#also hes blond cause i want him to not look the same as his v/tm counterpart. but thats his natural hair there as well

[svampira]

[nevermindirah]

Ok it's Jewish Booker o'clock, I can no longer stop myself, let's do this!

Why Jewish Booker? Dude was born in Marseilles in 1770, which happens to be a FASCINATING time and place in Jewish history, and it adds ridiculous layers to his character (without excusing a damn thing). Alternately just because I think he’s neat :)

Jewish Booker headcanons that make me happy:

not to be all "real Jews do X" but Jews fuck with candles hard. Book of Nile thrives on old/modern analog/digital giggles. Booker lighting Shabbat candles, lighting yarzeit (memorial) candles for his wife and sons (sob), lighting a menorah, lighting candles just because he's feeling emotional even though it's not chag (a holiday) or a yarzeit and Nile thinks he's trying to be sexy but he's really just in his feelings. just like. so many candles.

maybe Booker was the person who punched Richard Spencer at Trump's inauguration, just bringing back that time somebody punched a famous neonazi in the street and said neonazi has all but stopped appearing in public after a few rounds of public punching

were the Old Guard in Charlottesville in 2017? how many times has Booker the Blond Jew infiltrated North American white nationalist / Klan type activities and then stolen their weapons and/or killed them? likewise there's plenty of horrifying white nationalist shit happening across Europe this century, how many Pim Fortuyn types has he been involved in taking down? (I Am Of Course Not Endorsing Violence TM ;) ;) )

SINGING. Mattias Schoenaerts sings in Away From the Madding Crowd but it's church shit, sigh, anyway he has a nice voice. a lot of Jewish prayer is sung/chanted (depending on when/where you are and the gender rules of the community you're in) and there’s been a lot of innovation to Jewish singing in Booker’s lifetime, and I just want Nile to overhear him singing to himself on Friday afternoons

Nile Freeman was four years old when The Prince of Egypt came out, she grew up on that shit, she would want to introduce her new family to that shit. Please join me in picturing Booker, Nicky, Joe, and Andy all shouting "that's not how it happened!!" throughout this beautiful nightmare of a movie with lovely animation and songs but where white people voice most of the Egyptian and Jewish characters, because Booker Nicky and Joe's religious texts all frame the Exodus story a little differently and Andy was probably there when it happened (except for how it didn't actually happen it's an important story but it's just a story pls just let me giggle about Andy being super old)

Read below the cut for sad Jewish Booker headcanons, French Jewish history (mostly sad), context on antisemitism (enraging/sad), and all the way to the very end for a himbo joke.

Jewish Booker headcanons, I made myself sad edition:

he is a forger. who was alive. in 1939. visas. VISAS. V I S A S. how many of us did he save? how many more could he have saved if he didn't sleep that night? how heavily does that weigh?

how do we think he BECAME a forger? most likely he was doing what he needed to do to support his family, which gets extra poignant if he was also trying to help his people, forging documents as well as money even during his mortal life

Booker raised Catholic by crypto-Jews adds ANOTHER layer to the forgery thing, no shit he'd get good at falsifying paperwork and coming up with plausible cover stories

do we know how Booker made it back home after his first death in 1812? his route between the Russian Empire and Provence in 1812 would've been a patchwork of laws about Jews, in case starvation and frostbite weren't enough for him to have to deal with, he's blond and could maybe get away with pretending not to be Jewish if he had to, alternately maybe synagogues and yeshivot took him in on his way home

the structural and sometimes-interpersonal dynamics of antisemitism cause many individual Jews to experience feelings of teetering on the fence between a valued member of a not-exclusively-Jewish community and a scapegoat/outcast/problem. HOLY SHIT BOOKER. "what do you know of all these years alone" is the most Jewish loneliness-in-a-crowd shit I've ever heard. fear that we're not wanted, or only wanted so long as we're useful — that's something that basically all people struggle with under capitalism, but it's especially poignant for many Jews because of the particular way antisemitism operates. (NOTE this can tip from a legit Jewish Booker reading to woobification of the sad white man who couldn't possibly be held responsible for his own actions because he's so sad, which, NOPE. it's very understandable for him to feel left out and misunderstood and not as wanted, as the youngest and not part of an immortal couple and maybe Jewish, but NONE OF THIS excuses his betrayal.)

