#(he's worried about her)

[softquietsteadylove]

Another drama for the runaway bride? Maybe Eros really comes over and tries to get Thena back? And it comes to the point where Gil has to intervene 😃

Gil cracked the reins on the horse again, forcing the poor creature onward. But he knew where he needed to go, and he needed to get there before Eros did. "Come on!"

The horse voiced its concern but sped through the trees and towards the higher roads. He was heading in almost the opposite direction really. But the road for horses spiralled down the mountain. He needed to get to the steepest part, where he could cut him off.

He had Thena.

Gil had been out on his usual day. He was meeting his quotas. He had actually been staying out a little longer than necessary. Everyday, after he had fulfilled the work he needed to do for payment, he would find some good trees and work on getting boards and beams from them.

He wanted to expand the cabin. He wanted it to feel like a home for Thena as much as him. And while she was quite at home, he wanted to make more of a house than his open bodied bachelor hut. He would add onto the cabin's end and make a real, proper bedchamber for them. Maybe he could even add a bath room, if the winter was late this year.

He was just heading home when he heard it--the sound of hooves. He had taken off in a sprint towards home. He didn't hear the loud rattling of a carriage on the road, and there wasn't a whole infantry this time either. But the running of a horse was unmistakable.

When he did get home, he had found the door open, Thena's berry basket on the porch and its contents spilled everywhere, as if she had been dragged away by the ankles. The tracks of the horse were fresh. He knew what he had to do. Her captor being on horse was a good thing. No one could navigate the woods well enough to run a creature through it. He had moved around the side of the house. The guard sent with the prince - and to apprehend Gil, no doubt - was waiting in the garden for him.

Gil didn't like violence. He was a peaceful man. But he picked up the shovel and struck the man with such force that the metal against his helmet sounded like canon fire. The man went down and Gil had taken his horse without a second thought.

He was no rider, but he knew what he had to do.

Now, he was barrelling towards a cliffside, waiting for their paths to align. He had to time it right. And he couldn't risk Thena getting seriously hurt in the process. His timing had to be perfect.

As he began to see the road laid out below, curving along with the shape of the mountain, he heard it. He craned his head backwards. A horse was speeding down the road, right in the middle of it. The prince was riding with one hand on his reins and another over his shoulder.

Thena was slung over it, bound like a wild boar he had captured (disgraceful treatment of a lady).

Either he couldn't hear her over the two horses unknowingly racing each other, or she was gagged as well as bound. For a prince, he had truly treated Thena the way a barbarian would.

Gil pulled back on his reins, only slightly. He had to get this right. He patted the horse's neck, muttering his apologies to it. Poor thing didn't deserve what was about to happen. But it was for a good cause.

Eros rounded the bend swiftly, Thena in hand. Of course, with such a sharp curve, and at the speed he was travelling, he had to take it as widely as possible. Gil watched until he was at the thinnest part of the road, closest to the edge.

He cracked the reins.

The horse brayed, screaming as it leapt over the edge of the elevation and plummeted over the edge, legs flailing. Gil reached out, plowing into the prince from behind and wrapping his arms around Thena. It was chaos, everything hurt and his eyes were barely open. But he wrapped his arms around her and kept rolling.

The two horses lay in the road, crying out in distress and probably pain. Gil dragged him and Thena both off the edge and below the road. Somehow, they managed to slither into the trunk of a tree. It was a very familiar tree, with a base large and hollow enough for someone to use as shelter. It was tight with both of them.

"Thena?!"

Gil held her head against his shoulder as Eros wailed for her. He had thought the prince a spoiled and perhaps delicate creature. But listening to him bellow her name with rage in his bones, perhaps he was a man of drive after all.

"Thena!!!"

Gil worked on the rope around Thena's wrists. He would let Eros tire himself out up there. If he didn't fully know what happened, all the better. He could scream his head right off his shoulders. He pulled the cloth from within her mouth like a horse's bridle. He whispered, "Thena?"

She winced, but her sparkling green eyes opened. Her mouth opened but he pressed it against his chest again.

"I know you're there, lumberjack!"

