#to give it (and my tears over it) to rayllum as well

[raayllum]

Can you fix my flaws? Are you a bad excuse for therapy? How am I supposed to live One foot out and one foot in? I fear the fall Right now I just can't find thе energy Weighеd down by a ton of bricks I'm forgetting how to swim

[iwillhaveamoonbase]

Flowers

My lone submission for the Rayllum Valentine’s event.  Warning: this fic contains mentions of post-partum depression.  Canon-verse, but does involve Rayla still being ghosted 

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Rayla growled in frustration as she threw the letter in the fire.  “Ray-” Callum murmured from the side, holding their week-old daughter. Aisling was the most beautiful thing Rayla had ever seen, with her father’s green eyes and brown hair with ten fingers and ten toes.  The most elven thing about her was the little horn stubs on the top of her head.    

“Don’t, Callum. Please.”

“We’ll make them understand.”

“How?!  You freed Runaan, Lain, Tiadrin, and many others from those coins.  We saved Zym and reunited him with Zubeia.  We defeated Aaravos and it’s STILL NOT ENOUGH.  They will never unghost me and let me go back home.” Rayla felt the tears pricking at the corners of her eyes and tried to hold them back, but they poured out. “And now I’m getting hormonal and just…UGH.”

She didn’t resist when she felt Callum come up behind her and wrap his arm around her waist.  “I’m sorry, Ray.  I don’t know why they are being so stubborn.  You don’t deserve this, but no matter what, you have me and Aisling, and Ezran and Soren.  You ARE home.”

“You don’t get it.”

Sighing, he moved away from her.  “What don’t I get?  Didn’t we agree that this is your home now?  Didn’t we say that, no matter what, we are each other’s home?”

“And I stand by that. But you cannot possibly understand what I am going through.  You still have your home.  You haven’t been banished and you can come and go as you please.  I need weeks of planning to not only go see my parents, but if I want to see my childhood homes, nobody can see me.  My culture, my language, everything, is basically lost to me. You don’t get it.”

Callum was quiet for a while, perhaps minding their daughter.  Rayla winced as she continued looking at the fire.  Wrapping her arms around herself, she felt even more terrible. She didn’t feel like she had taken to being a parent nearly as well as Callum had.  Maybe she wasn’t meant to be a parent.  She loved Aisling with everything she had, had carried the halfling in her belly for nine and a half months and delivered the child for hours, but she was also crying more, angered quicker, and didn’t stop Callum from getting out of bed at night to tend to the baby.  If anything, she hoped he would so she didn’t have to.    

Callum finally came back to her and wrapped both his arms around her.  “You’re right, Ray, I don’t get it.  I cannot understand your pain and frustration.  And now that we have a child, I’m sure your feelings have only grown stronger because you want to share all of those things with her.  But I have to believe that we can make them welcome you back because I’ll hate them if I don’t.  We’re trying to forge peace and hate doesn’t belong anywhere near that.”

“I haven’t even thought about how it would affect Aisling.  Gods, I’m a terrible mother.”

“No, you aren’t.”

“Yes, I am.  I gave her a Xadian name and she can’t spend time in Moonshadow territory?  She’s cut off from half of herself and I’m sitting here thinking about how it affects me.” Rayla felt the panic rising in her chest.  “Callum, what if she hates me?  All I do is fuck up with her.  I’m not bonding with her like I should.  She already adores you more and I’m just there.”

“Look at me. Please.”  Slowly turning, Rayla raised her eyes to meet his, shocked at the tears in them.  “You aren’t fucking up.  You’re having a hard time, but that’s not that weird.  You heard Sabah and Amaya.  Most new mothers feel like this, and if it lasts longer, we’ll get you help. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad mother or something is wrong with you.  What did the mid-wife say?”

“That birth is traumatic for some and it takes longer to heal the mind than the body.”

“What else?”

“That, because I don’t have a support system from my home and my culture, I’m more at risk.”

“I’m so sorry that this is happening and I wish I could fix it for you.  I would fly into Silvergrove now and make them take you back if I thought it would work.  But you are not screwing up with Aisling.  She’s not cut off from half of herself because she has you.  If you want to only speak to her in High Elven, I will support that.  If you want to teach her to read it, I will find books every time we go to Xadia and ask Janai for some.  I’ll order ingredients from Xadia so she can have Xadian food.  I promise, I will do what I can to give you both a connection to your home because, even though we are each other’s home, you do still need a connection your culture.  Aisling does, too.”  Wrapping her arms around him tight, Rayla’s shoulders shook as she silently sobbed in his arms.  Callum kissed the top of her head and held her close, rocking her side to side as he so easily did their baby.

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Rayla rolled her eyes as she stared at the curtains Callum had pulled over part of their bedroom. He said there were changes coming to the garden and it was a surprise so she wasn’t allowed to look.  It had been several months since the Council’s latest rejection of her return to Silvergrove and she was slowly starting accept that she would always be rejected.  All four of her parents had visited Aisling and had adored their grandchild, promising to visit as often as possible and give her a connection to her culture. Lain and Tiadrin were even considering permanently moving to Katolis so they could be more active in Rayla’s life and make up for lost time.

Stroking Aisling’s cheek with the back of her fingers, Rayla held her bairn close.  Sabah had been a big help in the journey into motherhood, visiting often and letting Rayla freely voice her concerns and fears. Months ago, Rayla had feared the judgmental eyes of others for not being close enough to her child, but she was slowly learning that it really was different for everyone.  Tiadrin had shyly admitted she had had a hard time post-partum with Rayla as well; lying in bed for days on end and Runaan and Ethari and Lain having to check in on her.  She still felt like a failure some days, but her child was healthy and growing with a flush on her cheeks.  “I love you, even if you do wake me and your father up.  We need to get you sleeping through the night, wee one.”

A knock of the door interrupted her gentle scolding, causing her to look up.  “Princess Rayla?”

“Aye?”  

“Prince Callum requests you and Princess Aisling join him in the garden.”

“We’ll be there.” Standing up, she held Aisling close and left her bed chambers.  The trip to the gardens was a short one, but Callum had covered all the windows so Rayla couldn’t accidently get a peak at what he was doing.  “We’re finally going to see what your father has been up to.  I’ll bet you five whole jelly tarts he built a pond just to practice ocean magic.”

“I would take that bet.” She turned to the side to see Callum waiting for her.  “Ready to see the surprise?”

“I’ve been ready.” She turned to the glass doors leading to the garden and waited for Callum to open them.  He smiled at her and turned the handles.  As the doors opened, Rayla was hit with the smell of moonlilies.  She hadn’t smelled that scent outside of soap in years and her eyes watered in nostalgia and happiness.  Callum had planted a whole field of them as well as having built a gazebo.  “How did you do this?”

“Well,” running a hand through his hair, he gave her a sheepish smile, “it certainly wasn’t easy. The Council is being so stubborn with unghosting you, but I managed to convince them with a letter a day to let me have enough moonlilies to do this.  I told them that it was the least they could do for the mage who had decoined several of their citizens.  I know it’s not the same thing, but, at least, you can now have a piece of home right here in Katolis.  Let me show you the gazebo.”

He led them over, hand on the small of her back, and Rayla marveled at all the flowers before her. Moonlilies only bloomed at night, but their scent was still unmistakable.  The gazebo was wrought iron and featured multiple Moonshadow knots and symbols.  There were cushions and benches for sitting on.  “I could spend all day here.”

“I’m glad.”

“Thank you.  This is the sweetest, most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“I love you, Ray. This is our home, and, I hope, I made it feel a bit more like home for you.”

“You did.  I love you, too.”  

The three of them spent all day in the gardens, having lunch and dinner in the gazebo and later joined by Ezran and Soren.  Sabah, Marcos, and their child joined them as well, Sabah’s heavily pregnant belly leading the way.  Rayla and Sabah chatted in their mixed High Elvens while Callum made his attempts and the little one in their group hung on every word.  It still hurt Rayla that she couldn’t go home freely, but she did feel a bit more at home now.  Maybe one day, she would get to show Aisling and any other children she and Callum had Silvergrove and other Moonshadow territories.  Until then, the gardens would do quite nicely.

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This fic is something of an ode to my mother who had post-partum depression and had no real support system (family more than a 1000 miles away) besides my father and an ode to my grandmother who had her last child in a country and a culture that were not her own and who regrets not teaching her children more about her language and culture or about my grandfather's (English was the common language between them, so that's what they spoke in the house). I tried to convey their thoughts and feelings to the best of my abilities and to bring in the realties of raising a child in a multicultural, international relationship.

[creampuffqueen]

Just Like This | Chapter One

Summary: Rayla and Callum have been best friends since elementary school. Now, years later, Rayla is discovering new feelings for her best friend. The only problem: she's about 99% sure he doesn't think of her in the same way. Not willing to risk their friendship, Rayla continues to hide her feelings for Callum. How long until the truth comes out?

a/n: Hey everyone! Here it is, the greatly anticipated Rayllum high school au! Please please please reblog this, because Tumblr won't show this post in the main tags due to an affiliate link! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

Word Count: 3372

Warnings: Language

Read on Ao3

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Sunday, September 30th, 2020

Katolis Supermarket, 5:31 PM

“Who wrote this list?” Rayla complained loudly, stalking behind Callum at the grocery store, shaking the piece of paper in his face. Her fellow sophomore was pushing a cart around, eternally focused on the task ahead.

“Well, Claudia suggested it, but everyone else added on,” Callum replied, not even looking at her. Stopping in the middle of the isle, he grabbed a 12-pack of soda and loaded it in the cart. “What’s next?”

Looking over the extensive list again, Rayla frowned. “Uh, it says… ‘those little animal cookie things with sprinkles, you know the ones’.”

Callum finally turned to look at her, a wide grin on his face as they both said “Soren,” in unison.

“Jinx,” Rayla giggled, “You owe me a soda.”

“Okay… just take one from the pack when we get home?”

Both teenagers continued through the store, Rayla getting bored of walking and hanging off the front of the cart, laughing as Callum made a big deal of struggling to push them around.

She supposed they should be hurrying. Evening was approaching quickly, and soon all their friends would be over at Callum’s place to study. Callum had dragged her off to the grocery store to get snacks for their cram session, considering she lived only a street over and had a car.

“We’re all going to be sick by the end of the night,” Rayla sighed, loading more snacks into the cart.

“Well, at least we’ll be awake,” Callum, ever cheerful, turned his head around to grin at her.

At his smile, Rayla felt her heart give a small wayward flutter, though she squished it down quickly. Tonight was important; she needed to pass this test to keep her grade up, and it wouldn’t help if she spent the entire night mulling over how cute her best friend’s smile looked.

“Yeah,” She chuckled, trying to pull herself back to the present. Keep it together, Rayla.

They got their unhealthy amount of junk food, collectively winced at the price, bought it anyway, and set about loading it in the backseat of Rayla’s car.

In no time at all Rayla was driving, Callum reclining in the passenger seat. With the radio cranked up, neither felt the need to talk, content to sit in the comfortable silence.

It was hard to believe that they’d been friends for eight years now. Rayla could still remember the first time they met like it was yesterday.

She was eight years old, in second grade, having just moved to a new school after her parents left on a military tour and she went to live with her uncles. Her first day of school had gone off without a hitch.

That is, until she met Callum at recess.

Content to play by herself, Rayla had been making use of the free time by pretending to build a fort under the slide. While pretending to hammer in nails, she noticed a small group of kids nearby. Two boys and a girl.

While she couldn’t make out all the words, the body language she saw was more than enough. The bigger boy, a head of blond hair, was pointing at the smaller, brown-haired boy, and laughing. The girl, black hair tied in two pigtail braids, was looking between them, unsure of what to do.

Curious eight-year-old Rayla snuck up, for she’d always been good at sneaking, and listened in on the conversation.

“Soren, shut up, he’s going to cry!” The girl said.

“Oh, so little Callum’s a crybaby now?” The boy, Soren, taunted.

“I’m not a crybaby, Soren!” The other boy shouted, though he couldn’t hide the sniffle at the end of his sentence.

“Oooh, Callum’s crying! Who’s gonna help him, his dad? Oh wait-”

Soren didn’t get to finish his sentence.

Well, she thought as she sat in the principal’s office twenty minutes later, Runaan will be happy to know that I’m learning something in my karate class.

All four kids were in the office, sitting in chairs in front of the desk. Callum and the other girl, Claudia, were both still sniffling from residual tears. Soren, fresh from the nurse’s office, was holding an ice pack over a rapidly blackening eye.

The door opened, and in came the principal, shaking her head with a sigh.

“You three again?”

“We didn’t do anything!” Soren shouted, voice whistling through the new gap in his teeth. Oh yeah, she’d knocked a tooth out as well. “She started it!”

“Well you were being really mean to that other kid!” Rayla protested. She and Soren glared at each other from their respective chairs, accusatory fingers pointed straight out.

“I wasn’t being mean, I was just joking!” Soren explained, “Callum’s my friend!”

“Well Soren, what you said was really mean-” Claudia interjected, but the boy, who Rayla had learned was her brother, interrupted.

“Callum, you know I was joking, right?”

“Well…” Soren’s face fell as Callum dropped his gaze to his lap. “It did kind of hurt my feelings, Soren…”

“Wait, you’re friends?” Rayla exclaimed, glancing curiously between both boys. “I thought he was bullying you! And my parents and uncles always said you have to stand up to bullies and-”

“I’m not a bully!” Soren shouted. Voices began to rise between them again, and the principal was forced to interject.

“All of you, quiet down. I’m going to talk with you each individually, and we’ll see what happens then. Callum, come with me. The rest of you: play nice.”

In the end, Rayla got suspended for two days for fighting, and Soren got one day for bullying. Despite the massive lecture Runaan and Ethari subjected her to, Rayla couldn’t help but feel like she’d done the right thing in the end.

When she returned to school, she was surprised to find Callum approach her at recess, a little paper bag clutched shyly in his hands.

“Sorry my friends and I got you in trouble,” He said, passing the bag to her. Opening it, Rayla’s face split into a huge grin at the sight of two tart-things waiting for her, filled with jelly.

“Soren’s usually pretty nice,” Callum continued, “But he doesn’t know when to stop talking. If you hadn’t stepped in, he would have said something mean without thinking, I’m sure. So you kind of helped both of us, in a way.”

“Oh. Well, you’re welcome, I guess. And thanks for the tarts.”

She was about to turn away and enjoy her spoils, but then Callum kept talking.

“Do you want to come play with us? Me and Claudia are pretending to do magic, and Soren’s a knight. You can do magic with us, if you want.”

Well, this game was certainly right up her alley. “I’ll play,” Rayla conceded, “But only if I get to be an elf.”

