Happy birthday!!!! ❤❣
You were asking for prompts so I thought maybe Euphoric for Merribela? (From 14 DA Lovers day)
Oh! Oh them...gah...I love them so much, and writing Merrill’s POV always makes me feel very...um...I can’t think of the word...good? Yes. That’s it. Good.
Anyway, thank you for this prompt, @laniardraws (and @14daysdalovers for the original list!). I'm not sure if I really nailed the 'euphoric' part (it’s very abstracted here), but I had so much fun writing them again! This fits somewhere post-DA2, I think...
Merrill breathes in the sea air slowly — 1 2 3 4…hold 3 2 1…out 2 3 4…hold 3 2 1. And back in, wrestling down her nausea through sheer force of will as the ship pitches up and over another wave.
She’s asked Isabela to explain it to her, the euphoria of the sea, in the hope that she might study it, learn to appreciate it, feel it for herself. But when pressed, Isabela merely wields powerful, mystifying words like 'free' and 'alive' with the same effortlessly deadly grace as her daggers. The one that has sliced so precisely at Merrill’s heart is 'home.'
Because Merrill’s home is Isabela, the only home she wants, anyway — to be In her arms, or pressed up against her breasts…or between her legs, preferably. That is the home she chooses. The home she’s made entirely for herself. And if Isabela’s home is the sea…well, then Merrill must learn to love the sea, as well. For it is as much a part of Isabela as she is a part of it, and however Merrill feels about it is inconsequential.
To love a goddess and to worship at her feet is one thing. Like merely wading into the sea up to one’s ankles…maybe. But to stay with her, to dive in and let yourself be carried away, to make your home with her and her home yours…well, it’s the hubris thing again, isn’t it? To believe one could ever be so entitled...
“Feeling any better, Kitten?” Isabela murmurs behind her, wrapping her generous arms around her, entwining strong freckled bronze over all of Merrill's soft and fluttery parts.
“A little…” A lot, actually now that her home has come to claim her. Or at least to keep her from toppling overboard.
“We’ll reach Kirkwall this afternoon. You'll be able to disembark...get a break from all of this.”
Merrill musters all her woozy courage to turn around and say, “I want to stay with you.” Because she would never dare ask Isabela to come away from the sea, to stay with her in her cramped little apartment, bereft of all the things that make Isabela glorious.
“I want that, too. And I applaud your heroic efforts — really, I do — but you’ve been absolutely miserable these past couple of weeks!”
The rumble of Isabela's laughter against Merrill’s chest feels like tree roots, seeking deeper, softer places to grow into, keeping her from eroding away into the waves. But like anything that grows too fast, it stings.
“I can try a different tea. Maybe I’ll get used to it? Eventually...” She presses her face into Isabela's neck, wishing she could just sink into her depths and forget about the stinky, roiling sea.
“May I propose a compromise?”
Merrill doesn’t like that word. She never has. For her, compromise has always meant that someone, something, some dear part of her will be lost or given up. And she can’t bear to lose anymore of her heart.
But surely Generosity, her vhenan, would never ask such a thing.
“What?”
“You go back to living on land and not puking your guts out every five minutes...and I stay with you between jobs.”
“You mean, like, you would…move in with me?”
“If you would have me.” Isabela nods. “I can even leave my things strewn all over your place. I’ll probably forget to make the bed, too. And I'm complete shit at cooking, but…”
“But the sea is your home. This ship…your crew!”
“Meh. It will still be there, waiting for me. As will the ship and its crew, assuming I do my job correctly. But I wouldn’t mind having someplace a little more…grounded to come back to, now that I’m a big girl. Someplace besides the Hanged Man, that is. Especially if you’re there. And anyway, can you imagine the reunion sex?”
Merrill already is, of course, and she blushes as Isabela grins knowingly down at her.
“So what do you say? Can we give it a shot, at least?”
“Yes…” Merrill wavers, until her face tightens in sudden determination. “But you have to promise me something.”
“Anything...”
“Promise I can see you off from the harbor every time you leave? I need to see you when that first big gust of wind hits you, and…” Merrill’s blush deepens. “Just promise me, ok?!”
Isabela laughs, pulling her back in against her chest. “Yeah. That seems doable.”