Crusaders murdered a lot of Jews on their way to the ~holy land~. how many of Booker's people did Nicky kill on his way to kill Joe's people? has Booker ever actually talked to either of them about it?

I read this really beautiful fic about Joe needing to circumcise himself after getting run over by a cart (ouch) — this is a hell of a thing for Joe and Booker to have in common

just generally Jewish Booker adds more layers to him and Joe so clearly being such close friends, ugh that look Joe gives him when they're leaving the bar at the end of the movie, and I very much do not mean this in a gross Arab-Israeli-conflict way because Joe is Amazigh not Arab and Booker is Jewish not Israeli (and also a lot of Jews are Arabs) (but most importantly there's no ~eternal conflict~ between Muslims and Jews) (more about OP Is Not A Zionist below)

like, the UK and France (and to a certain extent Italy) carved up the former Ottoman Empire after WWI; among other things, the UK took Palestine, and they could've worked on eradicating European antisemitism so Jews wouldn't have to leave but instead they used their control of Palestine to encourage Zionist emigration of Jews out of Europe, and France took what is now Iraq, which has some pretty direct implications for US military involvement in that country in Nile's lifetime; France colonized Tunisia in the late 19th century and still held it during the Vichy era which means Tunisian Jews were subject to Nazi anti-Jewish laws which is just layers upon layers of colonial racist Islamophobic and antisemitic nightmares for Joe and Booker to live through

to be crystal clear before anybody gets ooh Muslim-Jewish conflict up in here, antisemitism is an invention of European Christians that they imported to the places they colonized, the European colonial powers encouraged Zionism because it was easier for them to encourage Jews to leave Europe and set us up as middle agents between the colonial powers and the ~scary brown people~, the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim governments historically have had a second-class citizenship category for non-Muslims that rankles my American first amendment freedom of religion sensibility but was very much not targeting Jews specifically, and these two men who've lived for a long-ass time through many varieties of geopolitical awfulness (and alongside a certain unwashed Crusader who has since learned his lesson) would have Things To Say about how our current mainstream discourses frame these things

getting off my soapbox and back to this action movie I'm trying to talk about, the ANGST of Booker's exile, which is simultaneously a very valid decision for Andy Joe and Nicky to make, an extremely long time for Nile who is only 26 years old to be separated from the one person on the planet in a position to really understand the crisis she's going through, and holy shit expelling a Jew from your group when he's already been expelled from mortality and his family and being expelled from places and continually having to start over somewhere new is THE curse of surviving through antisemitism, OUCH MY FEELINGS

Some French Jewish history:

France, like basically all of Europe, periodically expelled its Jews, but Provence (where Marseilles is) wasn't legally part of France during the expulsions up through 1398 so Provence had a continuous active Jewish community; about 3,000 Iberian Jewish refugees ended up in Provence after the expulsions from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s

the 1498 expulsion of French Jews DID apply to Provence but many "converted" to Christianity and reestablished a Jewish community when enforcement of the expulsion chilled out (which was in the government's interest because they were really into taxing Jews at higher rates, so much so that they taxed "new Christians" at higher rates once they realized expelling Jews meant they wouldn't be around to overtax, ffs) — by the mid-18th century Provence had notable communities of Jews and crypto-Jews (forced converts and their descendants who still kept some Jewish practices in secret)

Booker would've been 21 when revolutionary France granted equal legal rights to Jews in 1791 — his mortal life and first century of immortality happens to line up almost perfectly with the timeline of legal emancipation of Jews across Europe

the American and French Revolutions happened pretty much concurrently and took different approaches to religious freedom that make Book of Nile with Jewish Booker and canon Christian Nile extra interesting — French emancipation, at least from my American sensibility, is about secularism and religion not "interfering" (hence French Islamophobic shittiness about banning hijabs), whereas American religious freedom is more of "the government can't stop me from trying to evangelize / religiously harass people at my school/workplace/etc" — to be clear I think both countries' approaches to religious "freedom" are hegemonic as shit and have devastating flaws, but they're different models that emerged at the same time in Booker's youth and Christianity is clearly a source of emotional support for Nile and there's so much to explore here

Napoleon tried to ~liberate~ the Jews of places he conquered for his dumbass French Empire, but liberation from ghettos came with strings attached (like banning us from some of the only jobs we'd been legally allowed to have for centuries, and liberating us for the stated purpose of getting us to assimilate and stop being Jews) and many places that were briefly part of the French Empire reinstated their antisemitic laws after Napoleon was gone, can you imagine being a French Jew forced to fight and die in Russian winter for that jackass and then have to trudge back through a dozen countries whose antisemitism was all riled up by French interference?

