summary: one final moment is pleaded to last forever, but the world is ending and no wishes are ever granted.
a/n: this is so so so short but im posting this just to hype yall up for my new fic im working on lol. inspired by who wants to live forever by queen :)
warnings: the end of the world i guess
~
You turned over in Druigs arms, one thought weighing heavily on your mind; ‘Who wants to live forever?’
‘I do. If you’ll have me?’
‘Do you understand what you’re asking of me?’
‘Yes…’ There was a pause. The air was still for a fleeting moment.
‘Will you promise to follow me forever?’
‘Yes,' he replied.
‘Will you promise to love me forever?’
‘Yes.’
‘Will you promise me forever, if you’ll have me?’
‘Yes.’
You traced the lines on his cheeks with your thumb. You pulled at his bottom lip gently, briefly exposing his teeth and tongue to the warm air. The night sky lit up with white light, projecting shadows from your curtains to dance on your naked bodies.
‘This world only has one sweet moment set aside for us, my love,’ you said, followed by a sigh.
‘We’ll make more. We have today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. We have forever.’ Your nose brushed against his as his breath gently fanned against your parted lips. ‘We can go slow. Take our time. I wish to stay awhile, in this moment. I wish to know nothing but you.’
‘We simply cannot be that selfish—’ You were interrupted by Druig sitting up. The sheet fell off his chest and into his lap, exposing your bare shoulder.
‘I can. I will. Everyone in life gets what they deserve, one way or another. This is what I deserve. This is what you deserve— what we deserve. Y/n… Let me devote everything to you, forever.’
‘We don’t have forever, Druig!’ You said, sitting up and grabbing his hands firmly. The room lit up again, the light burning brighter and longer this time.
You both fell into silence until Druig pulled you closer to rest his forehead on yours.
‘I’m scared,’ you admitted and you squeezed your eyes shut. You both sunk back down into the bed and hid under the covers; legs intertwined, chests pressed together, fingers laced together.
‘I know. So am I.’
‘Is this the way we end? Not with passion, but with fear?’
‘With love. It’s just another chapter ending,’ Druig mumbled into the corner of your mouth.
‘No, they’re closing the book for the last time…’
In the end, the two soul-bounded creations that rose from the dust parted ways, and to the dust they returned.
Part of the Druig x Elena AU (see full AU list here)
Characters: Druig x Fem!OC (Elena)
Summary: Druig and Elena's honeymoon plans get interrupted by bad news and peril
Warnings: violence, peril, depictions of injuries, blood, Eternals spoilers
Special thanks to @bellejeanx for all things ideas, plot, & editing! ❤
Tags: @50svibes
Read Chapter I here
Read Chapter III here
Sprite’s words landed on Druig like a slab of marble, crushing the air from his chest for a moment. Elena gasped, retreating back into Druig’s shoulder as if slapped and squeezing Lyla.
“How is this possible?” Druig finally managed, his voice barely above a whisper. He had just seen Ajack, just left her in charge of Lyla.
“A Deviant,” Sprite continued.
Druig felt his heart choke as if it were dunked into ice. His mind felt immobilized, the deafening sound of his blood pounding in his ears. He stared dumbly at Sprite, feeling a curious mixture of grief, numbness, fear, and disbelief.
After a few moments, it was Elena’s voice who broke the silence. “I thought they were all dead?”
“So did we.”
The voice came from directly behind Druig, a man’s voice, deep and commanding. The others in the hut looked over Druig’s shoulder to the source. Elena startled slightly at the unexpected intrusion, but it was Lyla who uttered a small whimper, shrinking into Elena’s shoulder and hiding her face. Druig found that curious as Lyla was an uncharacteristically precocious child and had taken an immediate liking to almost everyone she met.
Ikaris walked into the hut, brushing past Druig with a familiar haughty air that made Druig instantly bristle. After he was convinced he held everyone’s attention, Ikaris continued.
“As best I can tell, there’s a group of Deviants who were frozen for centuries. But the ice has thawed, thanks to humanity, I might add-” Ikaris cast a caustic look at Elena, as if she were personally responsible for the ice caps melting, and Druig felt his blood inch one degree closer to boiling “- and now, they’re back.”
“A group of them?” Thena asked, her eyebrows raised incredulously. Ikaris nodded stoically.
“I’ve been tracking them. I figured they would come after us, one by one, but I didn’t know where we all were. If I had known where Ajack was, maybe things would have ended differently…” Ikaris’ voice trailed off somberly.
Another few moments of heavy silence passed amongst the Eternals and the two humans in the hut, the sounds of the bustling village outside sounding far away and disconnected. Elena turned to Druig, still cradling Lyla’s head against her shoulder, her eyes full of fear. Druig felt his throat tighten to see her fear, hoping Elena couldn’t see the matching emotion in his own eyes. He raked his hand through her hair, letting it come to rest on the back of her neck. He brought her forehead forward, connecting with his, trying to focus on the rhythms of her and Lyla’s breath to ground himself.
