sick of Voltron.

Episode one: Shadows.

-Kuron is having headaches and asks help from Lance. Lance saw Shiro attacking a galra sentry and suddenly acts weird, they subdue him and Lotor reveals a project Haggar had in relation to Shiro losing his shit.

"Why didn't you say so before?" Lotor gives them a blank stare "She has over a million projects you think I've memorised them all?" Pidge raised an eyebrow and lotor sighed.

"The galra are weak unlike alteans, we can't shapeshift."

So they used clones and experimentation to create soldiers. CLONE soldiers.

-They arive at a Cloning facility, Shiro has a mid-life crisis when he see’s the OG Shiro from s1 when he got ABDUCTED.

The CHAMPION who originally piloted the Black lion has been a clone the whole time.

(Did I steal this from young justice? Yes, yes I did.) Kuron sacrifices himself but he lives and changes his name to Ryou he admits that Lance was his best friend and Lance flushes. Gay panic begins. Ryou goes to other planets along with the mamoura and calls shiro and keith on a zoom call. The clones call each other handsome. Which irks everyone. (Hes just as bad as Lance)

+return to earth, Lotor has a falling out with voltron via romelle who was in an eacape pod unconcious with Keith and his mother who confirm her story, lotor is banished (kidnapped) before he could explain. Then kuron clone crisis happens after.

Episode 2: Missing Limb

How everyone deals with Kurons abscence Lance gets hit the most, with his relationships feeling like they're falling apart he feels as if he's not needed once they return to earth, until something latches onto his ship and he has to investigate it himself a mushroom parasite that makes him tell the truth.

"I'm just a boy from Cuba!" Lance cries out. missing Kuron, Allura, Keith, Hunk and Pidge it's as if everyone is evolving adapting growing stronger and he's...left behind.

At the end..."We're all messed up aren't we?"

"No- what you said we were all thinking. we were terrified of talking about it."

"But letting things fester isn't doing good for anybody." Shiro took a long breath then exhaled "alright. Let's start from the beggining." All of them talk about their problems, Pidge vents about her family, as well as Hunk and even Shiro admits a bit of his past and says that the clone Ryou misses Lance the most and wanted to reach out to him for a while just thought Lance hated him for being a clone. Ryou ends up being Lance’s rock and best bro/platonic wing man. It doesn’t fix anything but it’s a step for lance’s arc.

Episode : Reboot.

Alternate reality: The voltron crew fall through a portal along with lotor [Who came back, explained everything redeemed himself] and found a reality commet (Lotor thinks of the potential of going through multiple realities with the comet and creates his own mini voltron with Allura) Go through 90's verse. Call back to the OG Voltron.

Avil Altean Verse where Allura battles herself as a tyrant and stands firm that she's different, she holds Lotor's hand that she see's the Galra as victims and should be saved. Future verse/kinda Voltron reacting to the shit that is s8 Allura's statue Lotor being a traitor Shiro marrying some guy called Curtis and how the others are happy except Lance. Pidge screams at them that this is bullshit.

"Lance is smart! Alright- He saved us more times we could count and just because he doesn't know how tens and units works doesn't mean he's dim he's smart in a different way and has gained allies that way! living on a farm Lance!? Please...you're more than that."

Symbiote Verse/ They find monsters that latch onto people and make them stronger but they're like parasites and one latches onto Lance and they get into high jinks. Turns out that any aliens [Kolivan, Keith, Allura] are the SYMBIOTES in this universe. And it was Keith symbiote that latched onto Lance. [Foreshadowing for Klance]

thanks to Slav they go to the 80s voltron verse. and have the other's react to their old selves.

Then they get stuck in the crappy car one. [Voltron Force]

And a TON of AU’s of mermaids, Alteans, etc like a cute wink to the fandom that had so much fun with AU’s.

#Voltron #Voltron Legendary defender #Shiro #Lance #S8 #fix it au #Notes for a story.