Callum grinned broadly, pointing to where the two siblings were playing. “Of course.”

~~~~

“The snacks are here!” Rayla called into the house, arms laden with shopping bags. Callum shut the door behind them, similarly burdened with the case of soda.

The pounding of feet sounded overhead, and several heads poked over the stairwell to glimpse the pair in the kitchen. “Finally!” Soren cheered, racing downstairs to try and rifle through the bags Rayla was carrying.

“Not yet, you lump,” Rayla scolded, pushing past the senior boy, “We’ve got to get upstairs at least.”

“Thanks for going to get snacks,” Claudia called, and her thanks was echoed by the other kids there. Callum and Rayla both shrugged, and made their way upstairs to the game room, where they’d all be studying.

Sitting on the various bean bag chairs and couches, the rest of the study group cheered when the food and drinks arrived. Andromeda, Callisto, Ram, Skor, and Marcos all leapt up to snatch the snacks they wanted. When everyone was sitting again, food in hand, Callum gave a dramatic clearing of his throat, turning all the heads in the room towards him.

“So, uh, thanks for coming over. Hopefully we can all actually get some studying done, since, you know, that’s what we’re here for.” He fixed a firm glance on the two couples in the room. “Ground rules: no making out in my house, don’t be super messy, and also please actually study. Soren, no idea what you’re doing here since you’ve already taken this history class, but okay.”

The older boy shrugged, taking a big gulp of his soda. “Moral support. A welcome distraction.”

Callum clapped his hands together once. “Okay then. I actually made a schedule for this, and if we follow it, we can cover all of the sections by… midnight, I think. 11 pm if we work really fast.”

“You made a schedule for studying?” Callisto asked in disbelief. Andromeda laughed, throwing an arm over her partner’s shoulder.

“Yes, I made a schedule for studying, I think it’s going to be very helpful!” Callum defended, crossing his arms over his chest. Even talking with the other two people, his green eyes somehow still managed to find Rayla’s.

She met his gaze, just for a second, heart pounding, before she looked away again. “Well, guys, if Callum wants to make a study schedule, good for him. Let’s just get started; I really need to pass this test.”

“Since when have you been worried about grades, Rayla?” Skor snorted, reclining in a beanbag chair, dumping spicy chips into his mouth.

“Since I’m in four extracurriculars and if I don’t pass, I don’t play.”

“Try-hard,” Soren coughed from his seat. Rayla just flashed him her middle finger, eliciting wild laughter from the rest of the room.

“Guys,” Callum whined, “I’m trying to be productive-”

“Okay, let’s start,” Claudia said, placing a gentle hand on Callum’s arm. It took everything Rayla had not to glare at the other girl, biting back the unwarranted flash of jealousy.

That’s all in the past. We figured it out.

Usually, she could forget just how close Callum was with Soren and Claudia. But then, something like this would happen, and she’d be reminded that before he met her, it was the siblings who were his best friends.

Having known them his whole life, it was no surprise that he’d developed a massive crush on Claudia in middle school. And he never shut up about it.

His confession at the end of seventh grade had very nearly torn their friend group to shreds. He wanted to ask her to the end of year dance, and when Claudia accepted he was ecstatic. Rayla had been happy for him, and just hoped that when they started dating, they wouldn’t be weird about it and make her and Soren uncomfortable.

But as it turned out, Claudia only thought of Callum as a friend. When she told him, Callum was crushed.

Rayla could still remember opening up her front door to see her best friend standing there, tears streaking down his face.

“Rayla, I just- I can’t believe how stupid I am-”

She pulled him into a fierce hug, and didn’t relinquish her grip on him until his mother came to pick him up. At school the next day, nobody could stop her wrath as she stalked up to Claudia and demanded answers.

“How could you?! You know how Callum feels about you, and you led him on anyway!” Rayla shouted.

“I didn’t want to hurt his feelings!” Claudia insisted, “And I do know how he feels and I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea-”

“No, I know what flirting looks like, and you led him on! He believed that you felt the same way!”

Claudia looked on the verge of tears, and some sick part of Rayla was glad for it. Let her feel bad for her actions, let her feel the same way Callum was feeling.

“Look, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings. I just… I don’t see Callum in that way.”

“Then why’d you keep flirting with him?” Rayla’s voice was dangerously low. Their shouting match had attracted a small audience in the school cafeteria.

“I…” She was at a loss for words.

“You know what?” Rayla snapped, “Save it for someone who cares. Explain yourself to Callum, not me. It’s him who needs the apology.”

The next few weeks were tense. Hardly any of them spoke to each other. Even though Soren was in high school and had nothing to do with the drama, he still sided with his sister, like Rayla knew he would.

Things worked out. Slowly, but surely, they worked out. But not without a lot of tears from everyone involved, a lot of yelling, a lot of accusations. Things worked out.

But even after Claudia and Callum were on speaking terms again, he decided to ditch the dance. Rayla, who never was going in the first place, was more than happy to offer up her couch for a night of movie watching and junk food eating. And sure, Claudia’s Instagram photos were cute, but for Rayla, nothing could beat the fun she was having with her best friend, right here.

Rayla was pretty sure that was when she’d started to fall in love with him. Or, more accurately, when she realized that she already had fallen in love with him.

However, confessing your love to your best friend after a recent heartbreak seemed like a bad idea. So she kept it to herself.

Which, she supposed, was how she found herself here, three years later, still madly in love with her best friend who was none the wiser, getting jealous over a relationship she both knew was purely innocent and also she had no claim over anyway.

Cool, Rayla, very cool.

Shoving down her stupid feelings, Rayla listened as Callum went over his plan for the evening. Review through chapter 2, take a 15 minute break, review through chapter 4, continue pattern until they got through all the chapters they needed.

The plan was met with a loud groan of complaint from Soren’s end. “Callum, why are you even doing this? You literally have a photographic memory.”

“Well, you guys don’t, so really I’m helping all of you!”

“I mean…” Rayla snorted, “Soren does have a point. Why are you so worried about studying, Callum?”

The teenage boy scratched at his neck awkwardly. “Well, uh, it’s kind of embarrassing, but… I’ve only skimmed for answers this entire time. I need to actually read the passages to remember it.”

Rayla just rolled her eyes. “Callum. Everyone on earth just skims for answers. We know you’re all goody two-shoes, teacher’s pet, but chill. You’re going to be fine.”

“How are you so chill, Rayla?” Callum demanded, “Weren’t you just freaking out, like, two seconds ago? Hello, Miss I’m-in-every-sport-imaginable?”

“Changing the subject!” Rayla declared loudly, “Open up the textbook, Callum!”

~~~~

“Time check,” Ram moaned from where his face was pressed into one of the beanbag chairs, “How much longer?”

“We’re at-” Callum attempted to respond, but was cut off by a yawn.

“Chapter six?” Rayla asked, though she wasn’t too sure herself. All the words were beginning to jumble together on the pages. At some point her notecards had gotten mixed up, and random dates and events were scattered all over the room.

“No, the time,” Ram complained. The other boy sat up, brushing his shaggy white hair from his eyes. “What time is it? My curfew is 11:30.”

Callisto grabbed their phone and took a glance. “11:15.”

“Ok, let’s review,” Callum suggested. However, the entire room gave a loud groan of complaint.

“My brain is melting!” Soren cried, dramatically tossing his head into Marcos’s lap. His boyfriend rolled his eyes at his antics, though he threaded his fingers through the other boy’s blond hair.

“Soren, you don’t have to take this test tomorrow!” Claudia snapped, “Don’t start whining!” The girl looked almost ready to start pulling her hair out.

“Alright,” Andromeda sighed, “My mom’s calling; she’s probably here to pick me up. Thanks for this, Callum. If I find a quizlet I’ll send it in the groupchat, okay?”

“Yes!” Skor cheered, “Quizlet is my lifesaver!”

“Pass me some Doritos, Rayla,” Callum muttered in quiet defeat. Rayla hummed in agreement, grabbing the chip bag from the pile of snacks nearby. Her friend was so tired that he didn’t even complain when she took a couple for herself.

One by one, the room began to empty. Callisto’s dad came to pick them up, Ram agreed to drive Skor home, and Claudia, Soren, and Marcos piled into Soren’s little car to drive off into the night.

That just left Rayla. And Callum. Alone.

“Place is a mess,” Callum sighed, taking in all the damage. Although they’d started out pretty clean, as the night wore on everyone got lazier and started just piling the trash where they were sitting. Crumbs spilled over the carpet, and empty soda cans rolled about.

“Let me help clean,” Rayla offered, “I mean, some of the mess is mine.” She gestured to the notecards spilled everywhere. Her mind was a bit fuzzy from exhaustion, but she was pretty sure she and Soren had started throwing them at each other at one point.

“No, it’s fine-” Callum sputtered, but Rayla just rolled her eyes.

“Let me help. Then we can both go to bed and you won’t get in trouble for the mess.” She left no room for argument, and started gathering up all the garbage and stuffing it in the empty grocery bags.

They worked in companionable silence, just tidying up the room. Rayla knew his house well enough to know where everything went, and tossed out all the garbage and swept up the lingering crumbs. Soon enough, the room looked nearly spotless again.

“See, fast!” Rayla chuckled. She glanced at her phone. “Just in time, too. Runaan’s asking where I am.”

Callum surprised her with a sudden hug, catching her off guard for a moment before she returned it, trying to calm her fluttering heart.

It’s just a hug. Friends hug all the time, don’t get all excited.

“Thanks for coming,” Callum said, a tiny bit breathlessly, “I know you were worried about the test and I wanted to help, sorry it got kind of out of hand.”

“You… organized this all… for me?” Rayla hoped her face wasn’t as red as it felt.

“Well, yeah,” He laughed, “Even though you probably didn’t need it. You know all the material really well.”

“Only thanks to you, and you know that,” Giving him a friendly punch to the shoulder, Rayla couldn’t contain her grin. “I do feel better prepared, though. I’ll pass. If my brain doesn’t turn to mush first.”

“You’ll ace it,” Callum assured her, “I’m sure of it.”

His green eyes were so bright. And his smile so genuine. Rayla returned it, albeit with less enthusiasm. “Thanks.” Her voice sounded stupidly high-pitched, even to her.

He held her gaze for another long moment before glancing down, at the buzzing phone in her hand that she hadn’t even noticed, too caught up in staring. “You should go. Get some sleep for the test tomorrow, huh?”

“Yeah,” Rayla breathed, “You too. I’ll see in English tomorrow.”

It was an effort to leave the room. To walk down the stairs, quietly so she wouldn’t wake his parents, and out the front door. To open up her door and get in the car, turn the key in the ignition.

The entire street was silent. That’s how it always was, she supposed. The first to arrive and the last to leave. A glance up told her Callum was staring out his bedroom window at her, watching her leave.

With a heavy sigh, Rayla put the car in reverse. Pulled out of the driveway.

She wasn’t naive. Callum had always been big on physical contact, and it had never meant anything more than he cared. She wasn’t willing to put her heart on the line like that, not when she was sure he didn’t like her that way.