Thena's newly unbound hands clutched at him. He held her tightly. They could keep running as long as they needed, as far as he was concerned. He would sooner burn down the cabin - his life's work - and start anew somewhere than hand Thena over to that cretin.

"Your highness!"

It was harder to hear as the new voice joined them. The two men spoke amongst themselves, the guard no doubt explaining how he had been assailed and woken up to his horse missing. Eros knew he had something to do with it, but there was no substantial evidence that he had. Right now, it just seemed that a horse had gotten spooked and run right over the edge in its panic.

"Another day, Thena dear!" Eros promised in a menacing tone (at least Gil found it very menacing). He was hovering close to the edge, looking into the woods below for evidence of his escaped prey.

"Your highness, what of the horse?"

There was a long pause, and then Eros was yelling again. "Put it down! And next time you see the lumberjack, do exactly the same!"

Thena clutched at him again but he rubbed her back. He was quite sure Eros didn't have that kind of mettle to him. Even if he did, that would have to be addressed at a later date. He held her still, waiting until there no sounds of distressed horses, or the clatter of armour and swords. He waited much longer than that.

Eventually he shifted. His legs were all pins and needles. Even if they had laid a trap for them, he doubted they were going to wait all night. He shifted Thena in his arms, pressing his finger to her lips. Even if they were waiting, they couldn't know she was with him.

Gil crawled out of the tree, looking around furtively as a fawn with every movement. He peeked up the hill, trying to determine if their hunters were lying in wait. He crawled on his belly, through the pine needles and twigs. He made it to the road's edge.

The horse was gone. Perhaps Eros was more bluster than substance after all. Gil had to admit he hoped the horse would not be put down for what he had demanded of it. He slid back down to their tree shelter.

Thena looked at him, tears in her eyes.

He just nodded, holding out his hand for her. It was a long walk if they took the roads. Her feet were bare, proving that they had broken into the cabin and snatched her away.

She crawled out to join him, collapsing into his chest. He rubbed her back, letting her sob into his shirt. What a fright for his runaway bride to have. And he had failed to protect her, yet again.

They made it back to the road, at least. He looked at Thena, who seemed completely in a daze. Her feet were covered in mud from the road, probably scratched and wounded all over again. He would prepare one of her favourite foot baths when they got home.

Would it still feel like home to her? After having been taken from its very steps?

Gil moved deftly, sweeping her up into his arms so she wouldn't have to walk a single more step. She didn't say anything as he looped her arm around the back of his neck. He didn't say anything either, although he looked at her as her fingers touched his cheek.

"Are you hurt?"

He smiled faintly. Her voice was steady, if a little raw. "No, I'm not hurt. Are you?"

She shook her head, looking at him like she had never seen him before he had fallen from the sky. "I tried to call for you, but he put that cloth in my mouth. I scratched him."

Gil examined the mix of blood an dirt under her delicate fingernails. He chuckled, pressing a kiss to her temple, "that's my girl."

She let out something resembling a laugh as well, resting her head more comfortably on his shoulder. "What will we do, Gil? Will they keep coming after us?"

"I don't know, sweetheart." It was a pitiful offering. But it was his most honest one.

"I don't want to leave our home."

"I know." He didn't particularly want to either. But perhaps that would be best for his runaway bride.

"I'm surprised claiming we were married had no effect. I thought surely if Eros thought you'd already had me that he would no longer have any interest."

Gil blushed. He would also assume something like that, honestly. But clearly Eros either didn't believe her or didn't care even if it was true. But surely if they were married, there was nothing he nor her father could do.

They had to find a way to wed.

[theluckywizard]

hiiiiii happy friday!!!!! rose/hawke, winter palace, "smiling at each other from across the room"? 👀

Thanks for the inspiration, Rowan! For @dadrunkwriting

WC: 1309 Rating: Teen Hawke and Rose meeting up again after her first foray into the Servant's Quarters and Grand Apartments at the Winter Palace to discuss next steps.

