Genre: Fluff, Light Angst
Fandom: The Dragon Prince
Relationship: Aaravos x OC
Characters: Aaravos, Azaelia/Azali
Trigger Warning: Mentions of Food, Some Tears
How a simple fruit brought together a powerful force.
It was a beautiful day in the city of Elarion and Aaravos fully intended to take advantage of it. Though he loved his books and learnings he did enjoy a day out in the towns of Xadia. Today he chose Elarion to wander about: the human city of Xadia. He would stick out like a sore thumb since he was an elf -- left alone a Startouch elf. Today, he decided he didn't want to be noticed for anything but his height. So he grabbed his black cloak before leaving to go visit the city.
While walking through the district towns of Elarion he decided to human-watch. Humans, in particular, always fascinated him. Especially in the way that they evolve with their surroundings in both a physical and mental way. He, as an elf, wasn't exactly familiar with the human ways. What exactly do humans do? How do they go about their day? What do they do for a living? What foods do they enjoy? He watched as people went about their day. It wasn't much different then elves. Adults worked, Young adults studied and kids played. It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. The only thing different was that there was no arcane magic embedded with in them and yet...they still had their own culture.
With the help of magic from primal stones that is.
He was enjoying his stroll when something hit his legs...hard. He stopped in his tracks when he felt the force against his legs and looked down to see a small figure with big, curly, brown hair in a red cloak and a basket full of a type of reddish and roundish fruit that rolled out of the woven hold. She gasped looking at the fruit sadly as they rolled in different directions around them. Aaravos guessed she may have been running.
With a wave of his hand, the fruit rolled back into the basket untouched by dirt and sat up next to her as if it were never disturbed. The red-checkered blanket folded over the fruit and the flaps on the basket set over the blanket and fruit in perfect form.
She looked up at the elf in amazement with big round, honey amber eyes. She looked even more amazed when she saw his purple skin, star freckles, glowing diamond-shaped marks that were on the rounds of his cheeks, and dark sclera and golden iris eyes. He wondered what her reaction would be if she saw his horns and air-light hair. It seemed that this may have been the first time that she has seen any elf of his kind.
He squatted down and held his hand out to her. She looked at his star-speckled hand and her eyes narrowed at the four fingers in confusion and wonder. This made Aaravos chuckle.
"It is quite alright, little one."
She gasped lightly and flinched at his baritone voice and looked back up at him again with fear in her eyes. He smiled at her softly indicating safety in his offering. With that in mind, she gingerly put her hand in his. He pulled her up gently without any struggle until she stood on her two small feet. He then waved a finger which caused the dust on her clothes to fall back to the ground.
"Does it hurt anywhere? You ran into me with a fairly big force."
She blushed and shook her head as she tapped her fingers together shyly while looking down at the ground in embarrassment. The red of her cheeks making her freckles much more noticeable than before.
He smiled and picked up the basket and held it out to her. "I believe this is yours, little miss."
She looked at the basket and took it in her hands gently. She looked up at him full of wonder again, her curiosity causing her to stare at his unfamiliar features. Her youthful mind struggled to comprehend how on earth someone could look the way he did. He knew she didn't mean to be rude by staring. He admired her curiosity instead of running away in fear from the unknown.
He poked her nose and then pat the top of her head gently. In response, she smiled sweetly and giggled softly which made him only smile bigger. Something about the laughs of children -- elf or human-- always brought a sense joy to his heart.
Her expression changed into something of realization and then reached into her basket as she stuck her tongue out in concentration. She was searching for something like it was the most important thing in the world. Her face lit up as she took out one of the round red fruit that fell earlier. It was the largest and reddest of the bunch. She wiped it on her cloak unaware that he had already taken the dirt off when magically putting them back in the basket. She smiled and held it out to him with both of her hands stretched out with the basket hanging on her arm.
Aaravos looked at the fruit in surprise and then back at the beaming child. "For me?" He asked.
She nodded in response with her smile still plastered excitedly on her face.
He held out his hand and she set the apple down on it like she was handing him the most important thing in the world. He held it and examined it then he turned back to her and smiled gratefully.
"How generous," he stated. "Thank you."
She smiled bigger and nodded as she gripped the handle of her basket.
"Azaelia" a voice sang in the air over the hustle and bustle of human commotion. they This caused the girl to become alert and look behind her. It was her name being called and he followed her gaze.
"You should go," he said to her as she looked back at him almost sadly. "But make sure you don't tell anyone that you saw me." He held his index finger up to his lips with a gentle smile. "It'll be our little secret, little miss."
She smiled again, nodded with a regal bow, and waved lightly before running off towards the calls. He watched her to make sure she didn't run into any other legs and hurt herself until he could no longer see her in his view.
"So young, so small, but a curiosity among the stars." He said to himself.