Rayla was a risk taker. Always had been. But this? To risk the relationship she already had with her best friend? That was one risk she would never be willing to take.

~~~~

a/n: Poor Rayla! I would like to apologize to everyone in advance; the pining is not going to get better for a LONG TIME

Tag List: (comment to be added or removed)

@hipster-rapunzel

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Impressions from TTM

Spoilers, spoilers everywhere. Just a big bulleted list of thoughts as I read through the graphic novel. Not a lot of detail included, so it’ll make a lot more sense if you’ve already read it yourself!

looks like Moonshadow elves cross the arms of the dead... when they have a body to bury

it’s nice to see that Rayla imagines Runaan with all his shirts, the way she last saw him

kinda looks like Rayla changed into her jammies right on her bed and dumped her clothes on that little table. maybe she’s afraid of letting the few things she actually possesses out of her sight

listen we get one little panel of Opeli in here and it’s great

Soren’s cape smacking Callum in the face, 10/10

Lujanne’s appearance out of nowhere, along with Allen’s is just adorable, she’s so sparkly. And also she can apparently just turn totally invisible with an illusion spell? Even at a new moon? Probably because of the Nexus I guess

Lujanne’s “Big strong man with big strong feelings.” She and Runaan have exactly the same type and I support them

Allen’s face when Lujanne says it aches to miss Phoe-Phoe

Callum eating off Rayla’s plate and wondering how Lujanne suspected they were a couple, hmmm

Soren and Allen bonding

Rayla warning Lujanne about hand disguises, as if that was something Runaan made very sure she knew

Rayla’s cute chaos grin when Callum’s Aspiro spell goes off is my favorite pic of her in this whole graphic novel

Lujanne’s “Oh.” afterward is my fave pic of her, too, she does not seem to handle reality well!

Bait’s tongue will never get old

Lujanne’s whole speech during Phoe-Phoe’s rebirth ritual is so touching and beautiful, my heart

Lujanne putting the newborn Moon Phoenix into Ezran’s hands, like she knows he’ll have the best connection with her

Callum’s tears as he reminds Rayla that Runaan killed Harrow, he’s trying to move on, but it hurts

Rayla’s self-soothing behavior when she has her second nightmare in the book--she must have these most every night :((((

the big symbol on the Moon Temple doors looks like a stylized Moon staff, like it’s a building for mages

Lujanne saying Rayla might not want or need the truth right after Callum mentions Runaan’s name to her, he sassily asks about her husbands and she turns it into a compliment

Callum’s big reaction to the moon opals is adorable. The only other one he’s seen was part of a pair of treasured gifts between long-time spouses, so it kinda looks like he’s all “uhh we just started dating”

also Ethari must’ve made cute metal swirly covers for the pair he and Runaan wore, since these two are undecorated--maybe he got his from Lujanne?

listen Lujanne is a hoot and all but she’s both an ally and an antagonist. Her actions are trustworthy but her advice is generally terrible. It’s an interesting parallel to how Runaan says a lot with his actions too, but he talks a lot less than Lujanne

Rayla yeeting herself into a fight just to ask Soren for a talk is 10/10 Moonshadow assassin goals

but her hood is up when she’s lurking in the trees--she might not have known where she’d find Soren and was anticipating something less fun on the feels-o-meter

Rayla in the mud again. Soren keeps making people fall in the mud

Allen’s grumpy squiggle

Callum, I love you, but you have no respect for moon opals. It’s like they wronged you in a previous life or something

that dancing elf has very long hair and shoulder pauldrons, and they start off dancing with six kneeling, watching, hooded elves around them--Moon Druids wore hoods even before they were assassins. Considering what Lujanne said about why the portal was sometimes opened, maybe those six kneeling elves are waiting under their emotion-hiding hoods to farewell a loved one who’s recently died?

can’t tell for sure but maybe the elf is dancing along the lines in the stone like they mark patterns for ritual dances, which would be the bomb

Soren and Rayla’s conversation is pretty wrenching. Seeing Soren have to struggle with what he did because it’s tangled up with Viren is rough because as a Crownguard it should just have been his duty to defend his king and he’d have nothing to feel weird about

Rayla dissociating herself from the term “assassins” and Soren dissociating from calling Viren “my father” in the same conversation is 10/10 excellent growth

Soren must know what happens to prisoners his dad gets a hold of, even if he doesn’t know the details :(((

“we captured him” and “Viren took him” seem to be talking about the Crownguard and Viren, not the brodigies and Viren

Rayla having a wooden sword at the end of the day bc she played swordfighting with Allen and Soren all day long

the panel where Rayla doesn’t say anything at all after telling Callum that she asked Soren about Runaan actually says so much, you can hear it

every time Lujanne’s white lies idea gets repeated, things get worse

Allen’s reading glasses, there must be one optician in the human village and he caters to soft kindly gentlemen of a certain age

in the moon phase montage, baby Phoe-Phoe is flying next to Ezran after one week at the Nexus. Maybe he’s paying her back by helping her learn to fly after she helped him teach Zym how to fly! Did they bond as tightly as Ezran did with Zym? I support Ezran just bonding with the most powerful flying creatures in all the land.

the irony of Callum using Lujanne’s tactics against her is amazing, but really the white lies thing is a giant ball of chaos in this story and it does not play favorites

Bait on the stone pillar during rebuilding

all the noises the Moonhenge makes are 10/10

Rayla dancing with Callum even though there’s almost no chance she’s ever done that dance before

Lujanne’s pupils going white, that is a cool effect, what’s it mean?

the black moon in the pink sky is so spooky! Is it just me or does the color scheme here kinda vibe like the space outside Aaravos’s library?

the smoky assassin squad, 10/10 creep factor, I love it

the lightning being a literal crack of doom with “CRAK-DOOM” as Katolis Castle appears, “echoes of thunder” indeed, very nice

Lujanne being mad but she can’t decide if it’s at Callum or herself

when she says pulling Rayla out now will leave her soul on one side and her body a husk. After the Insta live stream last night where we learned that soulfang serpents are Moon primal creatures, that’s... super interesting

smoky assassins go tssh in the rain like they’re still hot from being cremated, thanks I hate it

Andromeda finds Rayla first and seems closest/most aggressive so I wonder why she might hate Rayla more than the others

the assassins’ wrist bindings have gone red but they’re still attached and seem to trap the souls where they are. But all they need to be free is to perceive that Rayla completed their task, even though we know otherwise. So... would that work for killing any target? If you’re certain that you did it, does your binding fall off even if you’re wrong? eyes Pip

this must not be the actual afterlife since the spirits kind of mist up toward the moon and vanish, it’s more like a lobby, no one stays here unless they get stuck

portaling around just by shouting at villains, excellent

Rayla literally dropping a sword at the sight of the pod Viren’s in, yeah, it’s that creepy, I agree

Viren’s eyes are so black I think they’re Aaravos’s. I got a whole headcanon on Good Viren and Evil Viren for S4 now, wow

Phoe-Phoe pulling out a feather for Callum, awww my heart! This is why Ezran had to come, to bond with her so together they could save Callum and Rayla, it’s so sweet

so these humans are from the Storm Spire battle, bc that’s the Storm Spire behind Rayla and Callum on p108, with the rune-written arch. Did they die hating Rayla and Callum from the battle? Did they even know Rayla was up there? Or is pod Viren/Aaravos actually making them attack out of hatred for Viren’s death? One of these is definitely creepier and more awesome

Rayla’s confidence that Callum can and will boost her at the right moment with his magic, my heart, I love battle couples

that one panel that mirrors the Ghost Feather key art, hhhhhh

Rayla being the better swimmer, such precious irony, thanks Runaan

them holding hands and swimming upward together on the full-page panel is blessed

Lujanne pulling Rayla out of the lake with both arms gives me feels bc my grandma saved my life once

Lujanne being super soft over Rayllum, she is indeed a hopeless romantic

Rayla says “gone” about her parents and Runaan, and that’s the word Ethari used too, and I’m suddenly wondering if Ethari reached right into that pool and has always known that the lotus is half-submerged and if the sword he’s been making is for himself

I’m so glad Rayla told Callum what she saw of Viren

Rayla deceiving Callum and heading into danger alone because his life is more valuable to her than her own is exactly what Runaan did for her the night of the full moon in Katolis. I’m leaning toward her having thought this over and doing it on purpose bc she believes it’s a sign of deepest love--that Runaan’s actions and Lujanne’s words match up in her head, so she thinks it’s the right thing to do bc the mage and the assassin agree. Alas, Callum doesn’t understand the Moon arcanum yet, so he will have a different opinion. That mage and that assassin do not agree!

Rayla’s cloak has that Moon Temple symbol on its back. Is it Lujanne’s cloak? Any Moonshadow who sees it will probably know where she got it and who helped her. That could be fun!

[loubuggins]

The Dragon Prince

Rayllum ~ Rating: T

Fluff, fluff, and more fluff

Home was a hard word to describe at this point in his life. If he were being honest with himself, he never really had a permanent example of what home was for him. His parents had lived in the village that surrounded the royal grounds of Katolis when he was born. The small house they lived in was nothing more than a vague memory to him now. Then he recalled the day he and his Mom moved into the castle not long after the passing of his father. What a big difference that had been.

The stone walls of the castle always made the empty halls and large rooms feel cold, and despite the constant presence of guards, the castle still felt lonely. His mother was kept busy with her new responsibilities as both a queen and an expectant mother to the kingdom's heir. His new father was distant, even in his free time. The only kids he ever had a chance to play with anymore were older than him and were not the best company to have. The oldest of the siblings, a blonde boy with a big ego, was always more interested in the physically demanding games, such as sword sparring or horse races. The boy’s younger sister was easier to spend time with, but at times unnerved the young prince with her obsession with dark magic. It wasn’t until his baby brother was born that he had a more constant companion, but even then, he still never felt quite at home.

Then his life changed forever the night he came face to face with an Elven assassin and her long, silver blades. The place he thought was meant to be his home turned into a place of lies and death. When he had left the castle behind on that fateful night, he thought he would someday return, but in his heart he knew...it was never to be his home.

During his quest to return the dragon prince to his home in Xadia, he encountered many new places he had never known before. Even when he was just a village boy, he had never stepped foot outside of the Katolis capital. Nor had he ever experienced a place as magical as Xadia. He will never forget his first day walking through a dense forest of wonders after barely escaping a fiery demise by the likes of a bitter old dragon.

The constant sounds of humming bugs, chirping birds, and other creatures shifting through the canopy were an odd mixture of relaxing and exciting. He remembers all the colors too, of the trees and the flowers, even the ground. Everything made the cube in his hand glow in every direction. He could feel the magic flowing between every living thing. It felt like the moments just before lightning struck.

He knew right away that Xadia was a place he could spend many of his years in. Just for the pleasure to explore and learn from the mysterious land. But could this land of magic truly be his home?

The thought had not occurred to him until just now, several years since his first steps into this strange new world. The young mage closed his eyes as he allowed himself to soak in his surroundings. He was back in the Moonshadow Forest, only this time he found himself lying in the soft grass of the Adoraburr patch. He had one arm bent up behind his head that he used as a pillow. His face was pointed up toward the sky as he enjoyed the warmth of the summer sun. There was an occasional breeze that carried the sweet smells and sounds of the melodaisies that grew nearby. He took long and deep breaths to take it all in.

He could feel the gentle movements of the adoraburrs rolling around in the tall grass. Their small, round bodies brushing against his pant legs or his torso every now and then. They were a comforting presence in a place that had become so familiar to him. But what pleasured him most was the elf woman that laid at his side. Her head occupied his free arm as she lounged beside him in the meadow. She had been the last to speak, but now she remained silent as she too relaxed in the peaceful place she loved so much.

He peaked open his eyes and glanced over to her. She was so content as she snoozed beside him. In an act of boldness, he found his hand gravitating toward her hair. The only thing softer than the plush little creatures of the field was the silver strand of hair that slid between his fingers. Finer than silk and longer than the blades of grass that outlined their bodies. He let each long strand slip through his fingers and gently massaged the base of her horns. He heard her hum in approval and he smirked despite himself. He was proud of his ability to bring her even the simplest of pleasures.

“What are you planning over there?” He heard her question and he smiled even wider at the unique sound of her voice.

He glanced down to meet her suspicious, but amused gaze. “Just enjoying the company.” He answered back with equal amusement.

“Hum, well don’t enjoy it too much.” She warned with a glint of mischief in her violet eyes. “We have to be back soon. Ethari is making lunch for us and I rather you not start somethin’ you can’t finish.”

She ended her jib with a playful wink, but her suggestive statement brought a deep blush to the mage’s cheeks. Though they had been together for several years now and have moved well into the most intimate step in their relationship, the girl had greatly misinterpreted his intentions.

“I wasn’t trying to start anything, you dirty-minded elf.” He teased as he shifted his weight and now laid on his side, facing her. She let out a laugh as she copied him so that her face met his.

“Oh please, you always start playin’ with me horns and me hair when you want to start somethin’.”

“I don’t always!” He tried to defend himself, but she quickly shot him down with a look that read ‘don’t even try to deny it.’

“Okay maybe.” He relented. “But I swear this time that was not on my mind.”

Her face softened but this time her eyes filled with curiosity. “Then what was on your mind?” She asked him gently. She knew that her silly prince was ever the over-thinker, so whatever was plaguing his thoughts, she hoped she could be the voice of reason.

The smile on his lips faltered at her question and his emerald eyes dropped to the ground between them. This caused her own grin to vanish as she looked upon him with concern.

“Callum?” She pressed, her voice laced with worry.

Realizing his mistake, the boy pulled his gaze back up to meet hers. He managed to flash her a small grin and watched her visibly relax at the gesture. “I was just thinking...about home.” He finally admitted, but tried to make his words sound nonchalant.

The elf frowned anyway. “Are ya homesick?” She asked, not even bothering to hide the surprise in her voice. “We were just in Katolis for ya birthday and Queen Zubeia is expectin’ us back by the half-moon.”

Callum shook his head. “No no, I’m not missing Katolis. I mean, I love visiting my brother and our friends, but I don’t miss the castle. Quite the opposite actually.”

Now his girlfriend’s brows knitted in confusion, but she waited for him to elaborate.

“I’m not missing home, Rayla. I think, for the first time, I actually feel at home.”

Her pointed ears perked up at this. “But I thought Katolis was ya home?”

The prince looked at her thoughtfully. “Katolis is where I’m from, but it never felt like where I belonged.”

Slowly, he inched his hand toward one of her own and intertwined their nine fingers together. He moved her hand slightly closer to him and rubbed small circles over her knuckles with his thumb.

“I was thinking about Xadia and about everything it comes with. The magic, the creatures, the history…” he paused to give her hand a loving squeeze, “...and you.”

They both blushed this time, but neither looked away as Callum continued. “And I realized that this, this place and this moment, right here with you. This is where I belong. This,” he lifted her hand and brought it to his chest, “is my home.” He finished his confession by placing a tender kiss onto the back of her hand.

Rayla’s blush darkened and her eyes began to shimmer with budding tears, but she did her best to blink them away. She yanked her hand out of his grip and shook her head.

“Sappy Prince.” She half-heartedly chastised as she turned around to hide her face from him. She curled herself into a ball with her back facing toward him. Callum chuckled at her sudden shyness, but did not allow her off the hook that easily. Instead he scooted closer and wrapped his bare arm around her waist, pulling her toward him so that his chest pressed into her back and their legs tangled together.

When she did not try to move away from him, he leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on her cheek.

“You’re my home, Rayla.” He whispered into her ear. His breath warming her neck and sending a shiver down her spine. He leaned back down into the grass, but continued to hold her in his embrace. For a long pause they each stayed quiet, before Callum finally caught the sound of her hushed voice.

“And you’re my home too.”

[foolsiwillshowthemall]

Rayla doesn’t do slow burn.

Random thoughts on Rayllum, heavy with TDP Season 3 spoilers, following.

Rayllum has been the most likely endgame ship among the main characters for a while, which is ironic considering that it wasn’t even planned from the start of the series.  The writers just realized midway through Season 2 that the chemistry between the two of them worked out really well.  For me, it clicked when Callum was reading the letter from his father, who advised Callum to seek a narrative of love instead of power.  It’s not clear if this line was written before or after the writers decided that Rayllum would be a thing, but it does fit perfectly with the love of a human prince and an elven assassin/Dragonguard helping bring peace to the two sides.

However, while I was expecting them to get together, I was expecting it to happen a lot more slowly than it did.  Usually in these kinds of shows, they’ll string along the will-they-or-won’t-they dance for as long as possible to build tension, and only resolve it in a season or series finale.  We were all expecting a slow burn situation.  But in a brilliant bit of character-driven storytelling, just as the existence of the relationship was driven by the chemistry between them, the pace of the relationship was also decided by the characters.

Because Rayla is just not a slow-burn kind of person.

Callum could do a slow burn, easily.  At the start of the show, it’s implied that he’s been pining over Claudia for some time.  Years, maybe.  He just doesn’t have the confidence or any idea on how to progress that relationship.  In an alternate universe where the Moonshadow elves never attack, he and Claudia could spend years dancing around each other before finally ending up together.  He’d probably also end up apprenticing to Viren to become a dark mage in that alternate universe, so it’s just as well that didn’t happen.

But Rayla isn’t the kind of person to do a slow burn relationship.  Rayla makes sudden, life-changing, emotionally driven decisions.  Deciding to not kill Marcus after he discovered the assassin team, or deciding to take the Egg to Xadia along with the human princes, or to go and save the downed red dragon from Soren and Claudia.  And when she makes these decisions, she acts on them, immediately and decisively.  So once she realized that she’s in love with Callum, she’s not going to sit around pining for him or wondering if he feels the same.  She’s going to immediately start courting him, Moonshadow elf style.

Admittedly, we have no idea what Moonshadow elf courtship looks like.  But we do know that they keep their feelings secret, they’re not supposed to admit to fear or apparently anything else openly.  So Rayla’s not going to be ready to openly declare her love just yet.  But a lot of her behavior in the first few episodes of Season 3 makes more sense when interpreted as attempted courtship.

Episode 1:  Sol Regem.  When all else fails, Rayla makes a heartfelt speech praising Callum’s virtues to try and convince Sol Regem to let hum accompany her and Zym into Xadia.  It’s totally wasted on Sol Regem, but really we know this speech was meant for Callum.  It’s Rayla’s way of letting Callum know how much she likes him, without actually admitting anything.  

I suspect that praising someone you like to a third party, where they can overhear, is a common courtship method among Moonshadow elves, as it lets them know you like them without you having to admit any feelings of your own.  “I don’t admit to personally having feelings for them, I’m just stating how amazing they are as a fact” is a distinctly Moonshadow-ish behavior, and something that both Rayla and Callum have done for each other.

Also, she keeps his scarf, although unfortunately not past the end of the episode.  This comes after they’ve established how strongly it smells of him, because apparently Rayla likes the way he smells.

