ACOTAR 6/7!! 💖🎶💖 | the vanserras, house of wind gang, valkyries, and the band of exiles enthusiast!! | in my gwynriel/elucien era (forever) 🌻💖
(icon by cedarcia and amandapearls!!)
I LOVE it when artists depict a very clear dynamic between lovers, so much so that I could literally ship that couple without even knowing them. I hope I’ve managed to draw enough of the kind of dynamic I envision for Elucien. It’s not the full scope of what I imagine them to be like, but certainly a chunk of it!
And also… I heard that the people who voice Elain and Lucien both ship Elucien. If that’s true, I‘m gonna scream. You know how the voice actor of Zuko made a fan audio in which Zuko confesses his love for Katara? I need something like this for Elucien 😭
Gwynriel WIP. I might have to change some poses and rearrange them all. It’s just not as good as the Elucien piece and it’s bugging me.
Lucien finally decides to confront Elain about their mating bond – only to discover she doesn’t even believe that it’s real!
What will it take to convince her otherwise?
Read here on AO3
@elucienweekofficial
Snippet below the cut...
“Elain, it’s been nearly three years,” he said finally. “Don’t you think it’s time you made a decision?”
“A decision about what?”
He sighed defeatedly. “About whether you’re going to reject the mating bond.”
She gave a laugh that sounded like tinkling bells, but he recognized it for what it was. A show. A courtier’s laugh.
“I really don’t see what’s so funny about –”
“You’re all obsessed with ‘mating bonds’,” Elain interrupted. “With whether I’ll accept or reject, whether I’m free to live my life or be forever tethered to a stranger. I can’t exist without judgement if I choose to flirt, or charm, or take a lover who doesn’t claim to be my mate.”
Take a lover? Claim? He felt a growl rumble deep in his chest at the suggestion, and hoped to the Mother she hadn’t heard it. He’d had a… sense, at Solstice, that there had been something – a flicker of desire for someone other than him. He’d tortured himself about it, never once imagining she might be acting out, some form of rebellion against her perceived entrapment.
“But I’m not about to play along with all this faerie nonsense, like my sisters do,” she continued, tilting her chin in the air. “I don’t have to reject something that isn’t real!”
He blinked, wondering for a moment if he’d misheard her.
“Not… real?”
“Not real,” she repeated, turning from him. “From my observations, I’ve deduced that mating bonds are a myth, perpetuated by the High Fae to lure poor unsuspecting wom– females into relationships with,” she flicked her eyes over him, “unscrupulous strangers.”
Strangers? Unscrupulous? A myth? An incredulous laugh spilled from him, but she remained stone-faced. She wasn’t joking.
Lucien shook his head in disbelief. Of course. Of course. Trust the Cauldron to give him a mate who wasn’t just reluctant to make a decision about the bond, but was in complete denial about its existence! Did she not face the same daily tortures as him? The same dull ache of longing when they weren’t near each other? The same ravenous urges when they were in close proximity like this?
Huge thanks to my betas, @chaol-apologist and @crazy-ache
“When I sleep, I can hear your heart beating through the stone […] Can you hear mine?” - A Court of Wings and Ruin
Happy Elucien Week everyone!
This is actually a repost of my very first Elucien commission from all the way back in Feb 2022 and it remains one of my favourite to this date, particularly because of the quote it is inspired by. It’s one of my favourite Elucien quotes and I love that it comes directly from Elain herself.
There is something so tender yet so unbelievably vulnerable, to ask someone, “Can you hear my heart too?” and I am so looking forward to the moment where Lucien hears her too. (my head canon is that he currently can’t because the last time he’d heard someone’s heart beating, it was Jesminda’s stopping)
With this prompt and Elucien living 24/7, rent free in my mind, I had to reshare this piece with you all!