Some facts about antisemitism:

antisemitism operates differently than many other oppressions, it doesn't economically oppress the target group in the same way as antiblackness or misogyny or ableism etc — the purpose of antisemitism is to create a scapegoat to blame when European peasants are mad at the king / the church / the people actually in charge, and structural antisemitism encourages a system where some Jews become visibly successful so that those individuals and our whole community are easier to make into scapegoats

one of the historical roots of antisemitism is stuff in the Christian Bible about moneylending as sinful — Jews in medieval Europe were often barred from owning land and Christians barred from moneylending, so some Jews found work in finance and some of us became very visibly successful for working with money — a few individual Jews running a particular bank or finding success as jewelry dealers turns into "Jews control global financial systems" scapegoating — a more recent example of this is the participation of nonblack Jews in white flight and the role of Jewish landlords doing the visible dirty work of non-Jewish institutions in American antiblack housing discrimination, Nile grew up on the South Side of Chicago and would have seen some shit along these lines and might repeat hurtful ideas out of a lack of knowledge, here's Ta Nahesi Coates on some of these dynamics

Booker canonically being a forger (specifically of coins in the comics?) needs a little extra care to avoid antisemitic tropes about Jews and money, I will happily answer good-faith asks about this if you want to check on something for a fic/etc

antisemitism in the United States where I live in October 2020 isn't institutional in the sense of targeting Jews for police violence or anything like that. it IS systemic, however, for example in all the antisemitic conspiracy theories the Trump administration and several other Republicans peddle (ie QAnon), and in how the Trump administration points to support for Israel as if that means support for Jews (it doesn't, it's evangelical Christians who push the US government to support the Israeli government because they think Jews need to be in the ~holy land~ for Jesus to come back that's literally why the United States funds Israel at the level it does). antisemitism also gets weaponized to encourage white Jews (those of us of European descent, who in the United States are definitely white because the foundation of US racism is slavery and antiblackness as well as anti-indigenous genocide, maybe European Jews aren't included in whiteness everywhere but we definitely are where I live) to side with white supremacy instead of building solidarity with other marginalized people (ie a lot of mainstream Jewish groups shit on the Movement for Black Lives because of its solidarity with Palestinians)

the Nation of Islam has a major presence in Chicago and its leader Louis Farrakhan who lives in Chicago has long spread a variety of antisemitic as well as homophobic bullshit but there are genuine good reasons many Black people find meaning/support in the Nation of Islam and Nile would've grown up with that mess in the air around her, this is a good take from a Black Jew about the nuance of all that

the way the Old Guard comics draw Yusuf al Kaysani is HOLY SHIT ANTISEMITISM BATMAN I hate it please summarize the comics for me because I DO NOT WANT to look at that unnecessarily caricatured nose why the fuck did they do that human noses are beautiful there is absolutely no need to draw Joe like a Nazi would

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice is a local NYC group that recently developed a fantastic resource for understanding and fighting antisemitism (pdf) 11/10 strongly recommend

Zionism disclaimer: A lot of Jews feel strongly that we need a Jewish-majority country in order to be safe from antisemitism. I strongly disagree with this idea on its merits (Jews disagree about who is a Jew and making Jewish status a government/immigration matter means some of us are going to get left out; also non-Jews aren't fundamentally dangerous and separatism isn't going to end antisemitism) but I have a lot of empathy for the very valid fear that leads a lot of my people to Zionism. Whether I want a Jewish-majority country or not, what Israel has done and continues to do to Palestinians is a deal breaker. Emotions run very high on this subject — I spend a lot of my not-Tumblr life talking to other Jews about Zionism and I'd rather not have this Jewish Booker headcanons post become yet another place where fellow Jews yell at me in bad faith. Block me if you need to, you're not going to change my mind. Call me self-hating if you want, I know I love us.