Episode 2: The Crown.  Moonshadow elves are all about concealment and secrecy, so showing somebody a secret place where you played alone as a child is an incredibly intimate and personal step.  Rayla might as well have stripped naked in front of him for all that she’s laying her life bare.  Fortunately, Callum has responded positively to her courtship so far, although at this point he doesn’t realize that this is what she’s doing.  As incredibly empathic and perceptive as Callum is, he’s fairly clueless at figuring out matters of romance, and has no idea that Rayla likes him that way yet.

Episode 3: Ghost.  Courtship is going well, so Rayla takes the next step of introducing Callum to her one remaining parental figure and showing him where she grew up.  Unfortunately, things don’t go well, as she’s been magically banished and is reminded of how she’s disappointed everyone and was more or less responsible for all of the other members of the team being killed or sealed in coins.  Callum tries to comfort her, and we might even have proceeded to the scene we do eventually get in the next episode, but Ethari interrupts them and gives them the means to start seriously traveling onwards again.

Episode 4: The Midnight Desert.  Enter Nyx.  Nyx is a conman (Con-woman?  Con-elf?) who is skilled at reading people.  She figures out pretty quickly what’s going on with these two, which is why she makes that teasing comment about whether they need one blanked or two.  She’s also smart enough to realize that Callum and Rayla will, given the chance, provide enough distraction to each other for her to slip away with Zym.

It’s in this episode that we get the continuation of the emotional moment interrupted by Ethari.  Rayla is wallowing in self-loathing, but Callum comes along and starts praising her virtues.  At last, Rayla thinks, the big dumb human has caught on and is reciprocating my courtship.  So she kisses him. 

Unfortunately, Callum wasn’t actually trying to court her, at least not consciously, so things get all awkward and stuff.  Poor Rayla is very confused, as what seemed to be fairly clear signals weren’t what she thought they were.  It turns out that Callum does actually like her like that, he just didn’t even realize that it was an option so far, and they probably would have resolved things with a little more talking, but Zym’s been abducted and they have to put the courtship on hold to deal with that.

Ironically, if Callum hadn’t backed down and had been kissing her back right away, Nyx would probably have gotten away freely.  Emotional awkwardness saves the day.

Episode 5: Heroes and Masterminds.  Zym has been rescued, Nyx has been defeated and then also rescued, and Callum get the opportunity to praise Rayla to someone else in front of here.  You can see the surprise and hope on her face as she’s trying to figure out the meaning of this gesture, not wanting to mis-interpret his intentions again.  You can also see that Nyx figures out pretty quickly that this speech isn’t for her benefit, as she turns and walks away halfway through it.  Rayla still isn’t sure what Callum’s intentions are, but he makes them more clear when he kisses her.

He then gets flustered and tries to back down again, but Rayla knows what the deal is.  If she wants the relationship to proceed, she has to take the initiative.  Fortunately, she’s more than capable of doing so, and Callum is willing to let her.

So where do things go now?  At the moment, we don’t know if there even will be a Season 4.  Netflix likes to cancel shows after 2 or 3 seasons, and the internal drama among the creative team at Wonderstorm still might tear the company apart.  Personally, I’d be satisfied with the story as it is if it ended here, since the third season wrapped up the initial plot very nicely, but I’ll also happily watch season 4 and any more that they make.

It’s rumored that there will be a timeskip before the next season, and if so then presumably the relationship between Rayla and Callum will only develop further during that time.  Although she won’t be able to actually show him around the Silvergrove until the banishment is lifted, and it will probably be a while before they can free her parents from the coins they’re probably trapped within.  I think that I speak for many in the fandom in hoping that the writers don’t split Callum and Rayla up for cheap drama, since they’ve been pretty good about not doing that kind of thing so far, and since Rayllum wasn’t even planned for part of the story initially it’s probably not going to be a major driver of the plot.  Which is actually kind of a relief, if they can just be a stable couple together while the rest of the plot is going on around them.  There’s enough drama happening in the world of TDP as a whole, they can just be the rock that keep each other stable and safe.

It’s also been really amusing seeing the fanfiction sites react to season 3.  So many slow burn stories that are now just completely AU compared to how quickly things went in the canon story.

[netflixoxygenoxygen]

my heart with you

Ethari watches over the celebratory gathering with a lightness in his heart that he hasn’t felt in weeks. That is, until Runaan joins him to spectate. Specifically focusing on a certain moonshadow elf and her human lover. 

+ bonus scene as Callum wonders if Runaan hates him, Rayla tries to assure him he doesn’t, and he--well, it’s not like he can’t not listen to his girlfriend but it’s not like he can believe her either... (Ruthari, Rayllum, 1.2k words, fluff, S3 spoilers)

My secret santa fic for @the-answer-was-bi-klance in the @tdpholidayexchange! I hope you like this and happy new year!! :)

--

It had already been a couple hours since the celebrations had begun, but the mood was still soaring. 

Ethari couldn’t blame anyone though, not for the noise, or the rowdiness, or the crowds; he knew it was a big celebration, not just for him but for the whole of Xadia. The dragon prince’s birth and the newfound peace over the continent was something that would go down in history as the era’s legacy, no doubt. Even if it was Runaan’s return that would remain in the core of his heart. 

It was funny, though. He would have thought he wouldn’t have been able to stay away from his husband--the moon only knew just how much he had yearned for him, tears and broken heart not going unnoticed by those who knew him. But as Runaan made his way around the moonshadow elves, most giving him nods of acknowledgement and respect, Ethari stepped away and towards a tree at the edge of the clearing everyone had gathered in; all races of elves and humans, and earlier the baby dragon prince himself before he’d been taken away by his mother for his bedtime.

Despite the enormity of it all, it was really just a scattered gathering of joyful people, coming together for the first time in generations. 

Humans arm wrestled with elves on the tables that just an hour ago had been covered with mixtures of human and elven cuisine, and Ethari couldn’t help but spot the Katolian soldiers who had assisted Rayla in bringing Runaan back were engaged in sparring battles with some of their assassins and fighters. Though, he had to admit, it wasn’t that hard to miss the loud blond and the strawberry-haired kind one, not when the renowned general and the newly crowned Sunfire queen were often not far behind. 

His gaze swept elsewhere, finding itself on his niece and her new lover. Rayla and Callum were sharing a moment at the other edge of the clearing, the former laughing as the latter made a face at the food he was eating. Ethari smiled fondly; he was glad beyond words she had found someone who could be, perhaps, what Runaan was to him.

Speaking of…

“Enjoying the party, my love?” Runaan asked softly as he took Ethari’s hand and settled in next to him. 

“Of course. How could I not?” He smiled wider, thoughtful. “Are you?”

Runaan chuckled. “As much as I can be. I’d nearly forgotten how rowdy some of us could be.” They laughed together, the fitting sound of cheers from the audience surrounding the arm wrestlers carrying throughout the clearing. Runaan quietened though, when he saw Rayla and Callum, Ethari stifling his own laughter as the grip on his hand tightened. 

Moonshadow assassin or not, Runaan’s protective side over their pseudo-niece was one of the most obvious things about him, second only to his love for Ethari. “You’re not going over to separate them?” He teased, waving at Callum’s tense smile, the pair having noticed Runaan’s burning gaze-that-bordered-on-a-glare-Rayla-knew-far-too-well. He had to give it to Rayla; she was doing a very good job at dutifully ignoring it. “They’re not even three xadian leaves apart.”

Runaan inhaled slowly, giving Ethari a raised eyebrow. Nonetheless, the playful glint emerged in his eyes. “Are you trying to provoke me?” 

He only grinned back. 

Runaan shook his head, slowly, his eyes clouded with a whirlpool of emotion. “Rayla has grown. Faster than I would have ever expected… to separate her from her--Callum.” In this context, he could barely push the boy’s name out, Ethari noted with amusement, having witnessed earlier how Runaan had been fine praising the little group of their immeasurable achievements. “After all they’ve done, would be juvenile.” He paused. “Even if they’re far too close.”

But as he said that, Ethari knew the fond glimmer in his husband’s eyes. Protective or not, he was the proudest he’d ever been of Rayla, and though Ethari hadn’t been there, he could only imagine the tears when Runaan and her had first reunited; tears from both parties. 

He smiled, shifting closer to lean on him.

There was still much to be done; working on Runaan’s arm, for one, and figuring out the details of the newly acquired peace over Xadia, for another.

But as they took in the moment in that clearing, hand in hand, humans and elves celebrating as one, Ethari knew they would be alright.

His heart had gone out with his lover, and both had finally returned.

(Bonus) Earlier...

He really couldn’t help it anymore. He had to know, and he had to know now, or, at least, before they made it to Xadia else he’d never get another private moment like this. 

“Uh, Rayla, can I-uh, talk to you? For a sec?” Callum asked quietly, confusing the moonshadow elf as she raised her eyebrows at him. She slowed her steps to match his pace.

“Sure, Callum, what is it?”

He swallowed, glancing over her shoulder at something (or, she thought with a sneaking suspicion, someone) before continuing. “Does your uncle hate me?”

Rayla blinked. “My… uncle?” She turned around, eyes catching on Runaan’s figure, the older elf talking to Gren and Soren. Her eyes widened. “Runaan’s not my uncle!” She exclaimed, embarrassed. 

This time it was Callum’s turn to blink, mouth forming an ‘o’. 

“He’s--agh, never mind.” She groaned. It’s not like she hadn’t heard this all before and it’s not like it went the same way every time. He wasn’t really her uncle but she wouldn’t have minded calling him her uncle but she didn’t know if he would mind and--well, it didn’t matter. “No, Callum, I’m sure he doesn’t hate you.”

Callum nodded. “Oh, right, uh huh. Gotcha.” He paused, and for a brief, relieving moment Rayla thought that was the end of it. Until he continued. Humans and their big mouths. “Was that, um, sarcasm?”

Rayla felt herself halt to a stop, turning towards him again, eyes incredulously wide. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

“I don’t know! Was it sarcasm?” Callum retorted, shrugging helplessly as his arms went up in surrender. 

She slapped a hand over her face, groaning again. This time, she felt rather than heard the other three stop up ahead, probably wondering what they were up to. “How--ugh, whatever. No, it wasn’t Callum. Now would you calm down? Runaan doesn’t hate you.”

“Lover’s quarrel back there?” Soren called out, whistling teasingly as Gren laughed, before it trailed off at the look on Runaan’s face. 

Rayla rolled her eyes at the comment, taking Callum’s hand in response as they walked to catch up. Or, more like Rayla walked and Callum followed mechanically, smiling nervously at the newly freed elf. He raised his hand meekly to wave, stomach churning at the piercing stare. It was almost a glare but--he trusted Rayla, and if she said Runaan didn’t hate her then… he was going to believe her.

As best he could.

If fair was fair, he wondered if this was something he deserved, if only to repay the grueling re-assessment Rayla had gotten from his aunt Amaya as well (their first meeting hadn’t gone very well and everything after had been more a rush than anything else). Of course, she hadn’t been unreasonable and considering Rayla’s role in the whole scheme of things, Amaya wouldn’t have kept up the tough-aunt act for too long. But...

Rayla never said he liked me, though, Callum concluded with a resigned sigh as they rejoined the other three.

It was going to be a long walk back to Xadia, that was for sure.

[arcadialedger]

Your Soul is My Treasure — a Rayllum One- Shot

Set in my vision of season 4, Callum discovers a spell to get Runaan and Rayla’s parents out of the coins. However, Callum doesn’t get the warm parental welcome he was hoping.

“Callum-- are you sure this is going to work?” 

Rayla’s words lodged a dagger in his heart, because he wasn’t. From the moment that he and Ibis had found the fallen bag of coins on the floor of the Storm Spire, Callum had tried tirelessly to find a spell to reverse Viren’s horrific incantation.

But he didn’t want to get his hopes up, and he could tell that Rayla had been hesitant to herself. Still, he owed it to her to try. Callum knew all too well what it was to lose a parent. 

“I don’t know, Rayla,” he admitted, unable to look her in the eye, “The spell was cast with dark magic, and it might require dark magic to reverse it.”

Rayla gave his hand a squeeze, and gently turned his face to look at her own. Her light, lilac eyes were filled with both hope and sympathy. 

“Listen to me, Callum,” she said sternly, “I will not be angry if the spell doesn’t work. You understand? And we will not even consider the alternative. I do not want you risking your life with dark magic for me again.”

Callum smiled, and laced his fingers through hers. He had only a few months training. He was just a boy. Something about Rayla’s presence, however, always managed to make him feel as though he could do anything. 

“Ready to try?” Rayla asked.

Callum nodded, and Rayla released her hand. With a deep breath, Callum stepped forward and outstretched his hand, and from his fingertip drew an intricate rune of delicate swirls. Rayla let out a light gasp, entranced by the beauty of the rune. She had never understood how Callum could so effortlessly draw something so graceful, so elaborate. 

Callum closed his eyes— as he always did when he tried to connect to the arcanum— and incanted.

“Your soul is my treasure. Absolvisti te ipsum.” A gentle wind blew into the corridor, and Callum repeated the words.

“Your soul is my treasure. Absolvisti te ipsum,” he shouted, his tone more forceful and determined this time.

The wind began to increase- now swirling in a giant spiral around the perimeter of the corridor. With his arm outstretched, and his scarf blowing behind him, Rayla couldn’t helped but be awed by how powerful Callum looked. In only months time, he had come so far.

“Come on— work!” Callum cried out in frustration, “Absolvisti te ipsum. Absolvisti te ipsum!”

Rayla watched as all of the color drained from Callum’s face, and suddenly all of the hope in her heart turned to worry. 

He was pushing himself too far. 

“Callum— stop!” she yelled, but Callum could not seem to hear her. Instinctively, she went to run towards him. She made it not a step before a gust of wind caught her and blew her backwards onto the cold, stone floor. 

“NO!” she screamed, her eyes now wet with the sting of tears. She got up to her knees, as Callum shouted the spell one last time.

“ABSOLVISTI TE ISPSUM!”

The coins on the ground before Callum began to glow, and the entire corridor burst with a blinding light. 

_____

Rayla awoke to three shadows standing over her.

Her vision focused slowly— the outline of three tall figures turning to color, and then clarity, and then…

By the moon…

“Mum? Dad? Runaan?” she choked, as she slowly pulled herself back up to her feet.

“Rayla,” Tiadrin cried, and only then was Rayla able to believe it was real. Unable to hold back her sobs, Rayla engulfed her parents in a hug.

“He did it,” she remarked in disbelief, “He actually—“ 

With a jolt, of realization, Rayla pulled herself out of her parents embrace.

Callum. Where was Callum? 

Ignoring her parents, and Runaan’s inquisitive looks, Rayla raced past them.

A few feet in front of the coins— which now lay dull and empty on the stone— Callum laid crumpled on the floor.

“No, no, no, CALLUM!” Rayla cried. Unconcerned about her parents watching, she ran and dropped to her knees beside him.  When she grasped his hand, it was cold, and clammy.

Tears began to roll down her cheeks, and she clasped his hand tighter, “You have to stay with me, Callum.”

Rayla rubbed her hands together, and placed them tenderly against his forehead. He was so cold…

“You know I couldn’t bear losing you, you big dummy,” she whispered, “You have to stay with me.”

Slowly, Rayla bent down to give him a kiss on his forehead. 

Then his green eyes shot open, and he sat upward with a start. 

“Rayla?” he croaked, his mouth curl into a stupid grin which she wanted to kiss a million times over, “Did it work?”

Rayla let out a sob of elatement, and tackled him in a big hug.

“You always wake up at the worst time,” she laugh, her tears dripping down onto his jacket shoulder, “Don’t scare me like that.”

Callum laughed, and hugged her tightly back, before kissing her gently on the forehead, “I’m sorry I scared you. I’m okay now.”

“Rayla,” a called said from behind her—  Lain— “What is going on? Why are you with this… human?”

Callum looked at Rayla, eyes wide.

“It worked,” she says quietly, a smile spreading across her lips, “You did it.”

Callum’s eyed widened to a beam— his happiness for her happiness so pure and clear. 

With one quick squeeze of Rayla’s hand, Callum stood up to look at Tiadrin, Lain, and Runaan. 

“Hello,” Callum announced, as he raised his hand to a dorkish wave, “I’m Callum, the, er, human. Nice to meet y—“

Before Callum could finish his sentence, Runaan lunged forward in a blur of motion. Callum found himself pressed up against the stone wall, his lifted up so he was eye to eye with Runaan. The cold steel of Runaan’s blade pressed his throat. 

“Runaan, don’t!” Rayla yelped, “Don’t hurt him!”

“He’s the crown prince!” Runaan snarled, “Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because he’s my friend,” Rayla explained, thinking back to her conversation with Sol Regem, “Runaan, he and King Ezran helped return Zym to his mother. They’re good! Runaan, Callum risked everything to save you and my parents. For me.”

Runaan’s eyes dawned with realization. Slowly, his grip of Callum loosened as he let him gently back onto the floor. 

“He did dark magic,” Tiadrin remarked, her eyes narrowed with skepticism, “To release us. He’s a human!”

“I practice primal magic,” Callum clarified, his voice raspy from Runaan’s hold on his throat, “the sky primal, specifically, although Rayla has been teaching me some moon magic as well.”

“That’s… impossible,” Tiadrin gasped, “A human can’t learn a primal!”

“It’s not impossible. Callum’s just the first” Rayla explained.

“You look just how I remember from when I casted historia viventum,” Callum remarked, as he looked at Tiadrin and Lain, “You look so much like your mother, Rayla!”

“Rayla,” I will not ask again, sneered Lain, his eyes cast at Callum in disgust, “We are gone for years, and we wake to find you with a filthy, disgusting human. They hate us, Rayla!”

Rayla’s brows furrow in anger, 

“How dare you, dad? How dare you insult Callum after he saved you. Everything we knew about humans is wrong, father. Yes, some are bad, but no more than us. Callum and the people of Katolis put aside the prejudices they learned about us when he met me— can you please do the same? Callum is not a filthy human, dad. He’s smart, brave, talented, funny, caring, and meeting him has been the best thing that ever happened to me. So please, give him a chance because I love him and I know you can grow to love him too.”

Out of breathe by the end of her passionate speech, Rayla gasped, as the full reality of everything she just said truly processed. Lain and Tiadrin stared at her in shocked silence.

“It’s true,” Callum added, “Elves and humans— we don’t have to hate each other. Things are changing.”

Tiadrin and Lain slowly turned to each other. After a moment of silence conversation and a nod, they stepped forward to their daughter.

“My Rayla,” remarked Tiadrin, “You have grown a lot. Haven’t you?”

Rayla’s heart sobbed with relief, and she nodded. 

“Yes, I have,” she agreed.

“And you were never one to follow convention,” Lain adds, “You couldn’t have just found a nice Moonshadow boy and joined the Dragonguard together, could you?”

“I was banished,” Rayla stated flatly, to which Runaan lowered his head in shame, “This is my home now. Callum, Ezran, and Zym— they’re my home now.”

Callum, who had quietly walked up to stand beside Rayla, put a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

“We visited Ethari,” he mentioned. Runaan’s downcast eyes moved upward to meet Callum’s at the sound of his husband’s name, “He misses you, Runaan. He… he thinks you’re dead.”

“My flower,” realized Runaan, “When Viren cast his spell, it…”

Rayla nodded, “It sank. Mine was the only one left.”

Callum could see the glimmer of tears in Runaan’s eyes. Stoic as ever, however, the elf held them back.

“Runaan, he’s going to be so happy to see you again,” Callum insisted, and “And I’m so happy to meet you, Tiadrin and Lain. Your daughter is the most incredible person I’ve ever met. I can already see how much you she has in her.”

Lain gulped, and turned to speak to Rayla.

“You understand, Rayla, that this is going to take some… getting used to,” he stated. 

“I understand,” Rayla assured, “It’s just… I have my old family back, and Callum has lost all of his parents— his father, his mother, and his step father.”

Runaan flinched, yet Rayla continued, “But we’re all here now, and I was hoping we could form a new one. Together.”

Tiadrin smiled, and took Lain’s hand in her own. 

“We should all get some rest, and talk more in the morning. We’ve much to discuss.”

“You may rest,” declared Runaan, “I am leaving for the Silvergrove. My husband has waited long enough for me.”

“And you,” said Rayla, as she turned to Callum. Sensing that Rayla wanted to address him privately, Tiadrin and Lain walked off to find a place to sleep. “Should also get some rest. You’re still cold, and pale.”