Vivienne squares me to her, fussing with my half updo, repinning the disheveled strands that broke free. I’m damp around the edges of my face and my upper lip, a sheen of sweat reflecting the light no doubt and she shakes her head at me.

“This will not do. Not when you haven’t been seen on the dance floor in an hour,” she remarks. She manifests a palm full of ice and blows across at my face, cooling me somewhat.

“I have to hurry. The Duchess is on my dance card and I’m worried about the egg on the Inquisition’s face if I miss it,” I tell her. Vivienne inspects me, smoothing a wrinkle in my gown and hands me my mask and then opens the door and shoves me out alongside her. The other two remain to pack up and stow our gear discreetly.

Across the vestibule, like a towering plum-colored beacon, I see Hawke leaning against the wall surrounded by admirers, a glass of bubbly lolling in his hand. After a minute he notices me and without a moment’s consideration, he fumbles up his mask, gazing like I’d risen from the dead, which first shocks the guests and then draws their attention to me, standing on the other side of the stairway. With their heads turned away he smiles at me in utter relief and I can’t help but return it. It occurs to me that my foray into the servant’s quarters and grand apartments was my first bout of combat without him since he joined us. 

He pulls his mask back down and makes his way to the ballroom door where we converge and continue walking. An admirer pipes up from behind us.

“I didn’t realize you were so handsome, Champion!” Hawke turns slowly to me and flashes me a theatrically smug grin.

“Did you find anyone particularly interesting since I last saw you?” he asks carefully. His hand at my elbow is gentle, but I can tell by the tension in his fingers he’s been anxious to see me return.

“A whole gaggle of people who don’t belong at such a fine affair. One particularly cut throat individual,” I answer with equal caution. He looks down at me and though I can’t see his eyes clearly, his lips are set with worry.

“I wonder who they could be,” he says. “They’re usually so careful with invitations.”

“From north of here I gather,” I tell him. “Far north.” His mask rises as his brow goes up underneath. “I have a dance with the Duchess now, but I have a gift I’d like to pass to Leliana if you could do me the service of delivering it.”

“Save me another dance,” he asks in a low voice, accepting my folded account of what we’d learned and encountered and disappearing it into one of his cavernous pockets with a flourish of sleight of hand. “I’ve missed our conversation.”

It’s the business of the night, but the flutter he provokes is always a little bit there.

“I can’t dance with you again. Even with all the dances I’ve blocked off I don’t know how I’ll attend them all,” I whisper. “People will get suspicious.”

“Meet me in the garden after your dance with the Duchess,” he says softly enough to appear discreet but loud enough that those nearby can hear, his fingertips grazing down my forearm. It’s an act but it’s not.

“These bloody admirers of yours,” I whisper back, annoyed by how closely they’re following.

“The Duchess is waiting. Find me after. The far colonnade,” he says, pressing his thumb into my palm in a way that betrays a certain sense of urgency but still looks provocative to any onlookers.

***

With the key to the Royal Wing in hand, I try to make my driving march to the garden as elegant looking as possible, but I need to see Hawke. I snatch a glass of champagne and cast smiles to party goers as I slip under the colonnade. Hawke leans against the wall in a shadow, his boots illuminated by a strip of moonlight. I hurry over and slide my arms around his neck, the sloshing flute bumping his tail behind him.

“Thank the Maker you’re all right,” he says into the soft nook below my jaw, his lips warm against my skin. “What did she say?” I lower my voice sharply and rise to my tiptoes to get closer to his ear. 

“She gave me a key to the Royal Wing. She says her brother attacks tonight and that the captain of his mercenaries will be in the garden. He’ll be able to uncover the entire plot for us if we can subdue them.”

“Mercenaries,” he scoffs quietly, running his hands over my backside in the same show as before. “Maker, I don’t like you going in there. Was that all?”

“As much as she said anyway. I’ll be safe with Vivienne who knows her way around. And Blackwall and Cassandra and Dorian. They won’t let anything happen to me.”

“You have no healer,” he points out. I slip my hand along his arm, over the elegantly embroidered cuff of his justaucorps and the foppish lace emerging from it and squeeze his hand, hoping he can see how appreciative of his concern I am behind my mask.