Racism in fandom disclaimer: I feel weird about increasing the volume of meta about Booker in this fandom. Nile Freeman is the main character and deserves lots of attention and adoration from the fandom — and she deserves emotional support from as many friends and orgasms from as many partners as she wants. I think Jewish Booker makes her friendship and potential romantic relationship with him even more interesting, hence this post. Ship what you ship, but be aware of the racist impact of focusing your fandom activity on, for example, shipping two white men while ignoring awesome characters of color especially the canon man of color one of those white dudes has already been with for a millennium. Please and thanks don't use my post for shenanigans like sidelining Joe so you can ship Booker with Nicky.

Oh and a non-disclaimer fun fact, Matthias Schoenaerts was born in Antwerp which apparently has one of the largest Jewish communities still remaining in Europe?? ~Jewish Booker headcanons intensify~

In conclusion: Jewish Booker! Just because it's fun! It exponentially increases the angst of his mortal lifetime and it puts his first century of immortality smack in the middle of the most intense changes to Jewish life since the fall of the Second Temple (aforementioned emancipation, also founding of Reform Judaism, the Haskalah, Zionism, and then of course the Holocaust). It makes his relationships with Nile, Joe, and Nicky more interesting and potentially angstier and with more intense commonalities and tenderness about their differences. It's very common for Jews to not believe in God (this confuses the shit out of a lot of Christians) and this would probably have further endeared him to Andy.

One more thing: Booker as golem. (A golem is basically an earthenware robot of Jewish folklore.) He's tall and blond and the most Steve Rogers-looking of all of them and from the Himbeaux region of France. THE trope of Book of Nile is he will do WHATEVER Nile wants or needs him to do. I was today years old when I learned that Modern Hebrew speakers use golem figuratively to mean "mindless lunk" and I'm choosing to squint and read that as "hot kind and dumb as rocks" because it amuses me.

[pintofteaforthesoul]

A Terrasen Prom

Aelin sucked in her breath, hands gripping the back of her desk chair as Lysandra tugged the zipper of her dress up. Even still, Lysandra hissed, “Suck in!”

Aelin gasped. “If I suck in anymore, my uterus will be in my throat!”

Lysandra snorted, but was able to get the zipper the rest of the way up and step back. Aelin turned, hugging her hands to her chest. Lysandra looked stunning in a deep emerald gown, the top almost shear with leaves embroidered like lace along her chest and arms and a tulle skirt that had a slit up the leg. She was shocked the school had allowed something so scandalous, especially with the low V-neckline, but it suited Lysandra perfectly.

Aelin looked down at her own baby blue dress. It had off-the-shoulder cuff sleeves and a full-bodied skirt with white embroidery dotted along the fabric. Her dream gown really… Aelin frowned, smoothing the skirt with light hands.

Lysandra pulled took Aelin’s hands in her own and Aelin glanced back up at her best friend’s worried expression. Her hair was pulled back in jeweled clip, with soft dark brown curls framing her face. “Are you sure you’re up for this? We don’t have to go…”

Aelin shook her head, straightening her back with confidence she didn’t feel. “It’d be lame if we didn’t go now, especially since we’re already dressed.”

“But Chaol-”

Aelin cut her off, eyebrows furrowing as a pang flashed through her heart. “Chaol can suck my dick for all I care.” But Lysandra knew she was lying, giving Aelin that knowing expression of hers. Aelin’s face dropped. “He broke up with me a week before prom, Lys. Who does that?”

Lysandra hugged her. “An idiot, that’s who. So we’re going to go anyway and he’s going to see just how fabulous you are and regret the day he was born!”

