#there are a couple more asks in my inbox i'll get to em eventually

[dragonladies]

Can we get Ben's POV of either the boat scene or the tour scene? I want to know what's going on in his head

do you ever get so high you forget that you have feet and then you get scared and have to go to bed. yeah.

it was not that he was waiting for her to emerge. exactly. it was only that, well, he was listening to her move around in her rooms - gods, the walls in this place were damningly thin - and when it became clear that she would soon emerge...

he just wanted to talk to her. they had not spoken since sabitha's wedding, and this would be a rare moment where she would not be flanked by her ladies.

he counted to ten in his head before opening the door when he heard hers open. he barely made it past five before his hand was moving on its own accord.

valaena stared at him, her lips parted in a perfect O. he gripped the doorframe and realized that, despite his need to see her and speak to her, he didn't have the foggiest idea of what to say.

after a beat of staring at one another, wide-eyed and dumbstruck, she spoke:

"lord androw called me a prude. well, technically, he called senelle a little prude, but he thought i was her, so..."

she blinked, like she hadn't expected to say that. ben stared, trying to understand what she wanted him to do about it. he just nodded.

he opened his mouth, caught in her.

“jason has offered us a tour of the grounds,” he said, remembering belatedly the other boy’s offer, “if — you would like to come.”

he wished he could throttle himself somehow without looking absolutely, completely mad. if you would like to come. fucking hells. he could kill himself.

“alright,” the beginnings of a smile were forming on her face as she began to turn back into her room.

“it’s cold out,” he rushed to continue, if only to say something else to her. to conceal his complete fumbling lack of sense, he went on, pretending he was still the boy who thought she was the worst thing to ever grace this plane: “i’d get a cloak if i were you.”

valaena turned back to him, her eyes sparking.

“you might need one, but the blood of the dragon runs through my veins, my lord.”

it was a trial not to outright roll his eyes at her. when she said shit like that, it was easier to pretend to despise her.

“fine,” he snapped back, levelling a scowl to match her own, “don’t cry to me when your nose goes blue.”

"... we call it the heart, because the most profitable veins of ore are found in this range," jason was saying, pointing out an outcropping of mountain that jutted out of the earth directly across from them. he went on to explain the process of mining the 'heart', but ben heard little of it.

his gaze was trained to valaena, who was pretending to be absorbed in their guide's explanation as she wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering as a gale of wind cut across the walkway.

she shivered. he nearly took off his cloak to put it over her shoulders, but he ran the risk of losing a hand if he did that. instead, he just watched.

valaena looked over her shoulder at him, then quickly looked away again when she realized he was watching her. her cheeks, already flushed from the cold, turned redder.