It’s not that he dislikes the boy, not really. It’s just… he’s so very earnest, so eager to please.
After saving him from possibly a lifetime of torment, of never seeing Ethari or Rayla again, the last thing the boy needs is his approval.
On top of that, he killed the boy’s father—
He watched them on the journey back to the Silvergrove, though he tried not to. He’d wondered if the boy’s human quirks were rubbing off on Rayla or if the years themselves had changed her so much, but she was different from when he last saw her. More confident and self-assured.
Very much in love and openly so.
The boy is clearly besotted with her too, which probably goes some way to explain all the crazy things he’s done for her.
Perhaps, if Runaan hadn’t been so focused on getting back to his own husband, he might have been troubled by their level of devotion.
He noticed it was decidedly not normal, but Rayla’s never been one to do things by halves and he’d merely assumed that she’d met her match in that regard.
The lengths the boy was willing to go to for Rayla, for the world, were abundantly clear as he hurriedly explained his terrible plan in a shimmering cave, the instrument of so much destruction clasped in his too young hands.
Runaan has killed many people. He has always told himself that it was necessary, doing what needed to be done in order to keep the loss of life as low as possible.
He tries to tell himself that he is only doing so again, that killing the boy will spare many, many lives.
And yet, Runaan has to steel his heart against Rayla’s desperate cries. Against her pleas, her sobs.
Drawing his bow back, he prays to whomever might be listening that someday she will forgive them both.
- for @tdp-whump-week-2026
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