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coldflashwave-baby · 4 years

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Chapters: 10/? Fandom: The Flash (TV 2014), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart, Peter Pan/Tinker Bell, Barry Allen/Hunter Zolomon Characters: Barry Allen, Leonard Snart, Hunter Zolomon, Iris West, Mick Rory, Sara Lance, Jefferson "Jax" Jackson, Ray Palmer, Nate Heywood, Wally West, Tinker Bell (Peter Pan), Peter Pan Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Peter Pan Fusion, Not really a fusion though, You have to read it okay?, Kidnapping, Amnesia, Neverland is real, Fairy Barry, Misuse of classical literary characters, Author Leonard Snart, Protective Leonard Snart, True Love, Love Potion/Spell Summary:

"The book ends with Hook catching up to Tinkerbell and Pan. He almost murders Pan, so Tinkerbell destroys herself to save him, blasting him and whatever was left of her to Earth, somewhere Hook would never find them.”

“How’d you get my ending?” Len whispered, walking around so he could sit on the coffee table, right across from Mick.

“I lived it.”

"You can’t have lived it, it’s a book. About Peter Pan. It’s not a memoir.”

“Oh, it is,” Mick disagreed. “One you don’t remember shit about. But we gotta change that.” He leaned even closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Cuz Hook ain’t gonna stop until he has you both back, and this time, he’ll kill you dead.”

~~~***~~~

The Peter Pan AU that no one asked for or expected.

#I HAVE UPDATED #COLDFLASH #LEONARD SNART #BARRY ALLEN #THE FLASH

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zwiezraczek · 5 years

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The Princess and the Pauper Voltron AU (Klance&Shallura)

I blame @genelpan for this AU because in her Insta story she reminded me that this movie exists. So making a shoutout to all my fellow Polish people who are still listening to the songs because “beeeedeee Twooooj gdy pooowiesz” you know what you know ;)

On the same day, in the same kingdom two little souls are born, both of them looking so alike they could be taken for twins. But each one of them is born in a different world...

Allura is the princess of Altean Kingdom, her father and her mother, Alfor and Eleanor are proud parents of a sublime little princess

Allura is given a cat when she becomes a teenager, a little puffy cat she named Elly after her mother's surname

At the same time, she is given a tutor Takashi Shirogane aka Shiro, a boy from the little town, who's five years older than she is

Both become friends pretty quickly thanks to their interest in science, they can spend whole days in the library reading about science.

Sometimes Shiro reads Allura some fairy tales, both of them are fond of these

They grow closer, and slowly, but surely, their feelings toward each other go from friendship to a soft love

But both of them know that they can't be together, so they repress their feelings

Allura because, when her mother passes away when she's thirteen, she has to marry a king/prince in order to guarantee a future to her kingdom and Shiro because he knows he has nothing to offer to Allura, who deserves the world and even more

Lance is born in the little town around their palace, in a poor family, but a loving one. He's an only child, his parents borrow money to raise him and to give him the best perspectives in life and Lance is genuinely interested in music and sewing so his mother teaches him songs and how to sew

His father is very proud of his son, he knows that the boy isn't a casual boy in town but he encourages him to be what he chooses to be

One day, Lance rescues a cat that he names Blue, and he loves Blue with all his heart

Lance's parents die because of a disease which causes a mortality rise in the little town, he is now an eleven years old boy who has debts to pay

Guess who takes advantage of this? Lotor's Dress Emporium from which Lance's parents borrowed money. He begins to work there, sewing dresses for the Court and the royal family, such as the Princess herself

When both turn eighteen...

The kingdom faces a crisis, and the only solution that King Alfro can come up with – because his advisor Honerva left on a trip – is to marry his daughter to the Blade's kingdom Prince

Allura isn't fond of this, at all, but she knows that she has to do it for her people so she accepts it, abandoning her love for Shiro thinking that her love isn't reciprocated

Shiro tries to cheer her up when he hears the news, telling that Prince Keith is a nice person who has a passion for art, music and knives

Which is kinda weird, Shiro said and made Allura laugh

But both regret that the will never be together...

“All my life I've always wanted to have one day just for me” - Allura breaking into a musical number while trying her dress on because she will marry Prince Keith in a few days

