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library-of-crow · 1 year

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5+1: Billy and Aviva

Generally speaking, there was no Billy without Aviva. This information was widely known to any who crossed paths with him. As they listened to endless stories about her beauty or were incessantly reminded of her many strengths and talents, it was quickly made apparent the depth of love he held for his Aviva.

Casual ‘I love yous’ were popular between the two. He reminded her of this fact daily, perhaps even hourly, and she’d return every single one. That being said, there was a time before domesticity settled and Billy struggled more with the concept of love and feelings.

Here are five times Billy didn’t say ‘I love you’ and the one time it mattered the most.

The first time was not long after they’d reunited. It had taken Billy some time to find Aviva after she finished school but he was determined to keep his promise. Granted, he barely knew her outside the couple of weeks she’d spent stopping by his cage and extending the first kind hand he’d seen in awhile. That, however, was enough for him to come crawling back like a wild animal that had gotten a taste of domestic life.

When he found her, he joined her travels. It was awkward at first. He didn’t talk much, she couldn’t talk forever, they both understood this. Yet, eventually, their conversations grew longer and Billy’s more curious side overtook them. He asked her all sorts of things that were otherwise mundane to Aviva. Why would you use a fork? What made trees grow so tall? How could she love a fruit?

“What do you mean?” She asked, the pleasant sound of her amused laughter filling the space over the crackle of the fire.

“They rot and sour over time.” Billy shook his head, sticking his tongue out from behind his mask. “Terrible thing to travel with. No sense in enjoying them.”

“Well, you can enjoy them before then. Besides, some soured fruits can be turned into new things. Just because something’s gone bad, doesn’t mean it's without any value.” She shook her head lightly, that smile never leaving her face. “And you can love things that are not perfect all the time. You just have to love them in spite of that.”

At that moment, Billy felt something inside him shift. He stared at her for a moment, listening to her light chuckle and truly taking in the way that the flames flickered off her face. Did that mean she could love other things that weren’t necessarily perfect? He wondered if he could too. He wondered if he should tell her that he could love her like she loved fruits, but decided not to.

The second time was over a meal at an inn. It was late. The two had been traveling together now for a little over a month. Billy had removed his mask before and occasionally left it off when they walked alone. Here, he wore it.

“It's going to be difficult to eat with that on, and I know you’re starving.” Aviva pointed at him with her fork. Her eyes were sunken with exhaustion but her teasing smile lit up the space between them. Still, he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest.

“I’m not starving.”

“You absolutely are.”

“I’m-” His stomach interrupted him. Proudly, she pointed at him again and didn’t have to say anything. He groaned. “Not here.” He gestured to the fairly busy inn with his head. Too many eyes.

"Alright, then.” Aviva stood up. Her form was followed by a confused set of eyes as she grabbed both of their plates and began towards the exit. “Well? Come on.” Obediently, he stood and followed her out. She didn’t stop until they were around the side of the inn, in the shadow of the building, with nothing but the moonlight to illuminate the both of them. Only then did she sit down, legs crossed and unbothered by the dirt. She gestured for him to do the same. He did.

“Why?” Billy asked, accepting his plate of food from her hands.

“So you can take off the mask. Now eat.” She urged, returning to her own food without a second thought. Confused, Billy hesitated. He waited for the inevitable negative side effect that he expected from moments like these. It never came. Slowly, he reached up and removed his mask. His eyes never left her as he folded it and set it aside to move for his first bite of food. She didn’t return the eye contact, instead focusing on eating her own meal.

This continued for a few bites until Billy fully believed that she meant him no harm. The two ate in silence, protected by the walls of the inn but otherwise hidden from view, and Billy felt comfortable in a way he’d only ever felt around Aviva. He thought back to things he’d learned from her and considered breaking the silence to tell her that he loved her for doing something like this for him. He settled for, “thank you,” whispered softly in her head.

The third time occurred when Billy somehow found himself in the presence of high society. It was the first time Aviva had been summoned back home and insisted that Billy joined her. The last time, he resisted and opted to wait in a nearby town until she was ready to leave, but this time she’d convinced him to join her through a series of well thought out promises to be fulfilled. Most of them involved foods he enjoyed, at least one involved a basket of his new favorite fruit. Now, however, as he stood in the stuffy reception hall surrounded by little girls staring at him with wide eyes, he wondered if it was a good idea.

“Why are they staring at me?” His voice reached into Aviva’s head, earning him only a stifled laugh in return. “I fail to see the humor in this.”