Her voice was filled with such genuine fervor that it made Aelin smile. After a moment, Aelin nodded. “Okay.”

~~~

The Ballroom was extravagant, that’s the only word Aelin thought came close to describing it. Decked in shades of blues, purples, and white, the Hotel Ballroom would make a Queen stop dead in her tracks at its beauty. Three chandeliers sent dancing lights across the floor and walls, making it feel ethereal.

Aelin’s jaw dropped as she and Lysandra swept in along with the other members of their high school- Aelin standing out because she was one of the few sophomores. She squirmed, eyes darting like a nervous doe.

Lysandra reached over and pinched her, causing Aelin to jerk her head over with a hiss. “Stop looking for him, you’ll drive yourself crazy.” It was a hushed whisper and Aelin scowled.

They drew over to one side of the massive room, dropping by the refreshments table to get punch before it got spiked. Finally having an inkling of privacy as the loud music started and people rushed to the dance floor, Aelin leaned over and whispered, “What if he’s here with another girl?”

Lysandra sighed. “Even if he is, she won’t be nearly as pretty or as smart as you.”

The compliment fell on deaf ears as Aelin resumed her scanning of the crowd. Lysandra let her be, knowing Aelin would have to find Chaol before she did anything else- even dance.

But Aelin found someone else, standing in the center of a group of males with his head thrown back as he laughed. His short silver hair nearly glittered in the light, the swirling tattoo down his face still a shock to see amongst high schoolers. He was the school’s own Bad BoyTM and relished in every dirty deed in the book. Aelin hadn’t recognized him at first without his signature leather jacket, but his group of friends were also unmistakable. Aelin shoved her elbow into Lysandra, who cursed loud enough to have several heads turn towards them, but Aelin didn’t care. “Rowan Whitethorn is here!” She struggled to lower her voice so it wasn’t a shout.

Lysandra’s mouth dropped open. “You’re joking! Where?” Her eyes greedily scanned the crowd until she found him- it wasn’t like he blended it. “Holy shit. What is he doing here?”

The girls leaned their heads even closer. “I don’t know! He’s a senior, so it’s fully in his right to come since the ticket it free for them.”

Lysandra still looked dumbfounded. “But he never comes to these things! And I don’t see Lyria with him.” Lyria was the head cheerleader and had been Rowan’s girlfriend for as long as Aelin had ever known. They were practically inseparable, the typical “good girl” falling for the Bad BoyTM. Aelin had always been jealous since they were the school’s Power Couple, not helping that she’d liked Rowan ever since he’d shoved a boy that was messing with her off the playground in fourth grade.

But he’d never paid her any mind, not even once Aelin grew boobs, packed on a decent amount of muscle playing lacrosse, and shot up to be taller than most of the girls in her class. Rowan had only ever had eyes for Lyria and her hot cheerleader body.

Not that Aelin had cared after she’d met Chaol, who’d swept her off her feet with his toned athletic body and meaningless promises- but she’d never forgotten Rowan, or the fluttering thrill his presence sent through her stomach. “Maybe they broke up?” Aelin didn’t dare let herself hope, not with the still-constant ache of Chaol’s dumping her.

“Let’s make sure he sees you, then.” Lysandra grinned like a fiend and, before Aelin could protest, dragged them onto the dancefloor.

~~~

Rowan wanted to leave and he’d been at the prom for less than twenty minutes. He wouldn’t even be here if Fenrys hadn’t threatened to withhold the after-party location if he didn’t show. Sneaking sips from the flask hid in his jacket, Rowan scowled at the people around him- most of whom he didn’t know their names. Lyria was nowhere to be seen, and good riddance. She’d left him for some college guy’s dick, so she wasn’t his problem any longer.

Fenrys nudged him, drinking from a cup of punch that had definitely been spiked by now. “Cheer up, man, you look like death.”

Rowan shook his head. “I wonder why. It’s almost like I didn’t want to come.”

Fenrys only grinned. “It’s our last prom before graduating! You’ll thank me later.”

“I doubt it.” Rowan muttered and Lorcan on his left snorted, the only one who heard. He had also been dragged here by Fenrys with the promise of an after-party.

Fenrys visibly checked out a girl that passed and she blushed, scampering away with her friends. Rowan rolled his eyes, but checked out one of the girl’s friends and winked just for the hell of it. He at least shouldn’t warm his bed alone after putting so much effort into this evening- Rowan was wearing a suit for gods-sake.