She just wishes for some time on her own, just a moment among her books with Shiro, reading books, listening to Shiro's voice when he reads for her while sitting in a chair and looking how his expression changes everytime he imitates another character

She wants to marry him so badly, but it's her duty to save the kingdom, and her father is sorry about it...

“All my life I've always wanted to have one day for myself” - Lance while taking one pile of fabric to another place in Lotor's Dress Emporium

Well, even if his friend, Romelle enjoys the show, Lotor seems not so fond of it

And Lance learns that he has to work there for another 37 years, because “interests” and Lance protests

“They did it to feed me!” “Their mistake”

And Lance just loses it all, and goes fuck it all I'm going to sing in the streets tomorrow early in the morning because I deserve it and because it's his only escape

Romelle doesn't encourage him, but she offers to cover him for sure and Lance thanks her with a kiss on her cheek

And both Lance and Allura swear to themselves that they will once be free to do whatever they want to

Guess who's missing in this beautiful picture? Honerva, Alfor's advisor. And well, even if she seems to be a good little lady she's the devil in disguise wanting to own the kingdom: she is behind the kingdom's crisis and she wants to become the Empress of the Kingdom, by marrying Alfor and then killing him. But to do so, she has to kidnap his daughter, Allura, so she won't be able to marry this king of the Blades and she'll be the only option for Alfor. Her plan was perfect

On the next day, Prince Keith in disguise – because he loves disguising himself okay, it's what's called FUN – with the Blade's kingdom Ambassador, Kolivan, arrive to the palace

And Kolivan isn't sure about Keith in disguise because it's absolutely ridiculous but Keith insists and Kolivan can only sigh

“What a stubborn child, just like his mother the Queen...” - Kolivan, dealing with royal shit since birth

When the ambassador arrives, Shiro comes into Allura's room and greets her with a “Her Majesty” and Allura is surprised because they are friends “Shiro... We are friends, I am Allura to you” “Her Majesty's father sends me to tell you that the ambassador from the Blade's kingdom just arrived” “Oh Shiro...” “Her Majesty can follow me?”

And it breaks Allura's heart because when Shiro's that formal, it means nothing good

The last time he used that voice was when her mother died

And Shiro knew that this voice never brought joy, but it always pained him to lie to Allura, to pain her with lies

“Shiro... Can we... Stay here? Tell my father that I am not feeling well, that I am terribly sorry to not be able to greet the ambassador but... I just can't Shiro, it pains so much...” “I will Allura, don't worry...”

And he resists the urge to hug her

Meanwhile, a clueless Keith hands his gift to King Alfor telling it's for his daughter from Pirnce Keith

Honerva is here, and already having a plan to kidnap the Princess...

Allura stays at the balcony, looking at the little girls playing in the royal garden, at least they are free...

Shiro has suddenly a marvellous idea: to take Allura in the little town around the city to entertain her for a moment, to entertain himself, to have one of his lasts moments with her

And once she wears a cape, nobody notices she's the princess anymore: she feels like a civilian

She also feels the pain of the crisis looking at the houses, as Shiro shows her his old little apartment when he used to study: she is now sure that she can't allow herself to have feelings for somebody because her people are suffering

Shiro offers her a juniper, her favourite flower ever and she smiles and Shiro can't forget that genuine smile

Then, she hears a clear and beautiful voice; Shiro is away seeking for something to eat so she approaches the singer

Lance is singing one of the songs his mother taught him, gathering some money for himself when Lotor bursts into the crowd, stops his performance and gather the coins before telling him to come back to work

Lance is dying inside, he is trapped in this reality that gives him a headache but when he is about to take the empty cup that Lotor left behind him, Allura's hand puts in a coin

“That was really beautiful” “Thanks, my mom used to sing me this so...”

And they both of them realise, they look absolutely alike, just like twins

“Oh my... What's your name?” “My name is Allura” “No jokes just like the Princess?!” “Yes, it is right...” “Oh! The name's Lance her royal Highness. What... What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to marry?” “I am taking my first and last breath of freedom before becoming a wife... A wife of an unknown man...” “Yeah, at least you're not an indentured servant” “A what?”

Lance breaks into a musical number explaining how he's living inside his dreams because well, it's way easier to live in his dreams than in this crappy reality

Allura assumes he's a singer – and she always wanted to meet one! – but it turns out that he's working at Lotor's Dress Emporium and that he made the dress she's wearing right now