Just remembered the scene in ACOMAF where the shadows touch Feyre's shoulders and cheeks in comfort when Azriel carries her to the human realm for the first time since she turned fae. Cannot wait to see how the shadows treat his one true love and mate, who is also the one person they are already canonically obsessed with. I need those shadows to be the amorphous equivalent of the beloved pet trope
This story is told in four movements (or four different one shots) in different time periods in Elain and Lucien’s relationship. It starts off during Winter Solstice night in ACOSF, when Lucien feels Elain through the bond and the night takes a surprising turn.
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.
Happy day 1 of @elucienweekofficial !!
@the-lonelybarricade and I decided to work from unchosen prompts leftover from voting- so today is Day 1: Bee Movie AU. Don't pretend you don't just adore Luciens little bee-wings!
Huge sexy thanks to @laxibbeb for hearing us pitch this to her and both enthusiastically agreeing AND continuing to remain our friends. We love you- this is gorgeous and so are you.
I came home from work, took a nap, got up and wrote this...So you aren't allowed to be mean to me about it.
Happy Elucien week yall!
Elain made it to her rooms before the tears that had been stinging the corners of her eyes spilled over and made a mad dash down her cheeks. Her hand played idly at her chest, where until just a few moments ago, the beautiful rose pendant had rested, burning against her skin as if someone had thrown the damn thing in the fire before presenting it to her. As if it knew that wearing it was some kind of betrayal.
Mistake. The word rang incessantly in her head; mistake, mistake, mistake. Each new iteration of the word ringing out like a cursed bell, a fresh wave of tears cresting over her bottom lids with every new toll. A sob bubbled up from her chest and she shoves her fist in her mouth to stifle it before it can escape, afraid that it might awaken anyone in the house and alert them to her distress…that it might alert him to her distress. At the thought she bites down on her fist so hard she’s surprised she doesn’t taste blood.
Stupid. She had been so stupid. Of course Azriel would be too noble to rise to the occasion and defile sweet innocent Elain. Nevermind that she had practically thrown herself at him tonight. She knew he wanted her, or at least the version of her she had carefully curated to entice him, but of course that image had backfired on her in the end. Azriel saw her as some dainty, delicate little thing to protect, to save, to prove himself worthy. Not someone to love. Not really.
No one ever saw her as someone to love. Not even Greyson.
She runs to her bed and flings herself on top of it, burying her face in the pillows so she can cry freely without fear of discovery or threat of pain. She knows it’s a little dramatic, but she feels like she’s earned the right to be dramatic tonight.
It wasn’t fair! Was she really so impossible to love? She tried so hard to be exactly what they wanted her to be! She was soft and quiet and made herself small and agreeable. She had practically made herself into a mirror, reflecting back to all who looked at her exactly what they wanted to see from her…and it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. She was never enough, no matter how much she tried.
She was so wrapped up in her misery that at first she didn’t notice it, the soft steady thumping had more or less become a background noise to her anyway, easily ignored since dinner when her ears had adjusted to the rhythmic almost drumlike sound. But eventually she was made aware that the thumping was…louder…more incessant. Her sobs pause and she lifts and cocks her head, concentrating. Yes there can be no doubt, he was standing right outside her door.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
She holds her breath, waiting, though she knows he won’t intrude on her privacy. A part of her wishes he would, an ugly animalistic part of her, and an easily ignored part. “Go away” she snaps at the door. “I don’t want you.”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
He doesn’t say a word, but the heartbeat tells her he hasn’t moved.
She hiccups. “Pervert” she says loud enough that she knows he can hear her.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound is soothing at least. Steady, like a metronome, and grounding. She lays her head back down on the pillow, forces herself to listen to the steady rhythm.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The despairing thoughts in her head begin to settle, and then quiet.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her hiccups and sniffles turn to steady, even breaths.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her tears dry up.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
She feels exhaustion settling over her. The restlessness and anger and frustration leaking away to make room for it. Her eyes grow heavy.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“I hate you” she grumbles, her body sinking fast into sleep. She doesn’t know if he hears her.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her heart is now beating in time with his. It’s the last thought she has before her dreams claim her.