He looked back at the fruit again and examined it. It wasn't something native anywhere else in Xadia. It was nothing he had ever seen before. He tossed the apple lightly and caught it in his hand before taking a bite and chewing while looking up in thought about the taste. His eyes widened as he looked back at the fruit again in amazement and wonder, much like how the child looked at him.
It was a beautiful day in Xadia. The sky was blue and the clouds brought a nice cool breeze just as the sun warmed the city of Elarion. Aaravos laid on a blanket under an apple tree reading a book while his lover picked apples from branches and put them in her basket from a short ladder. He looked up and watched her intently as she examined each apple with her brows furrowed and her tongue sticking out in thought.
Her unruly curly hair was pulled up into a ball of spirals on her head. She wore her typical mage robes and red cloak that flowed over her shoulders and down her back like a vermillion velvet waterfall. Even though they had just come back from a council meeting, she insisted on picking apples from the tree in the backyard of her family home.
"My Heart," he started, breaking the long but comfortable silence between them. "Are you certain that you don't want any assistance?"
"I am sure, My lungs." She replied jokingly but her gaze never leaving focus on the tree
"Lungs?" He asked while lifting a brow.
She smiled and picked a large apple from a branch causing it to rustle rather aggressively from her excited pulling. "Because you're the reason I breathe while also taking my breath away."
He hummed in amusement. Her logic in humor always amused and amazed him.
He looked up at his human lover with both eyebrows raised in wonder. "Hm?"
"Think fast!" She tossed the apple at him and he caught it with both of his hands.
He looked at it as it reminded him of the time she gave him the same type of fruit when she was a small child. He looked up at her again to find her smiling largely at him.
"You're smiling rather big."
She put her hand on her hip in playful sass. "Are you complaining?"
She climbed down from the ladder and set the basket on it. She danced her way to the blanket and sat on it next to him. His gaze never left focus from her.
"Fate told me something," she began looking lovingly into his golden irises. "And I really like the answer."
She was beaming and he could have swore that she was glowing from smiling so large. She had once told him that tossing an apple at someone in the human culture was an act of confessing love to another person or as a marriage proposal. Usually, when the other person caught it or if the apple wasn't sent back, the answer was yes.
He smiled and grabbed an apple from the basket that sat on the ladder behind them and lightly tossed the apple to her as a response. She caught it in her hands and looked up at him with wonder and a slight bit of shock in her gaze.
"I like what fate has told me too." He said before taking a bite of the sweet fruit and planting a kiss on her lips in which she responded to.
Aaravos looked up at the sky...the sky he hadn't seen for centuries. The sky that was taken away from his view for so long and now he was taking it all in.
He wasn't physically there, though he was there through astral projection. He couldn't feel the breeze of cool air, or the warmth of the sun, this would suffice for now.
It was truly a beautiful day even if he couldn't enjoy it to the fullest, but he was traveling with a familiar face with a different but similar name. He was on a horseback journey with Azali who was on her way to find her brothers, Prince Callum and King Ezran and the moonshadow elf that accompanied them. On the journey there they would try and find a way to free him from his long imprisonment in the mirror of runes.
He was laying on the back of a horse he conjured up in his astral projection as he gazed at the clouds. He could tell she was questioning and trying to figure out how and why, but she wouldn't ask -- or decided that it was better not to.
She had his familiar on her ear but they sat in a comfortable silence. Every once in a while she would scratch it under the chin. Sometimes she would ask a question if she had one and he would give an answer. Sometimes they were cryptic, sometimes they were straight forward.
"Think fast!" Azali said as something red came flying towards him fast.
He tried to catch it and he would have, had it not went straight through his hand and onto the ground.
"Oh…" she began blushing. "I'm sorry...I forgot."
He raised an eyebrow within an amused smirk and looked at her when he realized it was an apple she tossed at him.
“Princess Azali,” he began with a false shocked tone. “Are you asking for my hand in marriage?”
She rolled her eyes and looked at him with a serious glare. “No,” She replied. “And stop calling me that.”
“Ah,” he responded and looked up at the sky as a smirk creeping on his expression. “So you simply wasted an apple thinking I could eat it in this form?”
She pulled another apple from her bag and a dagger and began to skin the apple “Well YOU tried to catch it!"
“It would be rude if I didn’t, princess,” He responded and put his hands on the back of his head to lean on.
She sighed and furrowed her brows. “Stop calling me princess.”
“Are you not the princess of Katolis?” He looked over at her again and watched as she peeled her apple with the beautifully crafted dagger that he recognized was very similar to the one that his past love, Azaelia, used to own and peel apples with.
“To be a princess, it implies I would have the ability to ascend to the throne. But I don’t. So I am simply the king and queen's daughter by adoption...well, I was.”
He decided no to press forward on the matter and looked back up at the clouds. "I apologize. It was not my intention to offend you."