“Maybe I could do mage wings?” Callum thought out loud, “The feathers could help.”

“No. No more magic for you today,” Rayla decided, “I’ll make you a fire. And here— take my cloak.”

Rayla unclasped the long, green cloak she had taken to wearing at the Storm Spire due to the cold temperatures, and draped it over Callum’s shoulders. 

“You shouldn’t have done that,” she said softly, “I almost lost you again.”

Callum gazed downward, “I know. I just— I could feel that I was so close. And my parents are gone for good, so I thought, if I could do this for you, this one thing, it would be worth it. And…”

Rayla’s brow arched quizzically, “And what.”

“Did you really mean everything you said back there?” Callum asked, “I mean, what you said to your parents. About me.”

Rayla rolled her eyes in amusement, and slung her arm over Callum’s shoulder.

“Of course I did, you dummy. Don’t you know that your soul is my treasure?”

[heythatpenguinhere]

Heart

*My dearest friends (or new friends), welcome back! I haven’t written in a hot minute and I had to fix that. Surprise though, I have crossed fandoms and written my FIRST Dragon Prince Rayllum fic!!! SHOCKER. Please enjoy below my angsty, emotional mess of work and let me know what you guys think! 

To others, Rayla should have probably stopped and thought through her decision to act in the moment a bit further; her impulse to protect and defend sometimes drove her to reckless actions. This wasn’t new to her nor was it unknown. She was very well aware of this and unfortunately as much as she may want to correct it in theory, when it came down to the moment she would always choose to act; it was in her blood and DNA to do so as well. Being a Moonshadow Elf made her fit to be a warrior. Being the child of two Dragon Guards, made her destined to protect. She could not just simply ignore those things that ultimately made up who she was and she did not want to. Even if the outcome could be less than desirable, Rayla had a heart that could never just run when she could take a stand. 

That is what she was doing in this very moment. Rayla was being the courageous being she was. It wasn’t that she didn’t fear, because as the bandit’s blade cut through the air she felt the slight rush of fear, but that she was willing to push through fear for those she loved. If she didn’t, Callum would be harmed.

As her eyes scanned behind her briefly, she saw Callum still lying there in the mouth of the cavern shivering. A large usage of magic recently had unexpected consequences and Callum was sick and unable to travel. Rayla had been truly scared when he fell and even more so as he remained unconscious. The last time she had seen him in a similar state was when he used Dark Magic. And while this time he hadn’t, he had still used a large amount of energy with a small amount of rest on his shoulders. He selflessly gave of himself too much to help others. It’s something she loved about him... 

If he could give of himself to help others, then so would she. She was doing this for Callum. 

The bandit had snuck up on them as they rested in the cavern. To his credit, he was extremely skillful to have done so with Rayla’s senses and Callum’s magic and yet now he was here and threatening their safety. 

“Hand over any valuables Moonshadow Elf and no one gets hurt.” The man sneered at her, bandana covering his face. The only part of him that could be seen were his eyes, a deep and muddy yellow color. 

Rayla stood her ground, “We haven’t got any valuables. Leave now.” 

He snickered, “Those blades look mighty valuable to me.” He said nodding in the direction of Rayla’s twin blades. 

Her eyes narrowed. This man was seriously underestimating her if he thought she would hand over her blades just because he was pointing his. With a flick of her wrists, both hands were armed and poised to attack. 

“You must be stupid if you think I’ll give ya these. Now I’ll only say this once more: leave.” She said, standing tall. 

The man didn’t laugh this time and instead his eyes squinted with anger. In a blink, he was on the move. Flashes of black and silver were seen as the two squared off. The bandit clearly was older, but that didn’t mean Rayla wasn’t a match for him. With a kick to his chest, she sent the man flying backwards out of the cavern. Rayla paused for a second to examine Callum. 

“Come on Callum, please get up. I need ya here.” She pleaded with him, not knowing if he could actually hear her. 

“How unexpected. A human and an elf huh? You betray your own blood. If I killed you, no one would grieve you. If I killed him, then that’s one less human in the world.” The man said walking slowly back through the opening; his voice echoed in the cave around them. 

Rayla stood over Callum’s body in defense. “Like hell I’d let you touch him.” 

“I don’t think you’ll have a choice elf.” He said and sprung at her again. 

Their blades crashed together as Rayla struggled to keep the bandit as far from Callum as she could. She threw him back again and the two continued their battle further away from the unconscious boy. 

“How can you defend him? Humans are animals. They are vermin in this world. And yet you would protect this one. Tell me elf, are you his slave? Or maybe you just wiggled your way into his bed.” He said taunting her. 

Rayla let out a loud cry of anger/indignation and her blade successfully nicked the man’s shoulder. He groaned out loud and held onto the wound. 

“I hit a sore spot didn’t I?” He said, continuing to taunt her even while injured.

“How dare you… You don’t know anything about us thief!” She said, breathing heavy. 

“I know all I need to know. You both will die and I’ll be taking your blades and anything else you have!” He yelled and changed directions… toward Callum. 

Fear and dread filled her veins as she saw him make toward the boy that held her heart.

“CALLUM!” She yelled as she ran to intercept the man. 

Seconds moved in slow motion as both individuals made their way to the same target. Every step, Rayla willed herself to move faster. Faster than the bandit was all she had to be. 

With a few steps and her blades up, the bandit closed in on them. The last thought to cross her mind as she and the bandit locked eyes was green eyes and a goofy smile.

-

Silence. Silence was all Callum could hear around him as he stirred. The ground beneath him was softened by a blanket of some sort, it’s texture familiar to his fingertips as he moved. His eyes slowly pried open to the dim light. He could make out a rocky ceiling and cool feeling all around. The more his eyes opened, the more he could make out however. He was confused and still a bit dazed as to why he was laying on the floor and where he was. The last thing he remembered was drawing a new rune shape and casting a spell. He could recall Rayla’s worried face and words of concern as he let the words leave his mouth. After that, his world went black. 

If she was there when that happened, then where was Rayla now?

He shot up suddenly at the realization. His eyes scanned around him frantically for a sign of the white-haired elf he loved dearly. When he finally did get a glimpse of her, he felt as if his soul had left his body. Rayla stood a few feet in front of him frozen in a battle stance, eyes wide, and with a long blade running through her left side still connected to a man in black. 

How Callum was able to cast “aspiro” was a complete wonder in that moment. The mystery man in black was thrown so far into the woods that it was unknown where he ended up. It had to be the strongest version of that spell that had he had channeled in his life and he had done it in the state he was currently in. All he knew was that he had never experienced such a mixture of anger and fear in his whole entire life’s existence. 

The thud of Rayla’s knees hitting the floor awakened him out of the murderous state of mind he was in and into the horrific reality before him. 

“RAYLA!” He screamed from a place deep inside him, moving so quickly he didn’t even notice the steps he took to arrive to her. 

She kneeled in the same spot; eyes still wide in shock and mouth agape. From her side, a dark patch of purple began to grow and spread through her clothing and drip to the floor beneath. All Rayla could do was gasp; her breaths catching in short bursts as the severity of the situation really hit her. She had been stabbed, in a less than ideal spot, and was miles from the nearest town. She turned her head slowly to watch Callum racing toward her. 

“Callum…” She whispered. 

Callum’s arms were around her in seconds. 

He was shaking and his eyes were all over her frantically. They landed on the dark patch at her side and the shiny glint on the blade still embedded within her. 

“Oh God… Oh God Rayla… W-We are going to figure this out okay? You’re going to be okay!” He said in desperation. 

Her lavender eyes were moving more rapidly, examining him. He was okay. He was healthy again somehow. He was okay and he was here. He hadn’t been harmed in anyway. Her human was safe. 

“C-Callum…” She said, reaching a shaky hand to touch his face. 

Pools and rivers of tears spilled from Callum’s eyes. His usually bright green eyes were a dark and deep emerald shade. She briefly thought that even this way they still looked beautiful. 

-

Callum had carefully as possible assessed the situation with Rayla. Her wound was bleeding pretty badly and there was still the blade to deal with… She was surprisingly not in pain, but by the way she seemed out of it, he figured she was in shock. He had to make a decision and soon. Try and move her to find help or treat her here? 

His hands could not stop shaking as his fingers trailed the sides of the entrance of the wound. It wasn’t a large wound in size, but he had no way of knowing what it had damaged inside. Moving away he looked at his fingertips where spots of purple tainted his skin. He felt horribly sick. Rayla’s blood was on him, in more ways than one. 

“Rayla...why?” He said, even though he knew the answer. Because it was the very same thing that he would have done for her. He wouldn’t have had a second thought to protect her either.  

She stared at him, eyes dazed. “I love you.” She said. 

-

Callum had not slept all night. Rayla’s form lay on a bed beside him. Her light lavender-tinted skin was now ashy in color. Her pure hair was sprawled about around her. Her facial markings under her sealed eyes stood out much too darkly. Her chest moved up and down slower than he was used to seeing it do. Her abdomen wrapped tightly in bandages with a tinge of purple seen through them. 

She was somehow alive. The doctors had noted that Rayla was a fighter, not just in occupation but in spirit as well, refusing to give in during any of the attempts to stabilize her. At one point she had nearly been lost only to surprise the doctors by opening her eyes and fighting them to see Callum. 

The nurses rushed to retrieve Callum. He couldn’t erase the scene of her thrashing against the doctors screaming out his name. She was desperate to see him; to know he was okay. 

“CALLUM! CALLUM!” Her screams could be heard for miles, ripping from her throat until her voice grew hoarse. 

He had ran to her, holding her down carefully with the doctors. 

“Rayla! Rayla please you need to calm down! Rayla, I’m right here! I’m okay!” He kept repeating over and over until her panicked state calmed. She laid on the bed, breathing heavily. 

“You’re okay.” She said, finally realizing he was indeed in front of her, and her eyes rolled back. 

-

The entire day’s ordeal had left Callum heavily traumatized. Soren sat by his side, attempting to help the prince cope. Through jokes and lighthearted comments, Callum was incredibly grateful to have someone by his side. King Ezran himself was arriving soon and Callum would have a full support network to be with him as he waited for Rayla to wake. 

Watching her in her slumber, Callum could not help but reflect on their journey. From their beginnings to now, fate had somehow willed for these two souls to join up. Two very different souls, from two very different backgrounds. And yet somehow these two souls had not only joined together, but fallen in love. Their differences blended and complimented the other. Where one was weak, the other strong. They grew together and their hearts meshed together along the way, deeper if possible. 

She was everything. She was Rayla. Every word spoken and action she took, pointed to who she was and the heart she had. The same heart that had led her to where she was now. 

Breathing deeply, Callum stood up. The temptation to wallow in the guilt of her actions was incredibly strong, but after two panic attacks earlier Callum knew that he had to be strong. Rayla had made her choice to protect him out of pure and undeniable love for him. He could never ever repay that, but he could be here for her now and remain while she wakes up. 

-

Opening her eyes to the world again, Rayla was very aware of her circumstances. Her side throbbed as if confirming her actions earlier. Callum. She had risked her life to protect him. Why? She loved him. It was as simple as that in her mind and in her heart. And as relieved, emotional green eyes came into her view and she registered the weight of a hand in her own, she had all the reaffirmation she needed to know that she had made the right choice. Five digits mixed within her four were all she needed right now as proof. Her heart would always act and take a stand to protect the most precious thing in her life. 

“Callum.”

[aetheternity]

All the prompts I've written have been like after season 2 ends so I'm gonna make this one during season 2. @astraskylark I'm so happy you gave me this prompt!!

"I'm just saying I don't find your human impression that funny." Callum stated with a tilt of his head, arms crossed with a small smirk playing on his lips.

"Oh really. Am I not human enough to ya? Should I grow an extra finger to make the impression more realistic?" Rayla retorted wiggling her four fingers in front of Callum's face.

Zym sighed next to them clearly exasperated and Ezran raised an eyebrow looking to Bait for some kind of understanding. The grumpy glow toad merely rolled his eyes, resting his chin on the wet wood of the boat.

"No it's just not funny in the slightest."

"Should I stop for good then? Maybe let myself be chased by some racist humans?"

They'd been arguing back and forth like this for what felt like an eternity. Not very loudly but still an exhaustingly long argument.

"No!" Callum answered, tone thick with agitation.

"So then I suppose you can do better. Maybe that's what you're getting at?" Callum suddenly grew silent, face brightening as he stared at Rayla's smug grin. "Do you wanna challenge me Callum? Wanna do a better elf impression then my human impression?"

She could clearly see the thoughts flying through Callum's head. He'd never done an impression of an elf before. How far was he willing to take this argument just to spite Rayla?

"That sounds like a good idea!" Ezran interjects enthusiastically, not understanding his brother's slightly pained expression. "Plus you're really good at impressions! Remember your impression of Soren?"

Rayla grunted irritated by the sudden mention of the Soren but quickly returned her attention back to Callum. "Yeah. Let's see the amazing impressions you can do."

Callum refused to back down. He lifted his chin and with a short "Fine." He was speeding away towards the bottom of the ship to grab supplies.

Callum had never thought of himself as a collector of any kind but he'd been taking little rocks sometimes sticks and on the rare occasion that one of Zym's scales just happened to fall off he'd keep that too. There was just a nice comfort to having all this stuff as a sort of souvenir to remember this trip.

He quickly grabbed the sticks that looked the most like horns and some yarn to wrap them around his head. The whole job was honestly messy and the horns kept flopping around precariously but it was decent enough. As a finishing touch Callum grabbed another pair of sticks (A little skinny but they would do) to act as blades.

"Alright! You've heard of human Rayla, well now there's the infinitely better Elf Callum!" The brown haired boy announced bouncing out onto the deck almost losing one of his "horns".

Rayla snickered and Ezran clapped excitedly.

Callum pulled the sticks out from where they were stashed in his belt buckle. He held them just like Rayla always did, spreading his feet apart to better impersonate her stance. "I'm an assassin elf. I like doing cool things with my blades and talkin like this." Callum remarked, poorly impersonating Rayla's accent. "Not to mention my other weapon of choice sarcasm!"

Ezran laughs, "You do stand like that!" He points first to Callum's wide stance and then at Rayla.

The young elf crossed her arms watching as Callum swung the sticks every which way making soft whooshing noises. "You should fear me humans because when the moons highest I could kill ya in an instant!" Callum continued accidentally flipping the stick up in the air.

He flew back as the object promptly hit him in the eye, one of his "horns" finally giving way to gravity and flopping onto the deck of the boat.

"Oh my gosh are you ok?" Ezran asked flying to help his brother.

"Yeah.. No.. I'm fine Ez.." Callum was barely up on his feet when Rayla began to laugh, holding onto her stomach and rolling around on the hard deck. Zym stared at her in confusion and Bait groaned waddling closer to Ezran.

Rayla laughed all the time with them but she was laughing so hard that her body shook. Her eyes filling with tears as she laid on the ground, breathless and wheezing like she was running out of air.

Ezran smiled as Rayla continued to cry out, "I can't breathe, I can't breathe!" Her fists meeting the deck over and over again.

Even Callum had to admit it was nice to see Rayla act this way. It was pretty uncharacteristic and yet still perfectly Rayla. "Are you done yet?" He asked as Rayla wiped away more oncoming tears.

Eventually she wasn't even making noise just kinda laying there with her mouth open chest heaving.

"That.... Was..... The worst.... Elf impression I've ever..... Seen." Rayla announced once she'd somewhat relaxed. Still a tiny bit breathless and hoarse.

Zym didn't really seem to understand what had happened with Rayla, and he strolled over giving her a soft nudge with his nose and a tiny lick to her hand.

"Well you sure seemed to get a kick out of it regardless." Callum countered.

Rayla just rolled her eyes, tipping her head at the sudden scream of, "Land Ho!"

"Wait what?! Land!" Rayla asked excitedly, sure enough when they peered off the boat they were fast approaching docks.

Callum smirked at Rayla's happy expression. "What if I told you my plan all along had been to get your mind off your sea sickness by doing a horrible elf impression for you?" Just as he'd finished his sentence his other "horn" fell off his head.

"I'd say your full of sh-"

"Rayla!" Ezran interjected, covering Zym's ears with both hands, while the baby dragon just smiled, tongue hanging out as he looked at the two teens.

"I was gonna say it!"

Finally Rayllum that could be taken platonically or romantically. I love this prompt so much more now that I have a complete story written out of it.

[tydy-the-megnet]

Like Lightning on my Skin

This time it’s Rayllum, but still magic because I’m a sucker for TDP magic

...

Rayla and Callum sat there in the other’s arms. Rayla held tightly, not letting him back away, not letting him see her face. She was blinking away tears and breathing heavily. She kept telling herself that Callum was awake. That he was here, that he was safe.

What an ordeal.

“Uh, Rayla? What happened?” He gently brought his hands to her shoulders, and she felt a tingle at the contact. As stealthily as she could, Rayla brought up her hands to swipe away the last tears before Callum could see.

She succeeded.

Rayla told Callum of how she had to watch him as he tossed and turned, she told Callum of her uncertainty, of how it looked, for a moment, as if he wouldn’t make it. She told -- forcing the words out before she could think about it -- the words she had been trying to say mere moments before.

“I love you.” She didn’t give him time to react, instead she grabbed him by the scarf and pulled him close. Their lips met in the middle.

It felt like lightning across her skin -- hundreds of little bolts racing over her. It felt like light radiating from her very core. It felt like she was on top, letting the wind carry her and letting her emotions run out unhindered. The fear, the desperation, the anxiety. She held her position, waiting for Callum to react to the kiss.

He did not react. Rayla lost confidence quickly when Callum failed to do anything. She backed up, splitting them apart and allowing herself to take a good look at the boy before her.

He was standing there, eyes glazed over.

“Well,” She started, arms moving up to hug her body, “Say som’thin.”

Callum blinked and his eyes moved to look at her.

“Do you think... If I drew the runes on my hands, that I wouldn’t need to draw them in the air every time I cast them?”

“What.”

Callum sprang to his knees, excitement igniting in his smile. He didn’t mention the kiss at all.

“Hear me out. Every time I cast a spell I have to draw the rune and say the word. But if I always had a rune, I wouldn’t need to draw it!”

“You!” Indignation pervaded her trembling voice, “Stupid boy!”

“Rayla, wait!" Callum got up with her, ready to pursue, but Rayla stormed off without heed. Stupid boy.

“Do you think it’d work? Rayla? Okay, I’m gonna try it! I’ll let you know how it goes!”

Ralya huffed, ignoring the flashes and hissing behind her. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[raayllum]

hi jsyk watching your hype and excitement after the new short story is really funny (affectionate/positive)!!! ur excitement for s5 and love of the show is so clear

oh my gosh thank you this is so sweet!! it's the funniest thing because literally every time I want something specific as hell from this show, but lovingly put my clown makeup and assume I'm not going to get it, or that it's a fun prediction but doesn't have to pan out, but then

I either end up getting that exact thing or an even better variant of it??

