#sailing away on the seas of my latest fixation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

meldaciomartyr · 7 years

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♫ five times my muse swears it’s not a date, and the one time it maybe is.

Five Times Meme:

“It ain’t a date, Aranea.” A grin and shake of his head - hot skewers in the back streets of Lestallum barely qualified as a meal, let alone a poor excuse of a date. But still she grinned and bumped his shoulder, theatrics already startin’ and she waved the skewer around proclaiming it wasn’t the worst date she had ever been on.

The iron giant gave a last groan before falling to its knees with a thud. A potion and hi-elixir rolled across the ground when it began to disappear - some pour soul had obviously died against the thing. An iron bangle too. Gathering up the small spoils of the hunt, Dave shoved them into storage pack and looked around for the closest haven before anything else could spawn.

“All we need is romantic starlight honey, be the perfect date.” Turning on the spot and looking up at the blank sky, Aranea smiled and winked; she had been playing this date card at any opportunity for a few months now and he still wasn’t biting. Middle of nowhere and covered in daemon blood; definitely not a date. “Reckon the daemons might spoil the mood darlin’.”

III

Caem had been a pretty little outpost before the darkness; all open to the coast and smell of saltwater on the breeze. He had always looked forward to visiting the lighthouse. But it seemed a dang sight less inviting in this darkness. The house had been turned into a hunter outpost with creaky narrow beds and lockers full of weapons downstairs - adapt and survive. Monica and Dustin had done just that over the years, fixing up the old house and opening its doors to his hunters.

Sitting down around the firepit with a few other hunters, Dave took a swallow of his beer and chuckled at the story Kaleb was spinning; couple of rookies were with them this time and his pal was taking up the job of scaring them witless with old huntin’ tales. A hand trailed across his shoulders and she sat down beside him, nestling close against the sea breeze. “Romantic lighting, check. Beer, check. Why Auburnbrie this could almost pass for a-”

“Ain’t a date Aranea.” Lifting his arm to let her pull closer and use him as a windbreak, Dave shook his head and smiled. Why she had this urge to name everything as a date was beyond him but he had to admire her perseverance.

The seals were weakening with every year that passed, every dark year without Noctis. So it fell to them to visit the dungeons and sure-up the locks on those doors. To stop the menaces from joining the monsters already plaguing Lucis.

But the job became a hell of a lot more complicated with the daemons and beasts that spawned on the way to those doors. “Y’all skirt round our group. We’ll play distraction and meet up at the door.” The radio channel was full of static this far underground and Keycatrich had never been the best area for a signal, but the response came through from the second group of hunters and Dave could tell Aranea was grinning just from her voice. “Roger that, it’s a date.”

A click on the radio channel to open a private frequency. “Ain’t a date.” Of all the places, he could think of somewhere miles better than underground tunnels.

“Surely this passes as a date?” With the return of the sun, life had found some calm normalcy - there were no more daemons to hunt at night. Kim had taken her younger siblings for the night, insisting they have a quiet evening.

Dinner, beer and some old movie he hadn’t seen in forever. It almost felt wrong to be stretched out on the couch watching the TV and not organising hunts. But it was a nice change. Especially with Aranea’s head on his chest and her fingers lazily tracing over the tattoos. Blinking at her quiet question, Dave shifted to better look down at her, hand coming up to comb through her long hair. “What is your fixation with dates, even after all these years?”

He expected some grin and wink, some smart answer to explain it all away. But Aranea wasn’t in that mood tonight. Instead she shrugged and mustered a small smile; he didn’t like that - she was brooding about something. “Never been on one. Sure had a lot of fun even before you, but never done the whole date thing. Just figured it’d be nice to see what the fuss is about … silly I know.”

The fingers stopped tracing his tattoos, but her eyes never left the inkings. “It ain’t silly,” pressing a kiss to her crown, Dave held her closer to him and heaved a big old sigh; he had done all the dating when he was a kid, well dated one girl after he plucked up enough dutch courage to do so. And him and Aranea had happened without him really noticing … dating had fallen by the wayside of hunting. “This ain’t a date darlin’.”

The plan was in action. It was happening and he felt like a panicking spiracorn. Kim and her boyfriend had the kids for the next few days, Kaleb had traveled from Galahd to run HQ while he was away.

There was gonna be a big old ceremony in the Crown City mid-week to remember King Noctis and to celebrate the new government; Gladio and Ignis were leading the changes with no walls around the city and no borders between lands. They were all invited to the pomp and celebrations, but he had something important to do before meeting up with everyone in Insomnia.

“Where are we going?” Dave didn’t answer, just kept the truck moving on past Longwythe and down the long winding road of the vannath coast. A lifetime of hunting meant he had a substantial nest-egg of gil hidden away; came in handy over the years, but this latest reason to dip into those savings was worth all those new scars and bruises.

Evening was drawing in by the time he parked the truck at Galdin’s car lot. The port had been one of the first areas repaired when the sun returned - it was a gateway to Accordo and the many small islands of Lucis. “Dave, why are-”

“Quit interrogatin’ and c’mon.” To even convince her to come along on this trip had been a battle of wills. Biggs and Wedge were in on the plan and had helped sway Aranea into taking a few days off, playing the babysitting uncles and helping Kim with the kids.

Grabbing the small case and refusing to giver her an answer, Dave just opened the door and leveled Aranea with a pleading look; just get outta the car. Damn did he love her, but the woman could be dang pigheaded at times. A kiss to her forehead had the once commodore sighing and getting out of the truck. “I don’t like being kept in the dark.”

“Reckon I know that about y’all after this many years.” A warning glare from her had Dave chuckling again and he led the way down the long walkway and out to the renovated Mother of Pearl. A greeting from the red-shirted guy at the front, and one of the ushers led the way to the room he had booked. It was 10′000 gil to stay at the hotel but that seemed a drop in the ocean to see her smiling like that. “Up to yer standards?”

“You big sneak Auburnbrie …” A pillow sailed past his head and Dave laughed loudly, looping an arm around her to pull Aranea closer; the room was sumptuous to say the least, but he hadn’t dragged her the whole way from Meldacio to marvel at a fancy over-priced hotel room.A deep hungry kiss almost scarpered his plans, but he pulled back and smirked.“Why don’t ya put on that red dress I love takin’ off and lets get us some food.”

“Starlight check, romantic lightin’ check, reckon maybe this is a date darlin’.”If the room was over-priced, the the food was undisguised extortion. But it was all worth it because she looked gorgeous in that red dress, big smile blooming at his words. First date … he was gonna make it one she would remember.

Now or never. Reaching into his pocket, he breathed out a shaky breath and placed the small box in the middle of the table before her. Ordered all the way from Galahd and a certain metalsmith who lived on the islands, who had sent it to Meldacio with her husband. Why was he so nervous? Thank the gods for Aranea’s lack of personal boundaries; her curiosity had her reaching for the box and opening it in seconds, fork clattering to the plate. It was the first time he had seen outright shock on her face. “What the-”

“Marry me Aranea?”

#arachnexdragoon #replied #I done a THING :)

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