I leave you small, precious things ⚘.⋆˚࿔
⚘.⋆˚࿔ ꒰ PEONY — delicate, growth, fleeting, ephemeral dragon hybrid!Sukuna x Fairy!Reader, reader is not super tiny like most fairies are in media but smaller than the average human, sukuna is of course huge so there is a size difference, forest setting, just fluff and softness
°❀.ೃ࿔* This is apart of @st4rlightisa 1k collab event!! I choose the peony prompt, wrote both about an actual peony and the themes behind a peony!!
Dividers by @/saradika-graphics
The forest always knows when you’re coming home.
It hums first, low and subtle like a secret shared between roots beneath the soil. Then the leaves begin to stir. Ferns bend aside as you slip through, wings brushing pollen from the air. Sunset filters down in fractured gold, catching on the shimmer of your silhouette, turning you briefly into something molten and holy.
You land in the clearing just as dusk softens the world.
Sukuna lounges against the broad trunk of an ancient cedar, one massive arm draped lazily over a bent knee. Even seated, he dwarfs the clearing. Crimson scales glint faintly along his shoulders where the last light finds him, and the curve of one horn catches the glow like polished bone. Smoke curls idly from his nostrils, not from anger never with you but from the slow, steady warmth that lives inside him.
His eyes flick toward you the moment your feet brush the moss.
“You’re late,” he rumbles.
You lift your chin, brushing stray strands of hair from your face. “I was gathering.”
His gaze drifts to your hands. You’re holding something carefully, cupped like a treasure.
He sighs, low and long, but there is no heat in it. “You and your trinkets.”
The size difference is always most obvious when you stand this close. You are not as small as the storybooks would insist, your head would reach the chest of an average human but beside him, you are delicate as a sapling beside a mountain. His hand alone could wrap around your waist entirely. His wings, folded behind him, cast long shadows over the clearing like cathedral arches.
Still, he tilts his head down so you don’t have to crane your neck too far.
It’s not large. In fact, compared to his claws, it is almost laughable soft pink petals layered tight and lush, the outer edges kissed by deeper rose. You’ve woven a thin strand of silvery grass around its stem to keep it from bruising.
One scaled brow lifts. “It will wilt.”
“Yes,” you agree gently. “That’s the point.”
He studies you for a long moment instead of the flower.
There are days when he forgets how something so small can hold such stubbornness. You are growth where he is ruin. You are fleeting where he has endured centuries. And yet you return to him every evening with something fragile in your hands, as if daring the world to stay soft.
His massive fingers reach forward, careful-so careful as he plucks the peony from your grasp. The pads of his claws barely graze your skin, but the warmth of him seeps into you anyway.
He brings the bloom closer to his face.
It looks absurd against him, a pastel whisper against red scale and scar. But he does not crush it.
You step closer, until the tip of your nose nearly brushes the curve of his forearm. “Because it’s in full bloom now. Tomorrow it won’t be. I thought you should see it at its most beautiful.”
A faint smirk curves his mouth. “You assume I care about flowers.”
“I assume,” you murmur, reaching out to press your palm flat against his wrist, “that you care because I do.”
The forest exhales around you both. Crickets begin their evening hymn. Somewhere in the canopy, a bird settles its wings.
He shifts, massive body adjusting, and then he lowers himself further until he is nearly reclined on the moss. One enormous wing stretches lazily behind him, creating a sheltered hollow of warmth.
You step into the cradle of his wing without hesitation. The membrane is warm and smooth, faintly translucent where moonlight begins to gather. You sit against his side, your back resting against the solid plane of his ribs. His heartbeat is slow. Immense. Steady as stone.
He places the peony beside you both, tucking the stem carefully into a crevice of bark in the cedar trunk so it stands upright.
“There,” he mutters. “It will watch us rot.”
You laugh softly. “You’re insufferable.”
“And yet,” you repeat while giggling
You tilt your head back to look at him. From this angle, he fills your entire sky horns etched against twilight, sharp features softened only by the quiet of this place. His gaze is already on you. There is something unguarded in it.
“You disappear all day,” he says, voice quieter now. “Flitting from grove to grove. I could lose you in a moment.”
You reach up, brushing your fingers along the underside of his jaw where scales give way to warmer skin. He goes still at the contact.
“That does not mean the world will always let you.”
Your smile falters, just slightly. You shift, turning fully toward him. “The world doesn’t get to decide that.”
His eyes narrow faintly, but not in anger more in thought. You place both hands on his cheek now, your small palms barely spanning it.
“I leave you small, precious things,” you whisper. “Flowers. Feathers. Stones shaped like hearts. Not because they last.”
He exhales slowly, warm air stirring your hair.
“But because they don’t,” you finish. “Because they remind you that something can be soft and still worth holding.”
For a long moment, neither of you move.
Then, carefully so carefully it happens. He lowers his head.
His lips brush yours in a kiss that is more warmth than pressure. More promise than hunger. You feel the restrained strength in him, the tension of a creature who could split mountains choosing instead to barely touch.
Your wings flutter instinctively, catching against his cheek.
He hums a deep, pleased sound that vibrates through your bones.
When he pulls back, it is only an inch.
His thumb, large and ridged slides gently along your waist, resting there. Protective. Possessive, but in a way that feels like shelter rather than cage.
“Then I will collect them,” he says quietly. “Every small, foolish thing you bring me. I will line this forest with them if I must.”
“You’ll run out of trees.”
“I won’t run out of time.”
There it is again that contrast. You, who measure life in blossoms. Him, who measures it in centuries.
You lean forward, pressing another soft kiss to the corner of his mouth.
“Then we’ll fill the centuries with petals,” you say.
The peony trembles lightly in the evening breeze, already beginning its slow surrender to gravity and night. A single petal loosens, drifting down to land against the curve of his wing.
He doesn’t brush it away.
Instead, he shifts closer, folding his wing more securely around you both as darkness settles in fully. Fireflies begin to spark at the edge of the clearing, tiny stars blinking awake.
You rest your head against his chest.
And the forest, satisfied, hums you both to sleep
A/n: eeek I took forever to finish this, they are so cute I love them. I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!