Like pre-S1 I noticed Rayla's face markings looked like tears, so I hoped we'd see her cry at one point bc I thought it'd be a nice visual parallel? And then 1x09 gave it to me. Going into S2 I hoped for Callum to get over Claudia and for a Rayllum tag, and then [gestures] All That Happened. Even before S3 aired with the "written in the stars" skit I'd noticed the slight dark-lightness theme running through Rayllum's arc and thought it'd be a nice consistency, but I didn't think it'd be a Big Theme, even if as soon as the S4 intro came out I was like "yeah that 'south star' shit is coming back" and well... Gestures to the entire ass "stargazing" clip just between the two of them. The way post-S3 I assumed S4 would be about Callum flying too close to the sun magic wise, being terrified of Aaravos invading this mind, that Aaravos would get out in S5, and that S5 would deal more with Rayla's coin stuff? Ezran as the thematic Witness / Embodiment of Justice? Everything about Claudia's arc?? Chef's kiss

My first post-S3 theory back in 2019 was a "Rayla and Ezran disagree with Callum caught in the middle, leaving to a broyals conflict" wish, gave up on it when TTM hppened because it seemed like we were going in a different direction, campaigned for 2+ years for Callum to do something Fucked Up for Rayla, and like... now I'm going to get both things, presumably that I have desperately wanted/hoped for??

And then there's like, all the things I didn't even know I wanted that TDP just decided to give me anyway?? An Angor Rot villain variant in Kim'Dael? Motherfucking pirates? The game motif becoming a chess motif? Wanting a trio variant sitting around a campfire scene in S4 (that we haven't had since S1) and S4 gave me one and S5's already given me one and there might be More?

I've talked before about how healing TDP has been for me when my prior two fandoms source materials back to back were very disappointing and shoddily put together / majorly side lined their disabled characters / characters of colour (who were also my favourite characters) but like

You ever watch or something, and it feels like it was Made For You, in a way? Like tailor made for like, your interests or preferences or character archetypes, or whatever? That's always how TDP has felt for me in everything it's released and every time it's a beautiful, wonderful experience and a surprise. It would be hard not to be so excited and positive about it, and I cannot wait to continue to be catered to. They never miss!

[iwillhaveamoonbase]

Secret Love Song

Rayla gets a call that her boyfriend, Callum, is engaged to his childhood friend.  Human AU.  For the Rayllum Birthday Prompt ‘Rain’ and inspired by Little Mix’s Secret Love Song

-----------------------------

Why can't you hold me in the street?

Why can't I kiss you on the dance floor?

I wish that it could be like that

Why can't we be like that? Cause I'm yours

Rayla sighed as Little Mix came on.  ‘Irony. Love it.’  The song rolled over her as the rain continued to pound against her window.  The song hit like a freaking sucker punch to her stomach after the phone call with Viren she had just had.  Her boyfriend, her secret boyfriend, was magically engaged to his childhood friend, Claudia.  ‘I thought Americans didn’t pull this shit.  “Planned since childhood” my ass.’

Rayla looked at her phone and opened it to view her lockscreen.  A pair of the most captivating green eyes she had ever seen was staring back at her.  A wide smile on his face as he held her close. A giant smile was on her own lips and she looked so relaxed it was almost difficult to remember this had been taken only a few days ago.  They had been together for two and a half years and she had genuinely believed they were headed to marriage.

Callum had done a study abroad program in her native Scotland three years ago.  They had become fast friends after a misunderstanding involving his art and someone choosing to deface it before the school art exhibition.  The six months between then and the exhibition had been one filled with late night movies, study sessions, and Rayla trying to convince him that Chinese was the best takeaway while he always complained it wasn’t authentic enough.  Rayla could still remember wearing a nice dress at that first art show as he presented something completely different than the defaced piece and losing her breath as he unveiled a traditional painting of her.  There had been such love and devotion in his brushstrokes it had emboldened her to kiss him when he brought her back to her apartment.  They had been together ever since, even with a giant ocean between them and being unable to go public.

‘Public.’  Rayla hated that word.  Callum’s step-father was, unfortunately, deeply involved in American politics and was currently running for senator.  While Harrow had been open to her, his campaign advisor and close friend, Viren, had discouraged the move.  Rayla didn’t have the refined manners Viren believed was necessary for someone of Callum’s family’s status.  She was a championship fencer at university and was working on starting a career in physical therapy after training to represent the UK in the next Olympics. Why wasn’t she good enough?  Viren’s phone call had to be joke.  

I don't wanna hide us away

Tell the world about the love we making

I'm living for that day, someday

Rayla looked through her newsfeed and saw it.  ‘Callum Evans is engaged to Claudia Nelson.  The couple, currently vacationing in the Scottish countryside, were seen exiting a hotel together this morning.’  No.  This was impossible.  Claudia was gay.  She had a girlfriend.  They had talked about her finally coming out to her dad.  Rayla dropped her phone, screaming into the storm that was crashing against her windows.  

Rayla stood up, almost throwing the blanket Callum had given her off the couch.  Her apartment was covered in his art and pictures of them. She refused to go into her bedroom.  The amount of times she and Callum had made love in there….  She started to pace, startled when the mirror by the door showing her face was covered in tear tracks.  She hadn’t cried this hard since her parents died in a car accident when she was eight and had been taken in by Runaan and Ethari.  

‘I don’t want to hide it anymore, Rayla.  I love you. I don’t want anyone else.’ Callum’s voice floated in her ear, reminding her of just yesterday when he had been over.

“SHUT UP!!!”  Rayla opened the window.  In a few minutes, she was drenched from the rain blowing in.  “YOU LIED!”  A few hiccupping sobs escaped her.  “You lied…”

---------------------------------

Why can't I say that I'm in love?

I wanna shout it from the rooftops

I wish that it could be like that (I wish)

Why can't we be like that? Cause I'm yours

Callum stared door at the carpet.  “Viren, no.  You can’t do this.”

Viren sighed, like Callum was a child and not a 22-year-old man.  “Callum, you and Claudia are a much better match than you and Ms. Burrows.”

“Claudia’s in a relationship, too, you know.”  Callum’s eyes widened a bit, playing it back in his head.  ‘OK, didn’t out her.’

“I’m aware.  I told her to break it off.  It’s unnecessary.”

“What is?  Us being happy?”  

“Happiness is overrated.”

“Says the man who let his wife walk away because he was incapable of taking more time out for her.”

Viren was silent for a moment.  Callum knew it was a low blow, but he didn’t care.  “That was uncalled for.”

“I’m not marrying Claudia. I was planning on proposing to Rayla. The whole reason I came to Scotland for this vacation was to do that.”  Claudia had tagged along to see her own girlfriend, but Callum had barely seen Claudia since they had landed at the airport.

“When are you going to realize there is no future there?”

“You’ve barely said two words to Rayla.  How do you know there is no future there?”

“Because when I called her to tell her the news, she didn’t seem all that upset.”

Callum’s chest constricted. “You called her?”

“Well, someone had to.”

“Before telling me what you’re planning?”

“It’s going to be in all the major newspapers very soon.  Ah. Speak of the devil.  It’s already up.”  Callum turned to his laptop and went to type his name in the search bar.  First result was an announcement that he and Claudia were engaged.  The picture was from this morning and from when he and Claudia had met by chance. She was off for another date and he was going to pick up Rayla’s ring from Ethari.  It made been made with love by one of her fathers who, miraculously, had been alright with the possibility that Rayla might be moving thousands of miles away to live with him.

“I can’t believe you,” Callum hissed.  “You had no right!”  Lightning flashed out of the corner of his eye.  “Tell them you lied.  Does Claudia even know?”

“Not yet.  She’ll be delighted, I’m sure.  You two have always been close.”

“You know what, Viren? You and Claudia need to have a long conversation about what exactly would make her happy.  But I can guarantee, it isn’t me.  If you won’t tell the networks you made a mistake, I will.”

“You will go through with this.  Your father’s campaign-”

“WHAT?!  How will me marrying a potential OLYMPIAN ruin my father’s reputation?  Explain that to me!  She’s smart, worldly, humble, and she’s great at handling people even though she’s not a people person.  What has she done that makes you so sure she would drag my family down?  Because, from where I’m standing, she’s been nothing short of amazing.  My art has only gotten better since she’s become my muse and she’s opened up my mind to so much more than I ever thought was possible.  Ezran has started making more friends since they started having weekly Skype calls.  Dad has started having stronger pro-immigrant and cultural exchange stances since we started dating.  WHAT HAS SHE DONE THAT’S SO WRONG?!”

“She’s not one of us. She’s lower class, her family has nothing-”

“FUCK YOU.  I have tried to respectful to you because you’ve done a lot for our family.  I don’t know what happened to you, Viren, but you are not who you used to be.  And I hope for your sake, and Soren and Claudia’s, you can find who you once were and be that person again.  I am not marrying Claudia.  Good-bye.”  Callum hung-up before Viren could get in another word edgewise.  “Shit.”  Callum sighed for a moment, sitting on the bed.  “I should have stayed with Rayla.  Maybe if I had, when she got that call…  FUCK.” Callum leapt off the bed, grabbing his rental keys and jacket as he ran out the door.  “I’m coming, Rayla.”

-----------------------------

Why can't we be like that?

Wish we could be like that

Rayla walked unsteadily down the street, silent sobs racking her body.  The rain was pelting her and had neither a coat on or was using an umbrella. The streets were empty except for the occasional car.  The rainstorm was keeping everyone inside.  She was probably going to get sick, but she couldn’t be in that apartment.  It was too full of happy, hopeful memories.  Rayla ran a hand down her naked ring finger on her left hand.  She had been so sure Callum was planning on proposing.  ‘Maybe Viren’s talking out his ass?’  

Rayla kept almost calling Callum, to beg him to tell her that this was all part of some sick plot by Viren.  But, her heart would probably give out if he told her it was true.  She wasn’t sure she would survive seeing wedding pictures of Callum with anyone else.  “I just want to hold you….why is that too much to ask?”

“It’s not.”  Rayla almost didn’t hear him over the rain. She turned her head to see Callum, drenched, next to a still running car.  “Ray…”

“Is it true?”

“No.  Viren went ahead and did what he wanted.”  Callum fumbled with his pocket.  “FUCK.  It’s back at the hotel.  I got Ethari to make a ring for you.”  Rayla’s heart stuttered for a beat before pounding in her chest.  “Rayla Burrows, I don’t want anyone else.  I’m so sorry about Viren, but he does not speak for me.” Callum stepped towards her, taking her had.  “I don’t have the ring on me, but would you marry me?  I’ll let you pick out the takeout every night, even awful Chinese, if you let me prove to you that this was just a blip.  I won’t let anyone come between us.”

Rayla looked into his eyes. “Promise?”

“Yes.  I never wanted to keep us a secret and I am so, so sorry I let anyone convince me that it was for the best.  I thought it would be better for you because my childhood was not always a happy one.  The press is cruel and demanding.  But you are the strongest, bravest, most wonderful, beautiful person I’ve ever met. I would be the biggest idiot on the planet if I let you go without begging you for a chance to make this up to you.”

“Yes.”  

“Yeah?”  Callum’s eyes went wide as hope filled them.

“Yeah,” Rayla nodded. She could feel the tears combining with the rain as Callum pulled her into a kiss.  When they finally pulled away, Rayla looked at the car.  “My place?”

“Hotel first.  I want to see that ring on your finger before anyone starts making absurd claims I’m cheating on Claudia.”

“Claudia.  What are we going to do about that?”

“We’ll just call it a misunderstanding.  I’m sure there’s enough video evidence throughout the city that proves we’ve barely interacted since landing.”

“OK.  Take me to this ring you just promised me.”

“My pleasure.”

-------------------------------

‘Yesterday, we announced Callum Evans was engaged to Claudia Nelson, the daughter of his father’s campaign advisor.  This has been proven to be false.  Apparently, Viren Nelson, Claudia’s father, accidentally gave his daughter’s name when delivering the news that Callum was engaged to Rayla Burrows.  Ms. Burrows is a Scottish fencer who is bound for the Olympics.  The two have been in a relationship for two and a half years.  Claudia Nelson is also engaged to her Australian-born, UK-based girlfriend, Zaras Smith.  Congratulations to both happy couples.’

[porscheczar110]

Rayllum Narcos AU Part 3

Part three of the Narcos Modern AU! Apartment living, sickness, and Rayla being protective.

Read on AO3 here!

11. Of Moonshadow

For the umpteenth time in the past few months, Callum found himself crumpling up pieces of paper detailing his untimely demise. There was always something about La Sombra de Luna . As if he even knew what any of those words meant. And he wasn’t about to ask his dad or Rayla.

If Rayla knew someone was after him, she’d go around on a rampage until the perpetrator was dealt with. If his dad knew… Well, he wasn’t actually sure what would happen if his dad knew he was being targeted because of his associations. And he didn’t want to find out.

He shrugged as he tossed the crumpled words into his backseat. He’d worry about it later. He had a big exam coming up. If someone were to take him out right now, he wasn’t exactly sure it would be a bad thing. This test was scary, and if he were dead, he wouldn’t really have to worry about any more tests.

It was a nice thought.

And so the paper pile in his backseat grew. Once he was done with his test, he figured he’d go back and clean out his car. As soon as his radio was turned on, all worries about the threats disappeared. Besides, whoever was trying to terrorize him would’ve done something by now. Why wait for so long? It’s not like he was getting any younger.

Soon enough, he was pulling into the parking lot of one of the malls. He’d offered to pick Rayla up so they could go study and eat after she did something at the mall. He’d wanted to inquire. However, the look on her face told him he’d get a horribly vague answer that would leave him more curious and annoyed than if he hadn’t asked at all.

She opened the backseat door to drop off her backpack. “Hey,” she greeted warmly, and Callum felt his insides flutter.

She was the best.

He began to list places they could eat, study, or both. He was terrible at making eatery decisions, or decisions of any kind in general, so he usually left it up to Rayla. He waited expectantly for her to respond, but at the extensive silence, he glanced back. The papers were unfurled, and she clutched a few in her hands.

“Uh, Ray?” he asked tentatively.

Her head jerked up, amethyst eyes boring into his soul it seemed. There was a sort of fury burning in them, and he knew some of it was aimed at him. “You have had threats on your life for what looks like months , and you didn’t bother to tell anyone ?”

Wow, he didn’t like that tone.

“I have a major test coming up?” he tried, realizing how weak it sounded to his own ears.

“ Months , Callum,” she snapped, aggressively collecting all the litter. “And if I don’t know, then I’m sure as hell that no one else does. And that is no bueno , dude.”

“Yeah,” he laughed awkwardly. “ No bueno. Not good. But I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“Every second you—” She cut herself off with a sound of disgust. “Forget it. I’m not wasting my breath. Take me to your father.”

The words sent chills through him. “No, no . Not my dad. He’s going to have a fit.” He tried to keep the whine out of his voice, but her stoic expression indicated he had failed miserably.

“Do you think I give a shit about that right now? We’re going.” She slammed the back door and marched over to his driver’s side. She then yanked open his door and opened an arm, waiting for him to get out. He had half the mind to resist, but why? He would just do as she asked anyways. So, with feet dragging and much pouting, he found himself in front of his estate.

“I’m going to talk to Harrow. You do what you want.”

She grabbed the handle to get out, and Callum stopped her. “ El Rey and La Sombra de Luna . What are they? The papers keep mentioning them.”

She pursed her lips, fingers tapping the steering wheel. “The King and the Moonshadow.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know the called my dad the King. Always wondered, but I guess it makes sense? So, then what’s the other thing?”

“Not what. Who. Me.”

“They call you Moonshadow?”

“Yes.” The answer was curt, unlike his usual Rayla. When he glanced over at her, her knuckles were white, wrapped around the steering wheel instead of thumping on it like earlier.

“You know I’m going to ask why.”

“I work at night. Move like a shadow. It’s not very original.” The twist in her lips made him think otherwise, but it was a good enough answer.

At least for now.

“Now let’s go talk to your dad. Maybe you’ll listen to his hissy fit.”

“To be fair,” Callum pointed out, “You didn’t really throw a fit.”

She slouched slightly and sighed. “If I threw a fit every time you did something stupid, it would be my eternal state of being.”

“True,” he nodded. In a weird way, he enjoyed it when she flipped her lid.

Because it meant she, big bad sicario and all, cared.

12. Of Germaphobe

Callum was tired. Tired to his bones . He couldn’t scrub any harder if he tried. He collapsed onto the tile of Rayla’s bathroom, groaning. Eventually, she appeared in the doorway, hands on her hips and slightly frowning.

“What are you whining about now?”

“Look, I get that you like things clean. But bleaching down everything in the damned apartment is a little excessive. I love you and your germaphobe tendencies to death, but I don’t actually want to die anytime soon. And I especially don’t want to die with the smell of bleach and Fabuloso cleaner haunting me.”

“And now he thinks I’m a germaphobe,” she murmured to herself in disbelief.

“I don’t think . I know . I’ve seen the way you obsess over your car! I’ve literally seen you tear out and replace the carpet because of soda stains. You’re always cleaning the handles from the doors and seatbelts and the trunk. I appreciate your cleanliness. No,” he said as she opened her mouth, “No, I really do. But come on .”

“Cal—”

“And!” he added, getting fired up, “You and your showers . When you move in, you have to help me pay the water bill, Ray.”

“Wait, you want me to move in with you?”

The burning from Callum’s blushing was soothed by the tile he was still sprawled on. “I—Uh, yes. I was going to ask you soon. This is not how I pictured it.”

She raised an eyebrow and her smirk blossomed into a blinding smile. “It’s a very ‘you’ thing to do.” She squatted and wrapped her hand around his ankle. The place of contact felt like it was on fire, and he realized there was nothing he wouldn’t do for his assassin.

A scary thought, but something about the way her eyes were boring into his own made him think she felt the same way.

“But back to the matter at hand before I get sidetracked by you. Showers.”

She leaned over the tub and turned the knob on. It was then that Callum noticed red pouring down the drain. “I’m not a germaphobe,” she laughed.

“No, of course, you aren’t. You’re a sicario ,” he surmised with a nod of his head. “And sicarios can get kind of messy, huh?”

Now it made sense. She wasn’t a germaphobe, but no one liked walking around bloody and dirty from their most recent hit.

He could get behind that.

Still didn’t mean he’d be paying for the water bill.

13. Texts

Callum was not a jealous person. He had his flaws, but jealousy was not one of them. Rayla liked to joke it was because he had been given everything he wanted, and more, throughout his lifetime. But that was bound to be his life when Harrow was the El Chapo of Katolis. Although, when Callum had said as much to Ray, she’d laughed in his face.

“Nah,” she said thoughtfully, “Harrow is bigger than that. They don’t call him El Rey for nothing. ”

He had to admit ‘King Harrow’ had a great ring to it. In another lifetime, Callum had the sense that his stepfather had been a ruler of sorts. Maybe it was the way he carried himself, the things he said. His dad was an old soul.

Another buzzing came from Rayla’s phone, and Callum snapped back to the present.

Ah, yes. He wasn’t jealous or suspicious. But one couldn’t blame his annoyance by the nonstop buzzing and beeping and calls and video calls and DMs and IMs and PMs and—

Another buzz.

Callum approached the table to get his drink, tempted to flip her phone over so the constantly lit screen and blinking light at the corner would stop bugging him. As his hands wrapped around the cool glass of his cup, her phone went off again. He couldn’t help reading the name that flickered across the screen, but he didn’t bother with the message. He could care less.

Runaan .

It was always this Runaan guy. And if it wasn’t him, then it was Star Boy or Tinker. And it was always nonstop. How did Rayla put up with this? Was she being harassed? Did he need to lay down the law?

He laughed at the thought. She could take care of herself better than anyone. If it bothered her, it wouldn’t be bothering her anymore because she would’ve already dealt with it. Honestly, she’d have dealt with problems Callum had before he even realized they were problems.

His sigh was dreamy at the thought of her.

And then another ping .

Rayla returned, two bowls of cereal and some blueberries cradled in her arms. She placed them down on the table and grabbed her phone, grimacing at the notifications on her screen. Her exhale was so forceful, he felt it.

“Everything okay?” he tried.

She looked at him and nodded slowly. “it’s nothing new. It never is.”

“Look, I’m not jealous—”