“I need you to distract in the antechamber. The guards at the far end.”

“You need me with you.” He says this gazing at me directly.

“Hawke, you have no armor,” I remind him. He snorts a laugh.

“And?” he says. He may have a point.

“I need you out here— keeping the attention of everyone, listening,” I tell him. “I’m going to update Cullen and Leliana before we head in. Be ready in the antechamber.”

“If you don’t come back in a half hour I’m going in there.”

“We’ll be as quick as we can.” Leaning on an elbow over me he hangs his head, shaking it, his disagreement with the plan plain. Preparing to leave, I glance into the garden only to realize we’re the subject of a small crowd of nosy followers once again all pretending not to look and Maker knows how long they’ve been watching Hawke and I in tense discussion. “Kiss me hard.”

Flicking a quick look at the same onlookers, he pushes me against the wall with a hand on my shoulder and accosts my mouth with his hard enough that my head bumps the marble behind me. It’s my escape plan, but the force of it nearly knocks my breath away, desire and arousal attempting to claim my wits when I need a clear head. 

“Slap me,” he murmurs against my mouth, running a hand up my thigh. “Push me away and slap me.” I shove him against his ribs and he plays up a backward stumble. I march forward, smacking him across the jaw hard enough to make a sound which he plays into as well, turning his head and clutching his cheek. 

“Bastard!” I cry, pushing past him, storming through the garden toward the palace. He makes a show of chasing after me and I quicken my step, making plans to head to the ballroom to find my advisors. 

In the antechamber I look back to see Hawke strolling placidly out of the guest wing, another glass of bubbly already in hand, scanning the room for his next move. Shadowed behind the peacock mask, his eyes fix upon me one last time before the next part of my mission and I smile reassuringly. His broad shoulders fall, disappointed still that I’m leaving him behind but his lips turn in an extension of trust. And the strangest feeling overtakes me, bubbling up from deep within, like longing and missing and comfort all at once. It flickers and burns like a brazier and aches like hunger. 

There's a shadow of something there that I'm resisting acknowledging. Something softer than I can even conceive of. And the whole of me vibrates like a gong as we briefly trade this look.

But then again, perhaps it’s just nerves.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Vanny regrets living at the FNAF pizzaplex even more now..

[watchingwisteria]

listen there really was just something about how in the book, snow’s 3-page descent from hesitant lover boy to deluded mfer happens entirely in his mind. lucy gray gives him no indication whatsoever that she suspects him, that she’s going to leave or betray him. he’s just sitting quietly in the cabin waiting for her to return when that seed of calculated suspicion, which he has needed to survive the capitol, takes a hold of him and chokes the life out of any goodness left inside him. it really drives home your terror as a reader that “oh my god did he kill her? did she escape? what happened to her? why would he even think that?” in a way that when the movie had to adjust for visualization it lost some of that holy shit this guy has lost it emphasis.

[pinacoladamatata]

"I've seen the way you look at him... You're in it."

they shouldn't kiss. they shouldn't kiss at all. they're going to kiss a whole lot

[sakuravalelp]

Ellie(Dani) didn't realize how dangerous Danny's home was for him until he was more worried about her when she got her own home. - Prompt I think(?)

Ellie wasn't sure how to feel when Danny excitedly animated her to accept Arthur's invitation to live in Atlantis.

"Just if you want of course, but you'll get a stable home, and Frostbite said living underwater might be good for your water cores stability."

She had already been planning to accept the offer. Once she gave the guy an opportunity to have some sort of conversation, the guy was pretty chill, and the castle was pretty cool. So yeah, she was going to accept the offer.

But for some reason Danny's eagerness for her to go with Arthur hurt. It felt like he was trying to get rid of her.

She knew that was ridiculous, she didn't even live with Danny. He looked out for her, and was always a call away but, as much as Danny parents her, he was just a child like her. It made sense he was happy to give away the responsibility of taking care of her.

So when Ellie moved into Atlantis, she was expecting to hear less from Danny. After all, she had settle down, and he didn't need to worry about her adventures anymore. That was Arthur's and Mera's job now.