“They’re just curious about a new face.” Aviva crossed over to where he stood and ruffled the twins’s hair before shooing them off with gentle shoves towards the other end of the hall. “They won’t bother you too much. Maybe a little bit, but not too much.” She covered her mouth with her hand as she giggled a little bit. Billy did his best to remain stoic but the corner of his mouth twitched up in betrayal.

“Do they have nothing better to do?” He questioned, rolling his eyes a bit to return to his more natural grumpy state. This earned him a firm pat on the chest as Aviva then turned to go about doing her own thing.

“No, they don’t.” She called over her shoulder, waving to him as she headed down the hall. He looked to either side, noting the soft sound of giggling children from behind a nearby pillar, then chased after her to avoid further interactions from the kids.

As expected, Billy found himself constantly looking over his shoulder. The soft pitter patter of little feet running off would always sound when he turned in any direction. He’d killed horrors beyond anyone’s comprehension but children were an entirely new beast to conquer. Following a stiff and extremely uncomfortable family dinner, he’d followed Aviva for a walk around the castle to detox from the encounter. As expected, they were never truly alone.

“And then, of course, we could-” Aviva halted mid-sentence. Billy moved to speak but she put a hand up to stop him before bringing it to her lips in a soft ‘shush’. He didn’t fully understand it. After all, it wasn’t like he was going to talk out loud. “There.” She pointed with the same finger that had hushed him to a set of suspiciously lumpy curtains. The curtains giggled quietly before hushing themselves. Without saying anything, Aviva stepped lightly in their direction. The giggling swelled. “It's rude to,” she threw the curtains back to reveal the twins clinging to one another in a fit of laughter, “eavesdrop on people!”

Billy watched with a tilted head as she jokingly scolded them, earning more laughter and mock salutes in return. When she invited them to join their walk, he groaned softly to himself but followed along nevertheless. The conversation shifted towards extravagant stories that held their sparkling eyes on Aviva as they walked. Billy trailed silently behind, lest he startle the girls with a voice in their heads.

“What about him?” Aiyane asked bluntly, pointing in Billy’s direction as they slowed to a stop. Instinctively, Billy looked behind him then turned back pointing to himself. “What is he?” Aviva scolded her candid question and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“This is Billy, you met him earlier.” She reintroduced him, circling around him and giving him a soft pat on the shoulder. He straightened. A couple bones in his back cracked.

“Okay?” Aeries looked unimpressed. “Does he like, love you or something?”

The world faded to a distant echo for a moment as Billy mulled the question over. Vaguely, he could hear Aviva once again scolding the girls for being so outright, but it was no more than a whisper in the back of his mind. Did he love her? What is it to love someone? Like really love someone? No, he really shouldn’t. That wouldn’t be fair to her. His eyes flicked around as he thought it over. Aiyane noticed this. Billy said nothing.

The fourth time was back on the road. More specifically in the middle of a fight against some particularly nasty creatures. The two of them were ankle deep in gore and death when an ogre joined the fray. They were both exhausted, having taken numerous hits over the course of the fight, and neither was in any shape to take on a creature quite so large. With no other choice but to fight, they got to work on the beast. Each of them hacked and slashed until they could feel their arms holding on by a mere tether. Then, it all went wrong.

Billy, from the other side of the beast, heard a stuttering noise and a quiet ‘shit’ spilling from Aviva’s mouth. Something had jammed Intervention. She was kneeling, prepared to shoot the creature for a finishing blow when it happened, so the sound was quick to alert the beast to her predicament.

“Aviva, move!” He yelled, watching her head shoot up to see the creature approaching her with its weapon held high. She scrambled, trying to get out of the way as Billy moved to make an attack. As if swatting a fly, the ogre sent Billy into a tree with a branch firmly implanted in his back. The pain was excruciating but he felt nothing as he desperately tried to push himself up and rush back to her side. He was too slow.

Aviva had hesitated when Billy went flying, putting her in a less than favorable position as the ogre reeled his weapon back and struck her down. Billy didn’t hear anything from her as her body slumped to the ground and immediately feared the worst. With a devastating scream, he ripped himself from the tree and felt dark energy surge and crackle through his body. His veins blackened as every eyeball on his body turned to watch as an eldritch blast ripped from his soul and tore through the ogre as if it was nothing. The eyeballs cheered him on, their voices meddling in his mind like swarming rats. His throat constricted as he felt Seiran’s grasp on him tighten but he didn’t care. Two more bolts sent pieces of the ogre flying across the woods before Billy was finally brought to his knees.