"I appreciate it," she responded as her mind began to wander elsewhere.
They sat in another comfortable silence for a few moments before he spoke again.
“Once, I am out of this wretched prison," He began. "I would like for you to toss me another apple.”
“Oh?” she asked. "Do YOU want my hand in marriage?"
More than you can ever imagine, he thought.
“I promise you,” He spoke with pure honesty in his tone as the thoughts of all the times Azaelia tossed him an apple crossed his mind. “I will catch it," his gaze never left the sky. It reminded him of that day under the apple tree of his lover's home in Elarion. "It is...something written in our fate.”
She looked at him with a wondering expression and finished peeling the apple.
“You know,” she fed her horse the skinned apple. “For an ancient archmage startouch elf you’re very cryptic... and also very weird.”
He smirked and turned his gaze to her for a moment. "Indeed, little miss." He conjured up an astral projected apple just to see the even more curious reaction on her face -- which he most definitely received. “Also, I just really enjoy apples.”
She shrugged and took another apple from her bag. How many she had in there he doesn't really know, but he didn't mind. It only brought him comfort that his love was okay, even if it wasn't truly her but a vessel with a different upbringing and life experiences.
She took a bite of her apple and closed her eyes in delight. “Mmm." She hummed. "It’s sweet.”
It was a dark and silent Xadian night.
Azali stood in the middle of the ruins of a city that was once hers in her past life as Azaelia. She watched as Aaravos took everything in. It was almost like he was accepting what happened here. That or remembering.
He was sad. Very sad and Azali could also feel the pain and agony as Azaelia's memories of the great dragon Sol Regem set fire to the city, but she refused to cry.
Aaravos on the other hand had a waterfall in his dark and golden eyes. He sealed them shut before taking a deep breath to calm himself. Azali took this moment to walk over and put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her wonderingly and then wiped his eyes.
"I apologize. Please, forgive me," he began his voice cracking slightly before he cleared his throat. "I don't mean to make you worry."
"No…" Azali responds softly. "There's no need to apologize for this."
"I... underestimated how I would react to all of this."
Azali slowly removed her hand from his shoulder and hugged him from behind. He visibly relaxed and gently laid a hand on top of hers. They stood like that for a few moments before he turned around to face her.
"I ..want to show you something…" he stated.
"Okay," she responded as he took her hand and lead her over to a broken building and stopped. It was familiar.
"Is this…?" She trailed off and the distant memory became very close.
"Where I met you as a child." A small but sad smile spread across his expression. "A tiny thing you were. And so full of curiosity and wonder."
He hummed in amusement. "So many apples."
He then lead her towards a piece of land that was once a beautiful home and is now a pile of ash and dust. It was Azaelia's home.
He didn't respond. He only looked at the home with sadness. It was a shame that he couldn't revisit the good times. He would have loved to have seen this place flourish again, but unfortunately that was wishful thinking.
Azali looked up to see the green leaves from behind the ruins of the home. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the red orbs hanging from the branches. She looked up at him with a smile on her face and pulled him towards the direction of the tree.
"Come!" She exclaimed as she pulled him.
"I dare ask, what-" he stopped in his tracks when he saw the apple tree. It was alive as if it was untouched by the flames of Sol Regem. Its braches danced lightly in the wind. He looked in awe and good memories flooded his mind about all the moments that happened under this very tree.
"Aari," Azali called causing him to look at her with wondering eyes. It's been so long since he's heard that name.
Azali was holding an apple in her hands and with a smile on her face.
"Think fast!" She tossed the apple at him...and he caught it with both hands.
He looked down at the apple and then back at Azali.
"You could say you're the apple of my eye!" Azali said with a cheeky smile and her face and holding up her hands in finger guns towards him.
He couldn't help but laugh. It was one of those laughs that came from the core. A laugh of pure happiness. Azali smiled lovingly at the elf.
Once he calmed himself he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her lifting her off the ground. She squealed and put her hands on his chest as she looked down wonderingly into his eyes. He met her gaze for a moment.
"May I?" He asked as he eyed her lips
She blushed and nodded as she gazed at his.
Then he kissed her passionately in which she responded to by craddling his face in her hands. Fireworks were going off in her mind and her heart raced. It was a moment that was so familiar, so intimate, and so right. It was a moment where the two stars shine brightest together as one.
In this kiss he took the moment to lightly bite her lip which caused her to squeal lightly and blush profusely which landed a chuckle from him before he went back for the kiss.
After a moment they pulled away and looked at each other with half lidded eyes and not quite satisfied with the separation.
"I…" she began. "Kept my promise to toss you an apple when you were out of your prison."
"Make sure to tell me how it tastes." She blushed. "I picked the ripest one."
He smiled at her lovingly and plants a soft kiss on her lips again. Her face was even more red when he pulled back and looked up at her lovingly.