A smile began creeping across her face. “Isn’t that what a jealous person would say?”

“Ray! No, stop. Focus.”

“Are you telling me to focus or yourself?”

Were the tips of his ears on fire? They definitely felt like they were. “I just was wondering who they were. Out of curiosity. Because I’m curious, you know?”

“Uh huh. If that’s what you want to call it, Lover Boy.”

He stuck his bottom lip out in annoyance. She was so cute. “Damnit, you could get away with murder,” he muttered.

“I do, but go off I guess.”

Oh, yeah. All the assassin business.

“Wait, stop distracting me.”

She rolled her eyes and nodded in resignation. “Runaan and Tinker are my superiors and very married. I would say it’s cute, but I barely have the stomach for our PDA, much less anyone else's.”

He laughed, “Yeah right. You’re a big softie. You cried when I brought you one of Zym’s babies.”

“She is so cute! And you cried, too,” Ray reminded him smugly.

“Alright, that’s enough of that. So Runaan and Tinker. Then Star Boy?”

“Oof,” she huffed, rubbing her chest. “That would be Aaravos.”

When she said nothing more, Callum waved a hand. “And?”

“Nope, that’s all I’ve got,” she shrugged.

“That’s… vague?”

“I know,” she cringed. “But I really have no idea what he is. He’s like a famous ghost or something. Kind of like La Llorona . You know about her, and you hear all sorts of stories. But you don’t really know the truth. Stories is all she is. And stories is all Aaravos is.”

“Okay, you do realize I have no idea who La Llorona is, right?”

She pursed her lips, nodding slowly. “You’re the worst sometimes. La Llorona was a woman who, under varying circumstances, drowned her two children. Cursed for eternity until she finds their bodies, she wanders around crying. That’s what La Llorona literally translates to. The crying woman.”

“Oof,” Callum breathed, shaking his head.

“ Omega oof,” Rayla corrected.

“On that note, can we go out to get froyo?” He was already moving towards the key holder. Froyo made everything better, and he knew Ray felt the same.

“Well, is your VSA on?”

Callum groaned, locking the door behind him. “Really? I do that one time…”

“One time is all it takes. So. Froyo and authentic drag racing?”

He tipped an invisible hat her way. “Name a more iconic duo.”

“Uh, us . Duh.”

He smiled, linking his hand with hers. “Silly me. How could I forget?”

“Also, I would rather drive.”

He was nodding vigorously before she even finished the sentence. “I would much rather you drive, too. Drag racing or not.”

14. Champion sewing

Callum decided he was getting used to living with Rayla. Yes, there were still excessive showers and obnoxious cleanliness, but it was nice having someone there. Actually, it wasn’t nice having someone there. It was nice having Rayla there. Anyone else, and the living arrangement would’ve been a bust. Some days, he couldn’t even believe she’d said yes.

He really was the luckiest man alive. And probably one of the luckiest men in general. Ever.

Given her line of work, she was surprisingly quiet to live with as well. He appreciated that. Sleep was such a sweet and sacred thing to him, and she knew it. Her late nights were his early mornings. Yet, between the two of them, it worked.

“Cal? Cal?”

He mumbled and snuggled deeper into his pillow.

“Callum. Callum .”

“ Fack ,” he cursed, shooting up straight. He lashed out with a barely made fist, unsure of how he was going to fend off robbers.

The infiltrator caught his wrist with a small grunt. “It’s me, Lover Boy,” Rayla said softly.

“What time is it?” Callum grumbled. He went to rub at his eyes, but she had already wiped some of the crusties from the corner of his eye. “Thanks,” he said, interrupted by a yawn.

“I need some help,” she said with a wince.

He wished he was immediately alert and ready for action, but that would be a lie. All he could think to say was, “What freaking time is it?”

Her laugh was low and shy. “A little bit past four?”

“AM?” he deadpanned, barely convincing himself to sit up.

“Yes? As opposed to PM?” She raised an eyebrow.

“You’re the one that woke me up,” he accused. “You don’t get sassing privileges.”

“Sure, sure.” The way she said it wasn’t too reassuring, but he wasn’t about to push the point further.

“Okay, what’s so important that you had to wake me up? Is it another spider? I know how much those freak you out.” Last time she spotted a wolf spider, she screamed so loudly the neighbors called the police. Imagine explaining to them that the big, bad sicario was deathly afraid of spiders. What a night that had been.

“ No ,” she said, and he could see the beginnings of an embarrassed blush. Dang, that was one of his favorites. Embarrassed Rayla, one of the best Raylas. “You did some sewing in high school, right?”

“Actually, I knitted. Won an award for best design. It was a dragon—”

“Okay, that’s great, dear. But not now. You can show it to me later. And stop staring at me like that. I’m not going to stop talking anytime soon.”

“Ugh,” he groaned, covering his eyes against the flood of light. “End me.”

“Shush, you big baby. Now, into the bathroom. Come along.” She dragged him to the bathroom, sitting him on the toilet cover. She watched him carefully as she removed his jacket. His eyes immediately caught the still growing bloodstain on her abdomen. The world tilted a little bit, and bile rose.

“Oh no,” he mumbled, covering his mouth.

“Don’t tell me you’re still squeamish around blood.”

He was afraid if he opened his mouth to respond, he would release the contents of his stomach all over her. Something told him that would help neither of their moods. Quite the opposite, actually.

“Callum, love, look at me. I need your help. Those asshats hit my sewing hand, so I feel like I have four fingers right now. I can’t patch myself up, and we need to stop the bleeding before I go into shock. You’re all I’ve got.”

He focused on staring at her face, tracing the planes as best he could. He gave her a dopey, barely-there smile. She was such a sweetheart. Dangit if she didn’t steal his heart anew every now and then. It wasn’t fair. No one should be that magnetic.

She swayed a bit, and he was brought back to reality. “No, I-I—”

“ Please . It’s time to put those knitting skills to good use!” She was strangely optimistic. Given he’d just woken up, her odd cheerfulness made his head hurt.

“Hell no. It’s not happening. I’m calling Claudia. She’s a med student. She’ll know what to do.” Panic was starting to settle.

“She’ll have questions. What are we supposed to say?”

“That you’re a sicario, and your hit today went a little rough. Honesty is the best policy.”

“I can’t believe you,” she said, shaking her head.

“Okay, then you’re terrified of hospitals.”

“No, I’m not? I thought you just said honesty—”

“ Claudia doesn’t need to know that. You’re deathly afraid of hospitals, and we got mugged. So, instead of going to one and freaking you the hell out, I called Claudia. Sounds good?”

“Well, why do you look fine?”

Callum ran a hand through his hair. “Alright, we aren’t the ones that got mugged. I wasn’t with you. You were out with one of your friends. But they took them to the hospital because they aren’t a big wussy.” He crossed his arms, staring at his feet intently.

Rayla pursed her lips, nodding slowly. “That’s… actually a really good idea?” He heard a squelch as her palm pressed against her side, and he was woozy all over again.

“I’m calling her right now.”

He had to give Claudia credit. She didn’t flinch at the story, the wound, or anything that happened that night, really. Everything got sorted out mostly. And Rayla was alright once the bleeding was stopped and the bullet was out. It was almost nine in the morning by the time the pair fell into their bed. Who knew blackout curtains worked so well? He could see nothing but felt the warm comfort of Rayla.

He knew he was home.

Just as he was about to drift off, a thought struck him. “Oh my God, Rayla?”

“Hm?” she hummed, very near as dead asleep as he wanted to be.

“I could’ve just called the family doctors. We have three that are active at all hours for everything and anything. We even have one for… ‘family business.’ I’m so stupid . How could I forget?”

“Oh geez, Cal. Of course you’d have four doctors on call. Of course you have a doctor for druggie business. And of course you’d forget. But we’ll call them next time.”

“Next time?” He couldn’t keep the whine out of his voice.

“Of… course.” Her breathing slowed, and he knew he’d get nothing more out of her that morning.

Maybe he wasn’t getting as used to living with her as he’d previously thought.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Uncoupling

I love comparing and contrasting the Three Dads in TDP: Viren, Harrow, and Runaan. On top of these being the parents of the main characters in the show, influencing their earliest habits and beliefs, anything that has more than two sides is super interesting to me, thematically and creatively. So here’s a fun thing I realized last week. And by fun, I mean angsty and sad.

Viren, Harrow, and Runaan--presumably in that order--make complicated choices that separate them from their spouses on essentially a permanent basis. That separation is always physical, but not always emotional. But each decision can be simplified down to one basic theme:

They let someone into their lives, trusted them for all that they could bring to their marriage, and then, one day, they stopped listening to them.

In each case, the men thought they were choosing something hard but correct. But in each case, they were wrong. 

Viren and his wife divorced, and she left the kingdom and her children behind in order to find happiness again. We don’t know the whole story there yet, but we do know Viren pretty well. He’s a genius who puts his feelings toward saving as much of his world as he can, and he doesn’t always make the right call on how to do that. In fact, he’s been making a series of really bad calls for a while now, and he’s been losing the things he’s trying to protect along the way. 

That started with his wife. His strongest supporter and his partner. Without her, he threw himself into dark magic even further, for the sake of Harrow and the kingdom, because that’s what he had left to protect. But without her guidance, he came up with plans that involved wild notions like invading Xadia and killing a snoozing Magma Titan who was just trying to live his life, and risking notice by Avizandum.

Harrow followed that plan because he didn’t listen to Sarai. She literally fought with him over it, and she couldn’t convince him to let it go (that’s gonna sound familiar in a second). Harrow only saw the Narrative of Strength and took the easy route of believing Viren when he said this was the only way. Sarai, unlike Viren’s wife, stuck with her man, because these specific circumstances lent themselves to her skills: she’s a warrior queen. So she went out to support her husband, lend her hand to the task, and help her people. And she died for it, and Harrow lost her anyway. Permanently.

Runaan insisted on allowing Rayla on his assassin mission despite her youth, even though Ethari tried his best to convince him that she wasn’t the right sort of person for that job. Just like Sarai, Ethari fought with Runaan--though probably not literally--but he couldn’t convince him to let it go, either. Just like Harrow, Runaan couldn’t see past what he thought needed to happen to give balance back to his world: I take my loved one and kill someone with her on the other side, and then everything will be fine. And though Ethari didn’t accompany him like Sarai did Harrow, he did make Rayla her own swords and let her go on the mission.

And then Rayla did fail Runaan, and he was captured and presumed dead, and Ethari’s heart broke. They’re currently separated, and we have no idea if they’ll make it back together again, and what it’ll be like if they do. Runaan’s hard heart might have irreparably damaged their relationship, especially if he’s not sorry.

I’m saying there’s an established pattern that ends in spousal loss every time. Even if Runaan is freed, he may retreat even further into the Narrative of Strength, like Viren and Harrow, and Ethari won’t be able to reach him there.

But listen. Listen. This story isn’t over. Sarai has died. But Viren’s wife is actually still alive, and so is Ethari. That’s two out of three. So maybe, maybe, that’s an avenue for redemption for two of these dads. For the two who are still alive. 

Ethari definitely still loves Runaan, and he’s been trying to save him since the moment they met. That may just take a different form than either of them expected. Physical saving, yes, yay, but Runaan needs his soul saved here. He needs to choose the other narrative. And so does Viren. And the people they let closest to them are the ones who have the best chance at helping them do that. To understand that it’s actually necessary.

I’m saying I want Viren’s wife to come back and kick his ass into a redemption arc. Y’all know I already want that for Runaan, and Ethari can absolutely kick Runaan’s ass there. Boot these guys, shake them up, help them remember that they can change their narrative. That their destinies are books they write themselves.

Harrow died because he didn’t listen to Sarai, his trusted partner and beloved ally in life. He turned his back on her advice, and he kept his back turned for nine years. And it got him killed, too.

But Viren’s still kicking, and so is Runaan. Aaravos isn’t going to have Viren’s best interests at heart, but Viren’s ex still might, for the sake of what they had, or for their kids. Ethari definitely still wants what’s best for Runaan. Viren’s ex might not be willing to pay enough. Ethari will probably want to pay whatever it takes. There are some issues there. But like Ezran said, there is hope.

All three dads were wrong because they were each following the Narrative of Strength instead of the Narrative of Love. You can have the purest motives in the world--and they all did--but the actions you take choose your narrative. 

The two spouses we’ve seen definitely live in the Narrative of Love, so Viren’s ex probably does, too. All of these pairings are Strength/Love. And Strength is winning, at the cost of its Love. Strength is winning because it thinks that’s how it should go. Someone needs to win. But Love doesn’t want a winner. Love wants a partnership, a balance, peace and understanding.

In this story, in these three marriages, the Narrative of Strength is tearing couples apart. And from those breaks come so much of the tragedy we’ve seen. It hurts the Love partner, it hurts the Strength wielder, it hurts their families, and it hurts their world.

So I’m looking at Rayla and Callum and begging them to both stay in the Narrative of Love. Especially Rayla. Please don’t harden up, or Callum will get hurt, because he’s the Soft One. Don’t follow Runaan down that road, follow Ethari. Don’t make the mistakes of your parents’ generation, don’t turn your back on the one person you let closest into your heart. Listen to him. You chose Callum for a reason. Trust him to be right about the things he’s good with. 

Love’s power comes from trust and connection. On the journey. Strength only cares about results. We gotta put in the time to get things right. Snap decisions are bad, and doubling down on them because it’s easy is worse.

All these dads broke the loving trust they had because they were too hard. That’s just one more thing Rayllum needs to work hard to do differently than their parents did. Or they’ll just end up repeating the cycle of pain, loss, and bad decisions.

[rxyllum]

All of Our Days

Summary:

Small snippets of life after the war.

(Based off of my “rayllum headcanons” post)

—

Pairings:

Rayllum

—

Notes:

This started off as a small drabble, but ended up being much longer, a bit over 5,000 words. Please note that most of this was written last night after school cuz I had bits of inspiration I didn’t want to lose (so several parts might be a bit rushed).

I’ll probably go back, add a few things, and edit it later, but for now here’s the final version of the first draft.

—

All of Our Days

—

It started off simple. A small, slowly growing flame that often diminished to the point of almost non-existence.

But it was there, and when Rayla first realized what was happening she pushed the feelings as deep into her subconscious as possible.

They had a mission, they had to return the dragon prince to his mother. Nothing more, nothing less.

Their time together would eventually end. She wasn't going to fall in love.

•  •  •

Callum didn't know exactly when he began developing feelings for Rayla. He just knew that it was a silly crush, and it would pass eventually.

After all, who wouldn't like the sarcastic, smart, funny, intelligent, cute, awkward, amazing, talented elf in that way.

When the crush wasn't fading, Callum began to grow concerned. It was as if, with every passing day, his love grew and grew.

He'd fallen down a deep hole called love, and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to leave.

•  •  •

When they first revealed their feelings for each other, it was completely by accident.

The dragon prince had been returned to his mother, and the dragang had finally returned to Katolis, where Harrow had managed to escape Viren's curse and return to his rightful place at the throne. Peace negotiations were being made, and a formal celebration was held at Katolis' main ballroom, where several political leaders — both human and elf — had gathered for peace treaty negotiations.

There had been several people around their age as well, and they even managed to get a message out to Ellis, who joined Ezran in exploring secret passageways and stealing jelly tarts throughout the night.

The problem was the elves and humans around Callum and Rayla's age. The elves were the children of high-ranking Xadia elves, and the humans the children of nobles.

Callum had left Rayla for a split-second to grab the two of them drinks (moonberry juice, of course) when a random human girl approached him, laughing flirtatiously at something he said. The dress she wore was much more extravagant than Rayla's (there was no way anyone was getting her into one of those frilly ball gowns, and it had taken Claudia hours to convince Rayla to wear the corset-less sea foam colored one she had on), and Rayla's heart seemed to burn at the sight of Callum's awkward laughter and silent glance he sent her way.

It was a plea for help, one she'd seen several times on their short journey together.

And so, Rayla approached them, taking one glass of moonberry juice from Callum's hand, and then replacing the empty space with her own hand.

The girl seemed to falter at the sight of the elf, who simply smiled in return. The humans could hate her all they wanted, but that didn't mean she had to give them valid reasons to hate her.

The conversation dwindled, and the human girl eventually left to join her other human girls, whom Rayla could clearly hear gossiping about the stuck-up elf that had interrupted her conversation with the prince, who was close to marrying age.

Seeing how awkward the conversation with the other girl had made him made a spark of jealously fill her chest, and she gave his hand a comforting squeeze, which he returned.

They didn't separate after that, not until Harrow approached them and asked Rayla to find Ezran, as both princes were needed for a diplomatic address. Rayla nodded, quickly saying farewell to Callum and making her way out of the ballroom and to the secret passage Ezran had shown her earlier.

"It's the best one to steal jelly tarts at events," he'd told her. She could only assume that's where he and Ellis had made their base.

Sure enough, he was there, and she sent him off to find the king. Ezran and Ellis stealthily slopped our through a ballroom vent as Rayla made her way to the less conspicuous entrance, a ways away from the party.

When she exited and let a tapestry fall over the hidden doorway, she heard voices.

"I can't believe they let elves into the castle!"

"I know right? And that one who was hanging out with the prince, how on Earth did she manage to earn his trust?"

"Probably some weird voodoo magic they use in Xadia."

She bit her lip. The voices were coming from around the corner, in the passageway that led back to the ballroom.

"Are you sure you saw her come out here? What if she never left the ballroom, then we'd be missing the king's speech for nothing."

"Oh hush, she's out here. We just have to find out what she's doing and ruin her reputation so that the prince sees she's nothing but a lowly elf who doesn't deserve his time."

She turned to face the tapestry, maybe Rayla could just hide out in the passageway until they left. Unfortunately, they had different plans.

Before she could make any decision, the girls turned the corner, spotting the elf standing there awkwardly.

There was a long moment of silence, before Rayla lifted her chin, and began walking past them.

A hand flew out to stop her shoulder, sharp, filed nails digging into her exposed skin.

"You're that one elf girl, correct?" she asked.

Rayla recognized her as the one who's been talking to Callum.

"I'm sorry?" Rayla replied, suddenly aware of how much her accent stood out compared to the girls.

The girl rolled her eyes — which were a surprisingly sharp blue — and went on to mimic her voice, "'Ah-m soh-ray', oh shut up. You know what I mean."

Rayla stared at the girl in surprise, before commencing to look them up and down.

She could easily take them out, even without her weapons — which were tucked away back in her temporary room. A simple sweep under the legs and they'd be out of commission. They were the ones who'd chosen to wear heels instead of flats.

But if she did that they'd undoubtably twist the story, saying she attacked out of nowhere, and the humans would be outraged and war would start again.

And so, she remained silent, throwing a small glare over her shoulder.

The girl's grip on her shoulder tightened, Rayla ignored the growing pain. She survived having a binding slowly crushing her wrist, this was nothing.

"I mean, really. What does the prince see in an elf?"

Her hand released Rayla's shoulder, leaving several small, red lines forming thin crescent shapes. What happened next was worse than the pain.

The girl reached to the thin, see-through layer that stretched across the surface of her dress' base. In one swift, clean motion that suggested she'd done this before, a large tear was ripped in the expensive material.

One of the other girls gasped, "Kathleen—"

"Oh, please, Charlotte, as if the elf would risk telling anyone. If she does we'll just play the victim rout, should be easy enough."