The world was hazy as he desperately tried to catch his breath. “Aviva..” He called, hands gripping the dirt as he forced himself to crawl towards her. He felt his body ache and tire but he pressed onwards until he made it to her side. He cradled her head with bloodied hands, brushing her hair from her face. Even with blood dripping from the crown of her head, she was soft and beautiful. His head dropped to touch her forehead to his own, wrapping her close to himself in a protective hold. “Aviva.. Please…” He sounded again, wanting any sort of reply.

Aviva’s hand twitched ever so slightly. He caught sight of it just out of the corner of his eye. He dipped down further, pressing his ear to her chest to check for a heartbeat. The soft, rhythmic sound came as a comfort. He felt his entire body relax. He was spent but he couldn’t leave her side, not like this. “Aviva, I-” He started to croon into her neck, picking her body up slightly to find solace in listening to her pulse there. Aviva groaned. He stopped short of finishing his sentence.

“Bloody- What in the hells happened?” She asked, groaning but otherwise staying limp in his arms. He got the feeling it was more comfortable that way. The sound of her voice, however hoarse it was, sent relief through his body. He peeled her back far enough to just look at her.

“You died.” He joked.

“So it seems. I’ve found myself in the arms of an angel.” She retorted, smiling at him.

Billy said nothing.

The fifth time happened much later in their time together. By now, the two of them walked and talked like an old married couple. Everyone they crossed paths with assumed they were together but the two of them had never felt the need to define their relationship any further. They took pleasure in each other’s company and that seemed to be enough. This night was unlike any other as they sat around a dwindling campfire and watched the embers spark and jump in the darkness.

“Tomorrow, we should get a room at an inn.” Billy’s voice broke the quiet as he stretched his arms above his head with a resounding crack as his elbows straightened. Aviva watched with a bemused smile.

“What happened to the man that preferred ‘roughing it’? You used to scoff at the thought of a bed, gods forbid we have a roof.” She wiggled her fingers at him with a laugh. His head tilted ever so slightly as he fondly listened to the sound. He never tired of hearing it.

“That man is dead. I want a feathered bed.” This threw Aviva into a fit of laughter as she doubled over and slapped the log she sat atop. He wasn’t the joking type but his attempts at humor were always well received by her. She had told him once that it made her feel closer to him. He huffed a chuckle but was far more captivated in watching the way the fire danced on her features. He cursed the shadows that hid parts of her face but praised the ones that highlighted every crease of her smile and squint of her eyes.

“Hey? Come on back now.” Aviva had calmed her laughing and was wiping tears from her eyes when she noticed him drifting off. She waved a hand in his face, to which he jumped a bit and turned away. “You’ve been doing that a lot recently. Dazing off, staring forward. You alright?” She asked with hints of concern permeating her tone as she leaned forward to stare back at him.

“Fine.” He attested but firmly avoided looking back her way. A small part of him was grateful for his strange undead status. He didn’t exactly blush because of it. “Just tired.”

“Then you should head to sleep. I’ll take first watch.” She reached forward and prodded at the fire while he pushed to his feet and crossed to her side. He wouldn’t argue with a bit of sleep. At least, not anymore.

“Goodnight Aviva, I-” He looked down as he started to pass her. She looked up. There was a twinkle of expectation in her eye as she stared at him just waiting for the end of his sentence. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He patted the top of her head lightly before continuing on his way. She nodded, humming her response with a subtle smirk on her face.

Aviva would never tell him that she heard him cursing himself as he walked off.

The one time his confession mattered, was long after the two of them had pursued a romantic relationship. In fact, they were long married and doting ‘I love yous’ were so common between the couple that they hardly seemed significant when they were exchanged. They took the place of farewells and greetings. They were peppered in between kisses and shared in quiet secrets. Billy even went as far as dropping them in Aviva’s head though the two were on opposite sides of the castle. There certainly were perks to his strange abilities.

All in all, the pair were happy. Billy was happy so long as he had Aviva nearby. For awhile, even, he had forgotten the pact he was ensnared in as he let his warlock duties slip into the back of his mind. Aviva had taken precedence.

Unfortunately, ignoring a pact was no way to go about escaping it. Tired of his thralls slipping away, Seiran yanked Billy’s chain. The lich had brought him into his realm for the first time in a while and brought him to his knees. Billy’s body burned as iron chains held him in place and wires crushed his throat.

“You will not disobey me again. Should you even consider it, I will burn everything you hold dear.” Seiran’s voice sliced through him like the sharpest blades. His resolve buckled under the weight of fear.

When he returned to Aviva, he clung to her in a way she’d never seen from him. His hands shook as his grip on her clothing went knuckle white. For once, she didn’t know what to say.