He's absolutely proud about the fact that it's the Princess' favourite dress ever, he thanks his mom for that

Allura speaks about her marriage, and how she doesn't want to marry but she has to to save her people, people like Lance from the crisis

“I'm just like you! You're just like me! There's somewhere else we'd rather be!” Lance, jumping into the occasion to sing another time about what he feels

And both Allura and Lance come to the conclusion that they are a lot more alike than they thought in the first place

Then Shiro arrives, in shock, we must admit, because he drops the food he has in his hands – this boy is a disaster I swear – because okay, he knows Princess Allura but THIS GUY definitely looks like her!

Allura promises to Lance that she will send somebody to make him sing at her wedding, and Lance is over the moon when he hears that

Lance comes back and tells everything to Romelle, who is just smiling at Lance's imagination but still listening religiously

During the night, Honerva and her servants kidnap the Princess in order to cancel the wedding and they pretty much arrive to take the Princess into an isolated cabin in the woods

On the next day, Honverva announces to the King that Allura ran off, Kolivan is furious, Keith is somehow sad about it, and Kolivan tells that if the Princess isn't found until tonight the marriage proposal is over, finito

When Shiro hears the news he's sure about one thing: Allura couldn't do such a thing, she didn't ran off and the letter she left wasn't perfumed with junipers but some kind of roses and that wasn't Allura at all

He offered to help to find her, but Honerva laughed him off telling that he could hurt himself or catch a sun stroke while being outside

Shiro wasn't that stupid, and knew that something was going on with Honerva

So, he searches for Lance at Lotor's Dress Emporium

And Lance is just so excited about singing at the wedding, but when he learns the true reason behind Shiro's visit he decides to help Allura because they're alike

There is only one, tiny, little, problem: even with a wig, Lance can't act properly like a Princess and this is where tenor Shiro begins his own musical number

“To be a Princess is to know which spoon to use” - Shiro, while Lance is having a panic attack in front of the five spoons next to the plate

He finally wears one of Allura's dresses, the one Romelle made for her, the blue one, and he begins to feel it with the wig and all

And somehow, Shiro confesses through riddles that he's in love with Allura and Lance now knows that both of them are in love

When Honerva is almost touching her dream of becoming Empress, Shiro steps in the room introducing “Princess Allura”

Lance enters, trips, falls down in front of Keith in disguise and goes to see King Alfor who's absolutely happy to see his daughter safe and sound

Lance hugs the King, apologizing at telling that he, or rather she will never do this again

Kolivan is still pissed and tells that Prince Keith shouldn't marry the Princess and Keith is all “HUM HUM HUM!” “Finally, I think that the Prince will till be fine with marrying Princess Allura”

And Lance freaks out because he has to meet the Prince on the next day

Meanwhile, Elly finds Allura and the cat helps her to escape while she scares the guards with the cat using it as a distraction before kicking some asses before running off to the palace

Just after that, Shiro finds out that Honerva is talking about a cabin in the woods to one of the guards and he follows her

Honerva is FU-RI-OUS when she sees the guards that let the Princess escape, but more importantly she is asking herself why she never told nobody that she was kidnapped in the first place

She sees Shiro through a mirror, she knows that he heard her little speech

Oh boy, Shiro is losing his mind when he faces Honerva “You want to become an Empress?”

Boum, Shiro is hit by a guard with a stick and lays unconscious on the ground

Honerva has to hide him in the mines nearby

Allura however, with Elly, is going to the palace but nobody wants to let her in because “You're faking that you're the Princess girl! Listen, I don't know how you heard about the Princess disappearance but go away!”

So, the only place Allura knows is the Lotor's Dress Emporium and Lance, so there she heads

But Lotor catches her mid-way, laughing at her

“What do you find so funny Lotor?” “For you, it's Sir Lotor! Your parents never taught you manners? You'll follow me you ingrate!”

And he grabs Allura by her hand and she's shocked because wow, it's harsh coming from a boss

When inside the shop, she reveals that she's the Princess but Lotor laughs even loudly, and Romelle is curious about what is happening so she goes out

“You? Princess Allura? Don't try to fool me with your wig Lance!” “Lance...?” “You were gone for the whole day, you should be happy that Romelle managed to do some of your work! Now, go to work and don't sleep until you finish this!” “If you treat your employees like that all the Court's orders will be given to someone else!” “You are threatening me? You? Who do you think you are?!”

