#Arnelle | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sorcerous-caress · 6 months

Text

Agape | Arnell Hallowleaf

[Bg3, fluff, romance, angst, smut, comfort, human reader, nb!reader]

You, a human, fall in love with an old elf and make terms with the knowledge that you'll outlive him. He comforts you through it.

It felt right, sitting right here, you felt strangely safe, protected.

Loved.

His legs were comfortable below you, warm. Straddling his lap, you couldn't help but lean into his chest, bury your face between his shoulders, brush your nose against his neck.

He smelled nice, safe, like the shadow of an orange tree. You've always heard people say that humans had a distinct smell that anyone but their own kind could easily pick up amidst a crowd.

And maybe they were right, for the elf you were cuddling against smelled anything but human. Smelled like nature was weaved through his skin, like ancient magic rivered along his blood.

You wondered how you smelled to him, how would a human scent compare?

Arnell's arms held you with gentleness, carefully wrapping around your human body as if you were something precious. And maybe to an elf you were, much like how your kind handled dandelions with delicate hands, careful not to accidentally ruin something with such a short lifespan.

Elves were always the subject of human enamour, for some mysterious reason the more elusive their kind was, the more intrigued humanity got by them.

Yet more than half of humans spend a lifetime without ever meeting one, and the other half were just blessed by luck to stumble upon one on a mere chance.

His hands were moving up and down your back, a comforting pace.

The wrinkles on his skin, the ageing of his face, the stray grey hairs amidst his black hair. Arnell was relatively old by elf standards, and ancient by human standards.

You felt impossibly young by comparison, even as an adult you felt impossibly small.

Yet he spoke to you as an equal, extending the same courtesy and respect to you as he would've given to another elf.

High elves didn't have the best views on humanity, a majority of them even refused to learn common to communicate with what they deemed as lesser beings. Mayflays, sparks in the wind, forever summer children who never make it to the winter.

Hugging him tighter, his hands paused for a moment. You remember reading something about how the elves share their connection to the fey, how they can sense each other's emotions, bare open their hearts and understand each other in ways no words can ever give justice to.

Your kind had to resort to the guessing game, pattern recognition and studying body language.

Arnell's hand moves from your back to your head, caressing your hair, cupping your face and lifting your chin up to look at him.

Your eyes meet his green ones and you wonder if he can recognise your emotions, you see him focusing on the small details of your expression, on the downturn of your lips.

Elves who lived amongst humans had to learn these traits, although it never clicked with them the way it did with humans, even the most experienced could still make wrong assumptions.

It was the difference between someone with a language as their mother tongue and someone who merely studied it in books. Even with endless practice, others could tell the two apart.

Humans were the most social of creatures, they needed other people as much as they needed sunlight, without it they'd wilt.

“Is something troubling you?” He finally asked, making a semi correct guess. Concern in his eyes, voice as soft as ever as he spoke those words.

You shook your head, reassuring him that it's nothing.

And maybe if he was another person, or maybe just a younger version of himself, then this would've fooled him easily. Elves weren't the brightest when it came to human social behaviours, when it came to white lies and the stubborn human ego's refusal to ever admit something is wrong.

But Arnell knew better, he was old, he has seen this song and dance many times before from your kind.

His lap was very comfortable, you thought, you never wanted to get up, or face the world outside again.

But those words burned to admit, and you couldn't connect to the fey, you merely had your lips to pour your heart content with and it was never enough.

A warmth spread on your forehead, a tingling feeling. His lips against it in a short tender kiss. The warmth trickled down into your own heart, his sudden affection spreading a sweet feeling of reassurance through you.

“It's just…not fair.” You could talk again, without the usual shame clogging your throat shut, you could speak your feelings.

Maybe he did know more about humans than you've given him credit for.

“This whole situation” you continued, “losing you so soon when we've barely even..”

Elves always warned their kind against getting too attached to humans, for their fleeting lives will have you heartbroken quicker than you could predict.

And yet, no one has warned you about having your elf partner be at the end of their long age just when you get together, watching them die and know they'll leave this earth before you.

It was always the human that left first, and now instead you're the one mourning your lover.

What a cruel joke fate was, to make it possible for the two of you to be together only at this moment of time. At the start of your life and the end of his own.

You should be happy, grateful that he still chose to spend his last remaining years with you. It's not like he didn't warn you beforehand when you kept approaching him, ignoring the implications and following your heart's desires to be with him.