Rayla simply stared at the dress, slowly taking several steps backwards. The now-loose fabric dragged along the ground, and Rayla's foot caught onto it, the sound of ripping fabric filling the air as she fell back and hit the wall behind her.

"You know, rags really do suit you," the blue-eyed girl continued, the one the other girl had deemed Kathleen.

It was a blur on what happened after that, but Rayla did recall a simple notion filling her mind.

Don't lash out, don't lash out.

An elf couldn't afford to hurt them.

It ended when Rayla's fear got the better of her, and an arm flew out, hitting the nearest object — or in this case, human.

When Rayla opened her eyes, she saw the shocked faces of four girls. Kathleen's cheek was a bright red, and a thin line slowly began to grow where Rayla's hit had sliced open the girl's cheek.

The look of confusion slowly gave way to that of anger. Of pure, blistering rage.

She hoisted up her dress, turning on her heels and making her way down the hall, her three friends following, their voices hushed and terrified.

Rayla took in a deep breath, swallowing back the tears that threatened to escape her eyes. Rayla slowly pulled herself to her feet, slowly looking down to examine the damage.

Her dress was a mess. The jewels that had been carefully sewn into the hems were loose, several had scattered on the floor around her. The lower parts of her dress had huge gashes exposing her legs. The cuffs that had been positioned on her arms were bent, one was missing. Her necklace, one made by Runaan's boyfriend for the occasion, had been forcefully yanked off of her neck and lay shattered on the floor, where one of the girls had "accidentally" stepped on it.

And so, Rayla collected the fallen gems, slipped them into her pockets, and began making her way away from the ballroom.

It was cold out. Scattered leaves lined the entrance to the garden. Callum had mentioned the place once before, when she'd seen a drawing he'd done of it. It looked much different in autumn, when the flowers weren't in bloom and all of the plants were dying.

Rayla found herself falling to a sitting position on a bench, her eyes stinging as she tried desperately to hold back tears.

She would not cry. She would not cry. She would not cry.

A sob escaped her lips.

Rayla hates crying. The feeling of pain in her chest was an immense, crushing feeling, and the tears blurred her vision to the point of blindness.

She really was pathetic to think she'd be able to attend without some jealous, racists ruining it for her.

Her breath fogged in the air around her, and the cold pricked painfully at her skin as wind raced through the empty garden.

She didn't know how long she sat out there, alone, but when someone finally found her she'd cried out all of her tears.

Callum dropped his suit's jacket over her bare shoulders, blocking the chilly air from hitting her and providing her with an extra layer of warmth. He sat next to her on the stone bench, letting his head fall into his hands. They sat in silence for several minutes, neither of them wanting to break the comfortable silence they were accustomed to. They'd walked all the way to Xadia together, they were used to silence.

"We missed you at dad's speech."

Rayla nodded.

"He mentioned you. The brave elf who helped escort us safely to and from Xadia, returning the dragon prince to his rightful home."

She nodded again.

"A few minutes after the speech ended a girl around our age came in screaming about an elf attacking her."

"Kathleen?"

"Yeah. She was bleeding."

They fell into another silence, before Callum unconsciously moved closer to Rayla, trying to obtain any possible heat.

"I'm guessing there's a second side to the story."

Rayla had thought she'd cried enough tears, but her eyes had other plans. At what Callum said, tears began flowing all over again.

"She ruined your dress, didn't she?"

"I'm sorry," Rayla managed to choke out, "they'd cornered me, and I panicked! Okay? I didn't even know what I'd done until it was over!"

Callum wrapped his arms around her shoulders, "She'll be banned from all future events. When people see what she'd done to you they won't be able to protest."

"And why would they believe the word a lowly elf?"

"You're not— Rayla, you're more than just a 'lowly elf', you helped end a war!"

Rayla turned to face the boy at her side, "And  what does that matter to them? There are centuries worth of hatred that isn't just going to be undone by some silly treaty!"

"Then we'll make them understand somehow," Callum suggested, "that'll be our next adventure, re-associating the two races and ending the stupid superstitions about bloodthirsty monsters."

Rayla laughed, "Because I'm positive they'll listen to an awkward prince and his elf friend he loves to annoy."

In response, Callum smirked, "You know you love me!" he teased.

"And you know you love me too!"

"Of course I do!"

The two suddenly paused, realization dawning on what they'd just accidentally said.

"W-wait!"

•  •  •

So far dating in secret was a huge success. The only others who knew were Ezran and Bait, which made sense, since they were the most epic group of friend on the face of the Earth.

Ezran had freaked out when they told him, saying "finally!" and "it was about time" without hesitation. He then declared that it was a "Romeo and Juliet" scenario after they explained how their relationship would work.

"Are you sure this place is safe?" Callum asked, his voice cracking as he narrowly avoided a spider web that just happened to be in the middle of the path.

"Ezran explores these passages all the time, we'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say, you're an epic, badass, monster-slaying assassin. I'm just a guy with a sketchbook."

"Oh hush, you love being the guy with the sketchbook."

"That would be true."

The hallway Ezran had showed them was similar to the one that led to Viren's old evil lair, only much more rarely used. Dust littered the floor, aside from small, Ezran-sized footprints that covered the length of the passageway. Unlit torches lined the wall, and Callum had originally suggested that they used the candle they had for light to ignite them, only to be shot down immediately. There was too much dust and too many cobwebs, it would be asking for disaster.

The room that the passageway led to appeared to be a part of some old shelter, a bunker designed for if war ever broke out or someone invaded the castle. It was obviously now unknown to anyone in the castle other than Ezran and the two of them. Ezran had a way of finding every one of the castle's secrets.

"There's meant to be an exit to a secret garden somewhere in here," Callum mentioned, "Ez told me that behind one of the walls is a staircase leading out to a small, hidden courtyard. There were several other passages along the way, some of which lead out of the castle and city."

"You mean like right here?" Rayla asked, pressing in a stone on the far wall. The bricks began receding to reveal a staircase like the one Callum mentioned.

"How did you do that?!"

"There was a jelly handprint."

"Of course there was."

The two entered the small staircase, ignoring the small passageways and stairs that branches out from the one they were currently on. Eventually moss began appearing on the stone steps, bits on light seeping in from what appeared to be a loosely concealed exit that was covered in roots and vines.

Rayla carefully parted the greenery, her breath catching in her throat as she took in the area around her. Flowers and various plants filled the area, a small tree was growing in the far corner, a small pond formed underneath from the lack of any drainage area.

Callum set their candle down to the side on the steps before following Rayla out of the stairwell. The walls towered high above them, with a few crumbling windows revealing what appeared to be more hidden passages.

"Wow," was all Rayla could manage to say.

"I think this might've been a medicinal garden at one point," Callum mentioned, walking over to one of the green plants that seemed to break out of a border of stone that appeared to be separating different garden plots, "that's aloe, normally used for treating burns and several skin conditions."

"Was it for the bunker below?"

"I guess, this courtyard is really small and not visible from anywhere in the castle, it might've been an emergency area, since there's only roof paneling above it looks like it was made to be practically invisible from the outside. Not even the guard areas can see it."

"It's beautiful here."

"Yeah."

"And, this means no one will be able to find us!" Rayla happily exclaimed, "Which means I won't have to worry about Runaan's unavoidable lectures that would come with dating a human."

The elf smirked, leading to Callum pouting.

"Hey, humans aren't that bad!"

"According to you, a human!"

Callum shoved Rayla's arm, and the two laughed.

He leaned over and pressed a small kiss on her cheek, "I love you."

"I love you too."

•  •  •

Runaan knew.

She had been careless, talking and laughing with Callum like they always did, like what people were used to, then she made the unconscious mistake of reaching out to take his hand. She held his hand, like they always did when walking in hidden passages with no one around to see.

Their conversation had been about something stupid, and then they began talking about art, which eventually led to Callum talking about plans King Harrow had for them to take a diplomatic trip to Xadia. They'd be able to return to her home when she and Runaan left in a few weeks.

She'd turned into a ball of joy, "That's amazing, Callum!"

The stupid elf then forgot that they were meant to be "just friends" and kissed him. Right then and there.

She'd let her guard down, and didn't realize Runaan was walking towards them, from far down the hall.

"Rayla?"

The sound of his voice made her freeze. She'd turned toward the direction of the sound and saw Runaan standing there, a faint look of bewilderment crossing his face.

Rayla had then dropped Callum's hand, and began to run, trusting Callum to do the same.

Callum hadn't run, and later told her that Runaan wanted to speak with her.

Here she was, a week later, still avoiding the elder elf at any possible moment. She'd been avoiding sleeping in her assigned room, instead rotating through random guest rooms that were never used and running every time Runaan appeared.

Today was a problem, however. Runaan decided to chase her.

It was inevitable, really. But she was not ready for this conversation.

Runaan was far more experienced than her, they both knew this, but she knew the layout of the secret passageways better than him.

The only problem was that there were no entrances near where they were.

Oh, for the love of Xadia—

Rayla turned a random corner, making her way out to one of the guard walkways, and jumping over the wall, using her daggers to quickly scale down the wall and into the training courtyard, ignoring the baffled looks of those around her as she ran.

Runaan caught up to her in one of the empty hallways.

Her legs we pulled out from under her, and she went crashing to the floor.

"Rayla," Runaan shouted, "would it kill you to stop running for just one second and listen?"

She rolled onto her back, staring at her mentor with a silent fear in her eyes.

Runaan sighed, "Come in, let's go to a more private place."

The walk back felt like an eternity, and Rayla felt her cheeks redden at every thought of what he'd seen and what he was going to try talking to her about.

They reached her room, and Runaan closed the door behind them, leaning on it casually as if to say "you aren't getting out of this."

The silence was deafening to Rayla.

"So, how long has this been going on?" Runaan finally asked.

"Maybe six months or so, since that one event when my dress was ruined."

"And just how long were you two planning on hiding it?"

Rayla remained silent.

"Rayla—"

"I don't know! Okay?" she shouted, her hands wrapping around her chest in a false sense of comfort, "I don't know how any of this will end, I was just sort of hoping things would find a way to work."

"You do realize that people won't be happy with this."

"Yeah."

"There'll always be someone trying to find fault in both of your actions."

"I know."

"If you ever decide to try having kids they'll face all kinds of discrimination—"

"Okay, ew. Please don't say anything like that ever again."

Runaan let out an emotionless laugh.

"Never change, Rayla."

•  •  •

When they decided to go public with their relationship, Callum had just turned 17. There had been countless rumors beforehand, so it wasn't that big of a shock to anyone (King Harrow had known for almost as long as Runaan, but had decided to let them tell him when they were ready).

There was an outrage, as expected. A mob of protestors appeared outside of the castle gates the very next day, and the two lovebirds decided to run off to their secret garden with Ezran in order to avoid the press.

"So, are we still going to raid the kitchens tonight?" Ezran asked, pushing through the curtain of vines and joining the other two in the small courtyard, Bait clutched securely in his arms.

"Of course! What else are we meant to do on a full moon?"

"You two are ridiculous," Callum signed, letting a hand rest on his forehead, "Ezran, you're the crown prince, just ask for some jelly tarts to be brought to your quarters and you'll have a plate in the next ten minutes."

"But that takes the fun out of it!" the younger boy protested, Rayla nodded in agreement.

"Besides, sooner or later the baker will come to a realization that the sweets disappear only on the full moon, we have to collect as many as possible before they discover our plan," Rayla explained.

Callum rolled his eyes, "Rayla, you know I love you. But why do you insist on using your spooky, magical, epic full-moon mode on stealing jelly tarts?"

"Well, I'm not an assassin anymore, what else am I meant to do with my magic?"

"I don't know, something cool?"

"My dear brother, are you suggesting that stealing jelly tarts in the middle of the night isn't cool?"

"Um, that's not what I meant—"

"I think he is, Ezran," Rayla accused.

Bait croaked in agreement.

"Fine then, we won't share any of our loot with you tonight!"

"But Ez!"

Callum ended up helping with their theft that night.

•  •  •

When Rayla next returned to Katolis, their reunion played out how it usually did. Callum was waiting at the gates when her group of elves arrived, and as soon as she saw him she was sprinting to close their distance. In the next second they were in each other's arms, Callum spinning the elf around before kissing her.

You'd think that by their reunion it had been years since their last meeting. No, Rayla had only been gone for a couple of months.

It was just how they'd grown used to seeing each other again.

The two of them spent around an hour at the castle, talking, before heading off to the city.

The streets of Katolis' capital were crowded with people. It wasn't a surprise, really, considering the fact that the now-annual festival for peace between humans and elves was today.

The late-summer air was filled with the feint chill of winter, though the extra layer of Rayla's cloak dismissed any bit of cold lingering in the air. Callum had painted over her markings with a tan oil, and the gloves on her hand were a much more advanced disguise than the ones she'd used when traveling with the two princes. There was a prosthetic fifth finger, sewn into the glove so that whenever she moved her pinky the extra finger moved as well.

Callum's disguise was much more simple, he'd found a way to create a sort of wig, so that his hair was a dark black instead of brown, and changed into much cheaper clothing. If anyone were to look at them they wouldn't see the crown prince and his moonshadow elf girlfriend, but two random people strolling the streets.

Music drifted throughout the street, with a clearing up ahead holding a dance area. The concrete was covered in various chalks and paints, and there was a group of children creating their own messy artwork on the cobblestone.

"Callum, look," Rayla suddenly said, getting her boyfriend's attention.

In the window of one of the several shops was a painting. It depicted two people, one was a human boy, and one was very clearly a moonshadow elf, or what she assumed the artist thought moonshadow elves looked like. They faced each other, foreheads touching and their hands cupped around what appeared to be a small star, illuminating their faces in a soft glow.

Callum bought the painting on their way back to the palace.

•  •  •

"So when are you going to ask Rayla to marry you?"

The question came as such a surprise that Callum choked on his moonberry juice.

"I'm sorry?"

"You two have been dating for years now. When are you gonna marry her?" Ezran asked again.

He asked it so nonchalantly, before going back to eating another jelly tart.

He turned to look at Rayla, who was currently on the other side of the dining room, conversing with their dad as if he wasn't even a king. It always amazed Callum at how quickly the king took a liking to Rayla, treating her more like family than an elf assassin that once tried to kill him (though she never actually got around to killing him).

"You're eighteen now, you know. Most princes get married at sixteen," Ezran mentioned, stressing the fact that yes, today he turned eighteen. He was officially an "adult".

"Ezran!"

And so, the next several month were spend in a complete and utter mode of panic.

For once he was actually glad Rayla had to return to Xadia for the next month, because he didn't know how he would be able to act around her. Ezran must've known his words had an effect on him, because he kept finding a tray of jelly tarts at the foot of the door that led to Ezran's room most nights.

Still, Callum wasn't able to sleep soundly and act normally until he'd managed to plan out every bit and piece of how he'd propose to Rayla — if that ever even happened.

He accidentally proposed to her a year later.

It wasn't supposed to happen the way it did.

He'd gotten the ring ready and everything, and was confident in his decision, sure. But he just didn't want it to happen in that exact way.

It was meant to be a perfect day. They'd go for a walk through the castle gardens, spend the whole day out in the sun and possibly go swimming before having a late lunch and—

Well, none of that really mattered anymore.

They didn't even make it outside.

When walking through the castle halls, they managed to walk past the place where the two of them first met and, well, it just sorta slipped from his mouth.

"Hey, remember the one time you tried to kill me when I was walking down this very hall?"

"Oh, that was here, right! I'd almost forgotten."

"I'm glad Ez and I aren't dead."

"Me too."

"...ugh I can't do this anymore."

"What?"

"Nothing, I'm just stressed about how I'm going to ask you to marry... me...."

He'd trailed off as he realized what exactly he'd said.

Rayla said yes, of course. But still. It wasn't the best way to ask someone to marry you.

•  •  •

It isn't until years later, we'll after they're married and happy when the subject of children came up.

It took forever for Rayla to get pregnant, and when it looked like she was, she and Callum didn't tell anyone except Harrow, Ezran, Amaya, and Runaan. They didn't want to get the kingdom's hopes up; after all, despite the portion that hated their relationship, the majority seemed to actually ship them. Ezran discovered this when he accidentally found a "black market" dedicated to fanart and fanfiction for his brother and friend.

When it became clear that Rayla definitely was expecting a child, she and Callum cried. They began worrying about the smallest things. Callum wanted to be there for the child, able to live and see them grow, to fill in a needed place that he'd only ever known from Harrow (it occurred to Rayla that Callum didn't know anything about his birth father, other than that Sarai never ended up staying with the man). She was worried about being there for the child as well, worried about not being able to live up to expectations, and not wanting to leave only for someone else to take her place.

Several months later, the child was born.

It was a cold night at the beginning of December, and when she came it was all too clear what her name would be.

After all, it wasn't every day a child was born on the same date as their grandmother.

She was small, much smaller than she would've thought, with fuzzy hair bordering on white, with the occasional dark streak running through it. From what she could tell of her eyes, they were currently a mix of blue and green. She knew that as her daughter grew they'd grow to become a bright emerald green to match his father's. The small trace of horns that had yet to grow in could be felt on her small head. She had five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot, and slightly pointed ears with such pale skin she looked like a ghost.

To Rayla and Callum, their daughter Sarai was perfect in every way, shape, and form.

When Callum left the room to speak with Harrow about all of the small details about the birth (she was a new princess — that was kinda a big deal), Rayla was left with the baby girl.

She moved a small tuff of hair off of the child's forehead, spending time taking in every little detail she could. Small thoughts began filling her mind, about the hate she would eventually receive, how she'll grow up seeing that no one around her looked all that similar, or how no one but her mother seemed to have horns or markings.

A sudden cry bubbled up from the baby, as if Sarai had sensed the unsettling thoughts that drifted throughout Rayla's mind.

"Shh, don't cry," Rayla whispered, holding the child closer, "I know everything is new, and scary, and you have this weird old elf looking at you."

Rayla started to cry, she didn't exactly know why, but once she started, she couldn't stop.

"There are going to be people out there who try to hurt you, because you're different, because you're special," the child's cries slowly faded as Rayla was talking, the baby helplessly opening her eyes and attempting to stare at her mother, "but you're more amazing than any of them will ever be. You know why?"

The child couldn't understand any of this, Rayla knew. Perhaps the words were more for herself than anything else.

"Because you're surrounded by people who will love you, and care for you, and hold you tightly in their arms whenever needed. You're a miracle that most say shouldn't be able to exist. But you're here!"

The baby's eyes closed, and by the soft breaths Rayla guessed that she'd fallen asleep.

"Because your father and I love you so, so much," Rayla leaned down, pressing a soft kiss against her daughter's forehead, "welcome to your life."