And he locks Allura and Romelle in

Allura is absolutely shocked, and Romelle curious about Lance wearing a wig...

“Lance, what are you doing with a wig...?” “I truly am Princess Allura, and what is your name my dear?” “You really are... This is the dress that Lance did for you oh my... My name is Romelle your Highness”

And Allura softly smiles at her, asking her how she can help her in the atelier because Romelle won't do all the job by herself

Elly watches both of them sewing, and then Romelle tells Allura that Elly could sneak out because Blue does it every time and she could deliver the message to her father about her being here

Allura puts a tag form Lotor's shop into her ring and puts it around Elly's neck

Elly is on a mission now, mission home

The next morning, when Lance wakes up he's struck by the fact that somebody brings him his breakfast to bed and A HUGE BREAKFAST OMG

He wants to share with the maid, because he will never eat all of that plus it could feed a huge amount of people

Beginning with Blue who catches some ham on the plate

And then, the servant prepares a bath for the Princess, aka Lance

When Lance sees all these bubbles he just wants to cry because holly shit it's so perfect and Blue is running all around the bathtub

Lance dives into it, having a foam of bubbles all over his head, he made himself a moustache and a beard

Blue began to act strangely, being all petty and strange and Lance noticed it: Blue wanted to seem royal and that made Lance softly laugh

“I can see it when you're feeling low you can't hide that from me” - Lance beginning to sing while Blue walks on the edge of the bathtub

Lance sings for Blue, because Blue is all family that is left to him and he loves this cat so much that he could die for his girl

He reassures her telling her that she's the best cat ever and that she shouldn't try to be someone else – unlike him – because Blue is the best cat

Let's expose Keith who is listening at the door because he's searching for the Princess and he hears Lance's sublime voice and he falls in love totally head over heels

Keith is explaining the whole situation in the throne room to king Alfor, he tells him that he used this particular method to get to know the Princess in a less official way

This is Honerva that brings Lance to the throne room, and Lance is panicked because Shiro disappeared last night and he was clueless about everything and anything

But he planned to do his best until the Princess came back

When Lance meets the Prince right after he recognizes the guy standing next to the ambassador and is absolutely flustering because HOLLY SHIT THE PRINCE IS HOT

“I feel honoured, Princess” “Uh... Euh... I am honoured to meet you, my Prince” says Lance while curtsying in front of the Prince “Please, call me Keith” “And call me La... Allura, Princess Allura, of course it's my name...”

“I am deeply sorry that I came to meet you in disguise Princess, I hope that I did not offend your feelings. I just wanted to meet the real you” - Keith, soft, bowing in front of the Princess again, with a soft look that makes Lance melt in an instant

Alfor just stops this awkward moment – and Lance thanks him so much – by asking if the Prince wants to play the piano, because yes the Prince is fond of every sort of arts

Lance is in awe, the guy is hot, seems funny – who in the world would disguise himself to see his future wife? Only him – and above all he plays an instrument: if he wasn't Allura he would absolutely be melting

Keith agrees only if Allura, aka Lance, sings with him

And this breaks into another musical number with Keith playing the piano and Lance singing

“You say your love is true and I hope that it will be” - Lance, secretly hoping that this cute Prince won't reject him if he learns that Lance is Lance, and not Allura

“I'd be sure, if I knew that you loved me for me” - Keith, playing softly on the piano while looking at Lance's beautiful blue eyes

The are walking into the gardens, Keith softly trying to catch Lance's hand while Lance is a whole blushing mess because the Prince is trying to hold his hand and his hand is so soft and Keith smells actually very good and his eyes are purple and beautiful and Lance can't handle all of this

While they're walking, Keith notices a bunch of forget-me-nots in the garden, and gives a bunch of them to Lance who scents them and softly blushes

“So, you like singing I guess” “ Yes, I always loved to sing, this is something that keeps me somehow alive in my cage in fact...” “You feel trapped?” “Yes I always did, this is so hard to be paying... To pay the price of being a Princess by being kept in a palace” “I absolutely understand you, I always wanted to see other countries but my Mother always forbid me to do so because she was afraid that I would get injured or even dead” “I can't believe that you would someone kill you Keith!” “I could only let you kill me with your beautiful eyes, Allura”

