#threads; dev/ellyn

[pyrokineticwarrior]

Outside Palace, After Midnight || Dev & Ellyn

The ball had ended hours ago. Or maybe it hadn't. Time had stopped making sense after his third glass of that fae-laced wine from the ambassador of something-or-other. He hadn't meant to drink that much. He hadn't meant to care this much. And he definitely hadn’t meant to slip out the side gate, boots dragging through dew-slick grass, shoulders hunched against the weight of everything he wouldn’t say. But something had been calling. A tug just under his ribs. A whisper in a tongue his mind didn’t quite remember but his blood did.

Dev stumbled down the wooded path beyond the estate, muttering to himself, fingers brushing the air like he could balance against nothing. And then— the ground shifted. His breath hitched. The trees tilted, shimmered, breathed. He blinked—and the world was different. No, not different. Old. The air was too quiet. Too still. Silver-heavy, scented like memory and wildflowers that shouldn’t exist in this season- Ellyn's Realm. He knew this place. Hated it. Missed it.

“Brilliant,” he slurred to himself, voice thick. “Should’ve stayed near the orchestra... danced with someone forgettable... not walked into this.” Magic stirred beneath his boots. The land recognized him. That made one of them. He turned, expecting nothing. Expecting everything. And then—he saw her.

Ellyn. Cloaked in moonlight and something less kind than magic. Half-shadow, half-memory. But too real for a dream.

He laughed once, soft and broken, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “Of course. Of course it’s you.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You know, I told myself I was done chasing ghosts. You didn’t even have the decency to stay one.”

@lady-llewellyn

[pyrokineticwarrior]

"I have a whim that's been sort of nagging at me, Devlin, and could really use your help in making it stop...Would you care to go out to a supernatural club with me and dance for hours on end-ish? Or, is your physical prowess limited to only monster slaying and laying?" Her eyes glitter gold with mischief as she smirks; fangs peeking out as she gets cheeky with him.

"Yes, let's go!"

It didn't take long for Devlin to get ready and head to this supernatural club. He worked hard, trained for hours on end, but if he did not balance it out with partying, then he would live a pretty empty life. He did appreciate how Ellyn assessed him- monster slaying and laying. From the outside, he can see that's how he might seem. He did give off that impression from time to time.

As the music's beat picked up, Devlin was releasing his inhibitions. He remained close to his date, doing just as Ellyn requested: dance. He stayed in rhythm, knowing how to draw a crowd and join him in merriment.

"You don't know partying, unless you've partied with Dionysus himself," he shared, getting close to her so she can hear over the loud, thumping music.

@lady-llewellyn

[pyrokineticwarrior]

He swayed under the weight of her words more than the drink.

Her voice cracked open something in him that had been sealed too long. That sharp, breathy defiance, the pain layered behind every word—he knew that tone. He remembered it from the nights when they argued at the edge of desperation, love tangled in anger and fear. He had always been too proud. Too stubborn. And now?

Now it was too damn late to pretend he hadn’t heard her.

“You think I didn’t want your love?” he rasped, his voice thick and choked with something deeper than the wine. “You think I turned away because it wasn’t enough?” He laughed, harsh and hollow, like something breaking. “Gods, Ellyn. I turned away because it was. And I didn’t know how to be the man who deserved it.”

Her hands were on his shirt now, clutching and grounding him, and he didn’t stop her. Couldn’t. He leaned in just slightly, enough to feel the heat of her against the cold that had lived in his bones since she left. “I didn’t want to ruin you,” he said, softer this time, like a secret too painful to carry anymore. “You were light and I was already burning. I thought if I stayed, I’d drag you under with me.”

His forehead dipped toward hers, not touching, not quite, his breath shaky against her skin. “And now you’re telling me I left you drowning anyway.”

He exhaled shakily, his fingers twitching at his sides like he wanted to touch her but didn’t think he had the right. “Say the word, Ellyn, and I’ll walk away again. But if you don’t…” His voice faltered. “If you don’t, I swear I’ll try to stay this time. I’ll try to be enough.”

@lady-llewellyn

She wasn't expecting him to say that. To hear how he'd gone further then her to actually be trying to die? It made her blood thunder in her ears and her breath hitch. Pain prickled along her awareness and she found herself frowning the more he went on. Ellyn's gaze flickered gold then and she remembered how to breathe.

"If it helps, I wasn't searching for you either--wouldn't know where to look since you never spoke about yourself to me before. I just followed the magic and will be done soon enough once you return to where you're supposed to be." It's breathy and sharper than she had wanted but there was no taking it back. The Fae Queen's gaze widens a little when he steps forward and she felt the urge to reach for him and fought it.