While Rowan’s head was turned to the side, following the group of girls as they wandered back to the dance floor, he saw her- and sucked in a breath. Aelin Galythnius. She was twirling in circles with another girl in a dark dress. Rowan’s eyes widened at the pale blue dress Aelin wore, showing off her neck, shoulders, and the enticing swell of her breasts. She was stunning, but that was nothing new. Even though Aelin was only a sophomore, she was already a shoe-in to be Valedictorian of her class. She was smart, talented, and overall- incredible.

Fenrys was talking, but froze at the expression on Rowan’s face, following his gaze to Aelin. “Shit! Is that Aedion’s little sister?”

“Cousin.” Rowan corrected out of habit, shoving Fenrys when the man started to practically drool. Another shove when he wouldn’t stop staring. “Stop. You know Aedion will have our asses if we even look at her the wrong way.”

Fenrys wrenched his gaze away as if it took extreme effort, Rowan had to admit he was feeling the same- his eyes wanting to stray back to Aelin as those hips moved in time to the pulsing music. “Damn, she might be worth an ass-whooping in that dress.”

Lorcan shook his head at them, the only one in their group with a loving and supportive girlfriend and who had no interest in leering at other women. “No girl is worth that shit, but I’ll pay for tickets if you decide to be a dumbass.”

Rowan had to even his breathing, reminding himself of the words he spoke next, “She’s in a relationship, Fen.”

Something dangerous sparkled in Fenrys’s eyes. “You didn’t hear?”

Rowan scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Heard what, jackass?”

Fenrys grinned. “Westfall dumped her last week.”

Rowan choked in his drink, having made the mistake of trying to take a drink to calm his nerves. It took him a second to say, “That cocksucker did what?”

Lorcan twirled his glass, disinterested. “I believe he said-”

Rowan’s fists curled. “I know what he said, Lorcan.” The words were a hiss and he took a long breath, running a hand through his hair. “I knew Westfall was dumb, but damn.”

Fen nodded. “I honestly pity him. Aedion must be plotting his murder as we speak.”

“Whose murder am I plotting?” Every muscle in Rowan’s body tensed at the sudden voice. They turned in unison to see Aedion Ashryver standing behind them.

Fen only smirked in his usual fashion. “Chaol Westfall.

Aedion’s head only tilted to the side. “Why would I be killing Chaol?”

Rowan let out a breath, willing his face to remain neutral and wishing he were anywhere but there. Fen’s smile fell, uncertain about giving this news. “He’s your Lacrosse captain, I assumed you knew…”

Aedion now walked closer, his surprising height making even Fen look short. “Knew what, Moonbeam?”

Rowan, now half behind Aedion, shook his head furiously, but Fenrys stumbled on. “About Westfall and your cousin- that he dumped her.”

The look that passed over Aedion’s face in a mere flash was one of pure rage, but Rowan respected his ability to hold it down. “Oh.” He said. “If you’ll excuse me…” Then as fast as he’d appeared, Aedion was gone.

Rowan stared at Fenrys until the man went, “What?!”

Rowan shook his head in unison with Lorcan. “Why the fuck did you do that? It’s none of our business.”

Fenrys shrugged. “He deserved to know.”