And oh, how much he desired you too so, how hard it was for him to gently coax you into finding someone else, someone younger, maybe a human just like you.

Alas you were relentless, and he couldn't deny himself any longer. Your first night together, you still remember it fondly. How his breath felt against your neck, how his hips moved against yours, the twitch of his pointy ears whenever your insides clenched around him.

Time flowed like a dream, being with him was everything you could imagine and more.

And just like any other sweet dream, reality comes crashing in when it's suddenly the time to wake up.

The natural death of an elf, when the fey calls them back home, they could feel its pull. And Arnell was never good at keeping secrets, he could barely contain himself for a day before telling you about it.

He has to leave, go back to the sanctuary of his people. So he may join the cycle of rebirth and the fey may claim his soul back into its river again.

You've stopped talking for a while, too lost in your own head. Swarming thoughts of what tomorrow held.

Sitting on his lap and clinging to him as if you may trick Corellon into not taking him back if you hid him between your arms, if you hugged him tight enough, maybe just maybe you can extend his life by a year or two.

Too many emotions swirled inside, outrage at unfairness of the universe, despair at having your loved clawd out of your hand, resentment for not realising this earlier.

His eyes were still on you, his soul attempting to understand your own. And so you do the one thing you can, you kiss him.

Pressing your lips against his soft ones, melting into his arms. You feel him kiss you back just as tenderly, just as desperately, even when you pull back for a breath his lips are on yours in an instant. Stealing your breath away, indulging himself with your taste as long as he can.

Because he has you for now, this one precious human who's so worried about losing him, he has you all to himself.

He had met many humans in his lifetime, fell in love with many of them. Maybe it was humanity as a whole which he was in love with, and when he saw the flame of determination in your eyes at getting with him, he was reminded of why he fell in love with your kind in the first place.

It was addicting how you tasted, intoxicating how you smelled. The order of nature meant nothing to the chaos of your soul, the indifference of the universe could never stop your laughter. And yet humanity still danced as they were born from ash and to ash they returned.

He wanted to keep you on his lap forever, this amber still not yet fully flamed, with endless potential and unlimited creativity. How was he not the lucky one in this scenario to have you choose him, a mere old elf.

At this point of age, his own kind rarely bothered anymore, too occupied with the prospect of their new life after death to bother and still make memories with their current one.

But you breathed life into him, shared your own flame. Humanity was infectious at its core, leaving marks everywhere you went, giving parts of yourself to everyone you've ever met.

He wasn't letting go of your lips, wasn't satisfied yet. Even a hundred years spent solely by your side on his bed would never satisfy his hunger for you.

It was intense, beautifully so, until the two of you finally parted, breathless with lips flushed.

You were the first to break out of this trance, moving closer and trailing soft kisses up his exposed neck. Leaving marks on his fragile skin, brushing them with your fingertips as your lips moved upwards.

Along his jawline, up his cheek, your lips met the base of his ear. They were sensitive more so than a human's, easily got a gasp or two out of him. You softly traced its pointy long edges with your lips, a lick or two with your tongue got Arnell's arm to tighten around you. Thighs trembling underneath you with each flick against his ear.

You too, have learned more about elves by being with him than he could've expected.

A last night of his embrace, of having him lay underneath you as you moved your hips. Spoiling him one last time, having him completely fill you to the core one last time, hear him call your name one last time.

And when tomorrow comes, you'll be ready, the two of you will.

Maybe, just maybe in the far future, in 20 years or so. When you've grown, lived your life and cherished the wrinkles starting to appear upon your skin, you'll meet a familiar set of eyes in the forest.

They're blue this time around, shaped differently, even his hair is a different colour and texture. No elf is reborn in the same body, but you can see the recognition in his eyes, of being the last person he ever saw.

And you may call his name, Arnell, see him reply with a different one. The new name he was granted in this new life, witness his tale of the dream-like memories he held of his past life, of his daughter, of his past wife.

And especially, of you, the one human that saw him until the end of his life.

Maybe his love for humanity was engraved in his soul, so deep that even rebirth may not steal it away. Maybe the two of you get to fall in love again this time around, get more time together this time around.

And he will be the one to walk you to the end this time around.

#♡arnell hollowleaf #♡Angst #♡romance #♡smut #♡fluff #♡comfort #♡human reader #arnell hallowleaf #Arnell Hallowleaf x reader #Arnell Hallowleaf x Tav #bg3 x reader #elf x reader #elf x human

64 notes · View notes