And Lance loses it all actually

When they part ways in the evening, Keith kisses Lance's hand telling him that they will see each other in the evening, just before their tomorrow's wedding

And Lance feels his heart beating faster and faster, but at the same time a pain catches him: he is lying to the Prince, and he's taking Allura's place but the problem is that he is slowly falling for this adorable Prince who has a passion for knives and makes the best compliments ever

Honerva isn't amused at all by all of this because she doesn't understand what happens at all in here

But she's absolutely thrilled when she finds Elly in the gardens at night, with Allura's ring around her neck and so she understands: the Allura in the palace isn't the real Allura

She goes to Lotor's Dress Emporium and finds the real Princess and kidnaps her again, leaving the poor Romelle searching for the Princess in the shop

Honerva takes Allura to the mines, and throws her into the same cell that Shiro is telling her how she will marry her father and become the Empress after killing him

Her guards close the mines, dynamiting the entrances, and leave Allura with Shiro

Shiro is tied up to a wooden stick in the cell and he hugs Allura when he sees her because she seems to be alright, even if they are in a delicate situation

He explains to her his whole plan, with Lance being the Princess right now

They both know that they can't find a way out, but Shiro tries to break the rocks with a pickaxe in order to get out

Allura finds a rare gem hidden inside a basic rock and calls Shiro to sit next to her

“I am unable to get us out of here, I am sorry Allura...” “Shiro, do you know why I wanted to refuse the marriage with Prince Keith?” “You do not feel ready to marry a man” No, not because of that. Because I am already in love with someone else, with my friend, with the one who was always by my side when I needed him, the one that I trust the most, the one that taught me everything” “But... Allura... I am nothing like a King, I can not offer you dresses, jewels and...” “To me, you are like this rock Shiro” “Ugly and basic?” “Shiro... On the outside, this rock looks like a basic rock, but in fact there is a treasure inside. By your rank, you are like this rock Shiro, and I will do anything to be by your side now” “But, the people...” “I know what to do Shiro, just trust me”

And he hugs her, because this was the purest act of love, the most beautiful confession in the world: even better than the ones that he planned for her, the ones that he read to her

Meanwhile, Keith is proposing to Lance in front of the King, and Lance can't really handle this because it's too pure for him, because he genuinely fell in love with Keith

Keith, on the other hand, is really fond of Lance's personality and his beautiful eyes

Honevra is back in the palace and uncovers Lance's disguise by taking off his wig in front of the King and Keith in the throne room

She explains that it was Shiro's plan, that he wanted to kill the Princess and gain power and that they made the mines nearby explode and they only could find Allura's ring

Lance is actually taken by her guards, yelling that he wanted to protect Allura from Honerva and that he did nothing, he yelled with his whole heart that what he told Keith was true and that he really loved him

Anyway, he was thrown into the palace's prison

Lance cries his eyes out during the night, trying to sing but failing miserably to

Kolivan wants to KILL EVERYBODY IN THIS KINGDOM because they wanted to marry the Prince with a poor guy, not even a real Princess and that is unacceptable!

Keith is however really intrigued by what just happened: the boy, Lance, didn't seem to be lying to him, he couldn't fake all these blushes and... This Honerva who was watching them during this walk...

He decided to stay in the kingdom, just for another night

King Alfor is dead inside, he is losing his kingdom and now he lost his daughter, as his wife, forever, he wanted to die but at the same time knew that the kingdom needed him

Honerva, on the other hand, proposes to king Alfor to marry her because thanks to her travel she learned that her activities were making a huge profit, a profit of a Prince Keith, and that she could solve the crisis by marrying him

Bonus, there is already a marriage planned so

Alfor is unable to refuse this offer, Eleanor would've wanted this for her people

On the next day, after a rough night, Allura and Shiro managed to find a way out: there is a huge hole in the ground above them and that there is some water flowing here and actually they could get out of here by entering one of these wooden boxes and go to stop Honerva from marrying Allura's father

Lance is determined to not die in this prison, absolutely not so he steals the keys from one of the sleeping guards and sneaks out, before being caught by another guard taking him out of the prison, King's orders