The next few weeks were dedicated to brainstorming ways to free him of his pact. Billy, naturally, didn’t participate in these conversations and instead was the perfect little warlock to appease his nasty patron. Aviva led these discussions, asking Anri and Nerys for their thoughts, reading extensively on warlock pacts, eventually ending up at Wyn’s door.

“Have you considered the Raven Queen?” Wyn asked with the subtle tilt of her head. Aviva mimicked it in a questioning gesture. “She’s mentioned him before.”

“We’re trying to get him out of a pact. I’d prefer not to throw him into another one.”

“Wouldn’t be one.” Wyn said firmly, taking Aviva’s arm to walk with her. Aviva didn’t resist. She’d piqued her interest. As they walked, Wyn clarified that the Raven Queen could protect Billy from Seiran while asking for very little in return. She explained that the Matron had allegedly taken notice of Billy, as his mere existence was enough to land him on her radar. While Aviva wouldn’t have made a decision without consulting Billy first, this route felt the most viable for ensuring he was safe and happy.

That night, she brought it up to him.

“I thought I was getting out of a pact, not-”

“It's not a pact.” Billy cocked an eyebrow. How’d she know he was going to say that? “It's a way for us to keep you safe and keep Seiran off your back.” She explained, before delving into the semantics Wyn outlined to her before. She paced around their shared room as she spoke while Billy watched her from his seat on the edge of the bed.

Before either of them knew it, they were standing in a large room. At the front stood an altar to the Raven Queen and Wyn to the side of it. Billy had been ushered to the center of the room as Wyn recited some words that Billy didn’t fully understand. He looked back at Aviva, who smiled at him encouragingly, then up towards Wyn. Only when he turned, he was met with the visage of a large white mask peering down at him. The floor below him gave way to reveal himself held gingerly in a pair of great hands.

No words were exchanged as he stared up at the Matron, entirely awestruck by what he was staring at. The moment he moved to speak, he felt something tighten on his throat. He reached up to feel an iron collar sizzling his neck, connected to a long chain that vanished into oblivion after a certain point. Another white hand wordlessly reached and crushed the chain to dust. Its particles turned to black feathers that rained onto his body from above. Air rushed through him as the collar disappeared and he felt himself overcome with a strange new sensation: safety. The bone wings on his back flapped, revealing themselves to be freshly coated with feathers he’d lost long ago. Hands touched at his torso, now devoid of peering eyes and coated only with the scars he’d received over time. Checking his shoulders, he saw smooth skin where horns had once protruded. She’d let him keep the ones on his head, though, he couldn’t help but like those.

Billy started to thank her, to swear fealty, to bend the knee in her service, but was interrupted as a wave of understanding washed over him. Nothing needed to be said. His eyes fell shut and when they reopened, he was back in that room with his lover standing above him.

“Billy? Billy? Are you alright?” Aviva’s face was twisted in fear and concern that he could just barely see through his squinted eyes. He couldn’t recall at what point he’d ended up on the ground, but he was there now. “Billy, please, are you alright?” She repeated as he started to blink more and return to the present moment.

As if it was second nature, Billy started to open his mouth in reply. Then he paused. Why had he done that? Could he.. No, he couldn’t possibly. A sound croaked from his throat and he looked surprised for a moment. Aviva was confused but she didn’t let go of his hand as he propped himself up and turned his wide eyed stare her way.

“..Vi..va..” Billy barely managed, his voice hoarse from decades without use. “..Lo..Lov..” He grimaced, agitation present on his features. Why was talking so hard? He took a deep breath, calming himself and turning his attention back to her.

“I.. Lo-Love you..” It was awkward as he opened his mouth in odd shapes to try and approximate the sounds, but the point got across. “I love..you.” He repeated, this time with more confidence. “I love you.” He said again, his voice beginning to sound more and more like his own.

Aviva was awestruck. He could speak. For a second, she didn’t say anything. Eventually, her shocked expression broke into a wide smile as she tackled him back to the ground with her arms wrapped around his neck. Billy hit the ground with a soft ‘oof,’ but was quick to wrap his arms around her in return.

“I love you, too..” She whispered, squeezing him gently. The first words he’d spoken, and they were meant just for her.

“I love you..” He continued repeating as his eyes fell shut. “I love you.” He nestled into the crook of her neck. “I love you, Aviva.” He squeezed her close, but this time he wasn’t afraid to lose her. This time, he was just happy to have her near.

#billy and aviva #billy #dnd character #dnd ocs #5 + 1 fic #screams cries throws up #i am obsessed with them actually

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