Rowan ran a hand through his hair, catching the glint of Aedion’s blonde hair as the man half-dragged his cousin off the dancefloor.

~~~

“Ow! Aedion, you’re hurting me.” Aelin murmured the words as her cousin manhandled her into a corner of the ballroom, glaring away any people nearby. Lysandra had followed them over and Aedion glared at her too, but she held firm.

At last, Aedion hissed, “When were you going to tell me that Westfall dumped you?”

Aelin cringed. ���I was planning on it, there just never seemed like a good time.”

Those eyes that were identical to hers held death. “A good time? Aelin! I’ve been friendly with him all week when I should have been kicking his ass!” His voice was damn near close to a shout and the girls both shushed him. They were drawing too many eyes.

Aelin could only sigh. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. I knew you’d react badly.”

A muscle in Aedion’s jaw twitched. “He. Dumped. You.”

She let out a breath, that weight back on her chest. “Thanks for the reminder.” She’d meant to say it sarcastically but her voice broke.

Aedion watched Aelin’s face drop as she fought the tears that wanted to ruin her. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

Aelin shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over. It’s done. I just want to move on and have a nice night. Is that too much to ask for?” Aedion’s face softened in a way it only did for Aelin.

Lysandra came up and looped her arm around Aelin’s waist. “Who told you anyway?”

Aedion looked almost confused. “Fenrys Moonbeam. He, Rowan, and Lorcan were talking about it for some reason.”

Aelin’s heart gave a discordant thump. “What? Why?”

Aedion shrugged. “You’d have to ask them. They seemed interested for whatever reason.”

Lysandra sent Aelin a knowing glance that made the corner of her mouth turn up. Rowan Whitethorn was talking about her- it was actually a dream come true.

Aedion glanced between them. “Why do you have that look on your faces?”

“No reason.” Lysandra lied and began to pull them away, but Aedion grabbed Aelin’s hand.

“Hey,” His voice was much softer now, serious. Aedion’s face was pressed with worry. “Can we talk about this later though?”

Aelin bit her lip. She didn’t want to, but knew she owed him the story at the very least. “Sure.” Aedion nodded and let Lysandra drag Aelin away.

Several feet away, Lysandra giggled and pulled on Aelin’s arm. “Rowan was talking about you!”

Aelin shushed her by swatting her arm. “Not because he likes me. My break-up is good gossip I guess.” She sneaked a glance over to where Rowan and his friends still stood. As if he could feel her gaze, Rowan looked her way- an odd emotion on his face.

Lysandra seemed to push her in his direction. “You should talk to him. Start some drama, it’d be good for you.”

Aelin’s heartbeat picked up. “Don’t even put those thoughts in my head. Just because we don’t see Lyria, it doesn’t mean he isn’t still with her.”

Lysandra only rolled her eyes. “Then why is he still looking at you?” Aelin’s heart stopped.

~~~

Rowan couldn’t take his eyes off her, especially once those gold-rimmed turquoise eyes had met his and even long after she’d torn them away. Fen nudged him quite harshly and Rowan glared over at him. “What?”

Fen shook his head. “Why don’t you just go talk to her already? You obviously want to.”

“Why?” Lorcan murmured, knowingly. “She’s already on her way over.”

Rowan tensed and the others laughed. He finally glanced over to see Aelin making her way over to them. It almost took his breath away, the way she moved with such confidence. Like a Queen. But it was her face that caught him, the nervous biting of her cheek that was evident even so far away.

Rowan held his breath and when Aelin finally reached them she cocked her hip out, stared them down, and said, “So, you’ve been talking about me?”

Rowan was left speechless, so it was Fenrys who said, “And if we were?”

Aelin turned those eyes on Fen and Rowan could see the miniscule flinch of Fen’s shoulders. Aelin seemed to notice it too and smiled. “You’re Fenrys, right?”

Fenrys looked down at her, but Aelin wasn’t intimidated. “Yeah, why?”

That head tilted to the side, eyes assessing Fen up and down in the way a doctor might. “I’ve seen a couple of your games.”

That usual charismatic Fen smirk was back. “Oh yeah? And what’d you think, little lady?”

Without a beat, Aelin laughed. “That your swings are weak because you don’t use your legs enough.”

Lorcan howled while Fenrys could only gape at Aelin. Rowan was trying to hide his grin behind his hand. Aelin’s eyes flicked to his and that grin spread. Rowan looked at Fen, who was still looking like an idiot, and winked. “She’s got a mouth on her you have to admit.”

Fenrys composed himself, steeling his face to neutral, but it was Rowan who asked, “Anything else we can do for you?”

Aelin bit her lip, eyes flicking over Rowan with a little spark in them. “No, I think that’s it.” And they all watched her strut away, but Rowan could only wait a beat before he followed- right on her heels.

They were in the middle of the crowd when Rowan caught her wrist. The music was pulsing around them, some pop song that was popular but Rowan didn’t know the words. In the small area, Rowan had to draw her back to face him. It was an almost embrace, Aelin’s hand coming up to his chest. He heard her sharp inhale and he asked, “Will you dance with me?”

Aelin grinned. “Yes.”

 ~~~

[A/N]

So this was totally unplanned, just a thought I had at work. If you want me to continue it, let me know. It would be a short story but just fluff pretty much. Maybe some smut but these are much younger characters so maybe not.