Lance is pissed, absolutely pissed, and wants to escape so he hits the guard in the balls and then, he hears a familiar voice

“I agree, I deserved this...” “... Keith?! I will explain you everything, I swear I am not...” “I do not believe this Honerva at all, I know that you could not lie to me, A... Lance” “Yes... You do like to be in disguise, do you Keith?” “That's not the real problem here, Lance. We have no time, follow me please”

The two couples are running to the wedding, while Alfor almost married Honerva

But Allura arrives in time, with Shiro, telling her father that Honerva tries to trick him

Honerva swears that it's the boy, but Elly appears next to Allura, Elly that wasn't seen around for a long time and Allura approaches her father telling him that her mother gave her once a ring, a pink worthless ring and that she wears it around her neck and showed it to him

And Alfor knew that it was Allura

Allura tells them that Honerva tried to kill her and Shiro in order to become the Empress of this kingdom

Honerva is RUNNING away, but Shiro and Keith catch her together before handing her to the guards

Lance is in the back, smiling because it's what that awful witch deserved

Once every guest came back home, Allura had a moment to talk with her father, Lance, Shiro and Keith were taken care of by some servants

“Father, nothing happened to me thanks to my friend Lance and to the one I love, Takashi” “I deeply want you to be happy, it is my dearest wish, but Allura, you know, for the kingdom...” “Do not worry Father, in the mines where I was, I made a discovery, a gem worth more than the gold we lack, our kingdom is not in crisis anymore”

And this solves somehow the crisis problem

On the next day, when Allura paid all of Lance's debts, Lance is ready to go and discover the world, to sing, to be himself and what he always wanted to be: free

Keith stands next to Lance's horse, with a small box in his hand

“Are you sure that you want to go, Lance?” Yes, I am. This is what I was talking about, to be free from my misery, to be able to go wherever I want to... To not be trapped anymore” “Will you come back?” “I can't promise Keith...” “So please, take this with you”

Keith hands Lance the little box with the engagement ring, telling him it was meant to be for him, because, whoever he is, he loves him and deeply wishes to marry him one day

Lance is touched, so touched and accepts the gift, telling him that he is happy to know that he has a place to come back to

Lotor's Dress Emporium is ruined, Allura makes everything to sink this sick man's business and allows Romelle to open her own little shop from where she will buy her dresses

A few years later, Lance comes back to Altea but before he goes to see Keith in the Blade's kingdom

Keith is absolutely astonished, seeing Lance coming back and when Lance notices him he runs towards him before hugging him

“I missed you so much Keith, the world is beautiful but nothing is as beautiful as you Keith!” “I love you too Lance”

And they kiss, Lance in Keith's arms deeply in love

Lance meets Keith's parents, the King and the Queen who find the boy lovely and, well, now they know that it's acceptable to let their son marry whoever he wants to because they spoke with Alfor for a long moment

Shiro and Allura, being the perfect royal couple offer to the two lovers to make a double marriage

Lance is thrilled because he is marrying with a Prince, during the same ceremony that Allura, the Princess of his kingdom and his friend now

Romelle gives everything she has in doing Lance's outfit, because her best friend will marry a Prince and if this isn't a fairy tale she doesn't know what it is

And this is the purest marriage that the two kingdoms have ever seen, Shiro and Allura are the cutest couple on Earth and Lance and Keith are the perfect lovebirds

They had a happy ever after after all...

Bonus:

Shiro and Allura had a daughter that they called Marina Eleanor, with white hair and beautiful cat shaped blue eyes: a pure candy, a girl with a beautiful smile and a great personality

She often could be found in the library, with books around her little dress while looking at the images as somebody was reading a story to her

Or hiding in the garden, between junipers and forget-me-nots

Lance and Keith adopted a boy named Julian, an orphan from the Blade's kingdom that Lance found once on one of his escapes from the palace and the little boy followed him during the whole day, and Lance having a big heart and being undercover bought him some food, took care of him and asked him where his parents were, and when he learnt that his parents were dead he adopted him, instantaneously: law

Keith loved the little boy so much, he was so lively and so funny and loved to play the violin so Lance made this tradition that every Friday the three of them were having a music session, with Keith playing the piano, Julian playing the violin and Lance singing

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