But tears welled in her eyes when he re-opened that old wound and her lower lip quivered. For a man that said he hated seeing her cry, he was so good at making it happen! She can tell by his steps that he's drunk and she frowns. "I was going to bind my soul to yours--I gave you options and tried to help but you wanted to sacrifice yourself nobly for my responsibilities as Queen instead of just listening to your heart. You never listened to a word I said...My love wasn't enough for you then, Dev. It's been years, so I highly doubt any of it would matter to you now."

Still, when he stumbled a bit, she reached out to help steady him and he was close enough she could smell the wine on his lips. The Fae Queen's tears were streaking her cheeks as she gripped his shirt and growled at him. "You idiot....Alcohol, drugs and yes, other lovers...How else was I going to get myself perfectly numb to the never-ending ache in my fucking soul for you, Dev?! How was I going to ignore the darkness welling in my thoughts and do my job as Queen?! My suffering pales in comparison to an entire realm that needs me to always be doing something! I needed...Of course I'm still hurting, I still love you, too!" @pyrokineticwarrior

[pyrokineticwarrior]

Devendra didn’t move. He just stared at her with that half-lidded, uneven look he got when the liquor blurred his balance but sharpened every damn thought he didn’t want. “Still alive,” he echoed with a dry, humorless laugh, dragging a hand down his face. “Unfortunately. Not for lack of trying.”

His gaze flicked down, then up again—like maybe if he kept looking away, she’d stop hurting so much to look at. “Funny thing, though. I didn’t mean to come here. I wasn’t searching for you.” His tone sharpened just a little. “Not this time.”

He took a slow step forward, boots crunching on the moss-soft earth. Another. Even drunk, his movements held that old soldier weight. “But if this place didn’t want me, it would’ve spit me back out already.” The air between them was thick with everything unsaid—her posture, her voice, her restraint. It told him everything and nothing all at once. "You always did like putting words in my mouth," he muttered, eyes narrowing just slightly. “I never said I didn’t want to call this place home. I said I didn’t know how to survive in it.”

He gave a bitter little grin. “Big difference, Ellyn.” His voice dropped then, barely above a whisper. “You think if I had a damn clue how to stay, I wouldn’t have? That I wanted to forget the sound of your laugh? You?” He swayed slightly and caught himself on a nearby tree, bark biting into his palm like a reminder to feel something other than the ache in his chest.

“Tell me to go and mean it, and I’ll walk back through that cursed portal. Hell, I’ll crawl if I have to. But don’t pretend this doesn’t still hurt you.” His eyes, red-rimmed and shadowed, locked onto hers. “You’re not the only one who tried to drown in the wrong arms.”

@lady-llewellyn

The Fae Queen was only there because she was drawn to such a strange place. Some portal was leaking magic somewhere unknown. It was just her luck that the lingering energy signature traveled along a leyline and took the portal with it. You'd think with her centuries on this planet that she'd be better at fixing the wards her father had left behind. Sadly, that's not the case this time!

Ellyn had to time it just right between her realm and Earth. Though there was something else strange at this palace, some out-of-the-ordinary feeling that something here was familiar. She couldn't quite put her finger on it and had tried for hours to ignore it as she hunted through the shadows of the palace, slinking around rather easily thanks to the party that had been going on indoors. Still, it's well past midnight when she feels the portal open and manages to cross over into Faery.

Home always felt the same to her, despite the sudden influx of information to her senses. After all, the realm recognized her as Queen far more than a subset of troublesome subjects still nagging at her to take a husband or consort at least. Though the cooler temperatures were a boon and counterpoint to the slight steaminess she had left behind. And while she's sure she's nearing the proper placement for the portal's source, she hears him, and it makes her freeze midstep.

She turns a bit more and sees him standing there, rather glazed and dazed from the looks of it. It appeared that the years hadn't been as hard on him as she'd selfishly hoped, and she hated the way her heart clenched in her chest. Still, he had some lingering effect on her that she had tried to drown out with wine, weed, and other lovers until she'd gone numb. And just in mere seconds, she was feeling again.

But his words sting and she frowns while crossing her arms over her chest. "Oh, please. Immortals don't become ghosts, no matter how hard they try to die...Surprised to see you're still alive, though. You were always going on about dying the last few times we spoke." Then she steps closer to him and makes a shooing motion with her hands. It takes every shred of training her father gave her to keep herself together and collected; cool and Queenly. The sooner he's out of her sight, the sooner she can finish her duty and go home and drown herself in something else. Someone else. "You can kindly go back wherever you came from, and I'll close this portal. Then we'll never have to see each other again. Just like we agreed years ago."

But it's hard to stop short when he doesn't seem to be moving and she notices he's disheveled in the moonlight; circles under his eyes. Ellyn is a few feet away as she pauses and licks her lips before fidgeting a bit with her dress. "You really should go, Dev. It's safer if you do...Once I close the portal properly it'll be harder to get you back, and you made it abundantly clear before that you didn't want to call this place home." Didn't want to call me home; didn't love me. @pyrokineticwarrior