Weirdly enough, it was the complete opposite.

Now that Ellie was living with adults, Danny seemed MORE worried for her. They went from a call once a week or so, to almost daily calls in the afternoons. He would be more insistent about her telling him if anything was wrong.

He would ask specifics about the food she was eating, and her activities of the day, and her room, and the castles security...

Sam had told her that it was because he used to be able to monitor if she was eating well through the transactions of the debit card they had given her. Tuck had told her that he used to evaluate how safe she was through the phones location, and the hotels receipts.

And well, maybe she underestimated how much attention Danny put on her before, but the way the calls went made it seem like he thought she might be in more danger now that she had a stable home.

Which made no sense, because unlike him, she didn't even need to hide her ghostlines. Anything that was out of normal for Atlanteans was excused with meta-abilities, she didn't need to worry about being classified as a non-sentient species.

That was when it caught up to her. Danny was worried now that she was in a stable home because his stable home had always been dangerous for him. It isn't even a think of it being dangerous now that his a ghost, it has been dangerous ever since he was a child. She remembers all of Jazz's rants about how unreliable their parents have always been.

The food has always been contaminated. The security now attacked him directly, but there had always been a possibility of it malfunctioning and hurting the residents. Him and Jazz had always had the responsibilities of not only keeping the house clean, but the lab as well. If she tops it with the house security system attacking him, and his parents been ghost hunters...

Ellie hadn't found it too dangerous back then, Danny mocked Jazz rants with her, and Jack and Maddie were kind when they interacted with her in her human form. The Fentons neglect seemed liberating in comparison to Vlad overly controlling nature. But thinking about it now, after two months living in Atlantis, she doesn't like the picture.

She doesn't like the idea of Danny being somewhere so unsafe, but where would he go? He doesn't have a water core like her, and even if he had gotten sorta used to shapeshifting, he isn't good enough to live in a second form, which isn't recommendable either way. So he wouldn't be able to move underwater with her.

More so, she doubts that Danny would like to leave his Amity, he had taken the sole responsibilities of dealing with the whole humans - ghost conflicts. With the anti-ecto acts, there's no way he would leave the portal unsupervised.

What should she do now? Should she talk with Arthur about it? He said he was part of the heros friend group, what if they already know about the anti-ecto acts and are okay with it? What if they change hoe they act with her when she tells them she isn't actually an atlatean meta?

[ciderjacks]

despite Laios low self esteem making him think that if he’d been eaten, Chilchuck and Marcille wouldn’t have helped Falin,

theres a small part of me that thinks the reason Chilchuck stayed with the party and went back in the dungeon in the first place was because he didn’t want to leave Laios alone. That Laios was moreso the reason he stayed.

[bluerosefox]

BREAKING NEWS! Youngest Wayne's Secret Lovechild?!

Teenage Ellie taking care of deaged Danny and moving to Gotham to hide from Vlad because Lady Gotham offered them sanctuary and will keep Vlad out.

BUT

Chaos is set into motion when during a Rogue attack, Damian Wayne (not as Robin at the moment) saves him and returns Danny to Ellie...

The internet/news happen because of course it did.

And people mistake Danny as his kid and Ellie his baby mama.

[wyvernity]

been thinking about the sinnohtrio lately......plus misc other stuff

also, casual ko-fi drop!! get something in this sketchy style starting at $10 woop woop

[haunted-xander]

Who's the "real" me?

+ some references for the Rise-related things I included <3

[claraoswalds]

#mrs flood who are you: time lord edition

[stealingyourbones]

DPxDC the Olympics AU.

Jazz is competing for sharpshooting

Dick is competing for team gymnastics

Y’all can work it out from there :)

[sweetsouldhavernas]

just a worried space husband, bringing his space wife a flower ↳ Star Trek Voyager: 3x15 - ‘Coda’

[expelliarmus]

[cheesomancer]

What are you waiting for? I'm totally ready, I tell you.

Full art (with close up!) is here!

[redundantz]

Act 2 Thanks for reading