Just as he was about to speak comforting words, a shriek outside pierced the claustrophobic darkness inside the hut. It was high-pitched and full of terror, the kind of scream a person makes when confronted with mortal peril. After it reached full pitch, it was cut off with a strangled sort of grunt. A hush fell over the village, the air thick with fraught anticipation.
Druig’s head snapped up, automatically clutching Elena closer to him. The familiar tingle in his body that he always felt before a battle shot through his veins, awakening his senses. The stakes were higher this time, and he was reminded of that when Lyla let out another fearful whimper, the only sound to break the silence.
The group tensed, listening with laser focus. After a long breath without further noise, Ikaris strode out of the hut, turning his head in the sound of the shriek. The others followed him carefully with their eyes, each one holding their breath.
He turned back to them, his eyes already beginning to glow gold, only having enough time to utter two syllables: “Deviant.”
It was as time itself exploded. The village and the forest around them erupted from bated silence into a cacophony of confusion, terror, and the sounds of frantic bodies fleeing danger. Inside the hut, there was a similar detonation of activity.
“Sprite! Get them out of here!” Druig shoved Elena, still clutching Lyla, towards Sprite. Although the split second hesitation belied her feelings of rage at being assigned nanny duty, Sprite nodded perfunctorily, grabbing Elena by the upper arm and beginning to tug her out of the hut.
Elena’s mind was reeling, struggling to catch up but still seconds behind. Her feet moved automatically, but with a clumsy heaviness as Sprite’s forceful grip led her out into the humid jungle air. Elena struggled to keep her footing as a terrified villager crashed into her shoulder, almost knocking Lyla out of her arms. Elena was horrified to see the man’s shoulder sliced open, bone-deep, thick blackish-red blood spilling down his torso. His face was pallid but his eyes were crazed, and he quickly regrouped and stumbled onward. All around them were the sounds of screaming.
As her mind finally roared to life, Elena wrenched away from Sprite’s grip, just needing to look back, to see him. Druig had stepped out of the hut, like the other Eternals, and was running in the opposite direction as Elena. She felt a sickening twist in her stomach as she realized he was running towards the danger, a cry escaping her mouth. She hadn’t said his name - hadn’t been able to get her mouth to form the word - but it was enough. He turned back, his eyes locking with hers for the briefest of moments. Elena felt her body turning, her feet changing their direction, her frantic fear starting to drive her towards Druig, but Sprite’s unnaturally strong grip had reconnected with her forearm.
“No, Elena!” Sprite yelled, pulling Elena’s arm so hard Elena feared it would dislocate from her shoulder. Elena stumbled again, nearly falling, and in the instant she lost eye contact with Druig he, too, had turned away from her, distracted by something out of Elena’s vision.
“There’s no time, Elena! We have to go!” Sprite’s insistent voice pierced Elena’s concentration. “We have to get Lyla out of here!”
Lyla.
Elena’s instincts flared; Lyla was too close. The little girl was sobbing in Elena’s arms, reacting to her mother’s fear and the chaos around her; her words were mostly unintelligible, but Elena heard clearly the words “mama” and “daddy”. With another wrenching spike of fear in her gut, Elena willed herself to focus.
I have to get Lyla away from here.
Adrenaline pumping, mind suddenly sharpened by purpose, Elena nodded in agreement with Sprite and began to follow, to run, to sprint. Sprite continued to lead Elena, setting a blistering pace, and Elena struggled to match her. Lyla bobbed roughly in Lyla’s arms, her cries now building to full blown shrieks.
Elena’s lungs were burning with exertion, her legs beginning to falter as her body reached its limit. Sprite, barely winded, continued to led Elena on, out of the confines of the village and into the jungle. Villagers and other tourists ran beside them, scattering once they hit the jungle line.
“Sprite… please… slower…” Elena yelled over the chaos, worried that Sprite would outpace her. Elena’s feet were starting to turn to bricks, the vegetation of the undergrowth proving much more taxing to sprint through. A thick branch smacked Elena’s face, leaving a gash in her cheek. Elena plunged onward, the ground now much more uneven and beginning to slope downward. Next to them, the villager who had collided with Elena a few moments before fell with a sickening thud, his colorless complexion indicating he was dead. Elena gasped, trying to turn Lyla’s head away, and focused on running.
“Sprite! Please!” Elena’s cries were more insistent this time; there was no way she would be able to match the youthful Eternal’s sure-footed stride.
“Come on, Elena!” came Sprite’s answer.
Elena felt her right foot catch on a root, her ankle twisting with a sickening crunch as her momentum came to a full stop. Lyla flew out of Elena’s grasp as her hands automatically released from Lyla’s body to brace her fall. Lyla flew forward, coming to a hard landing on the dirt path some ten feet in front of Elena. Elena felt her head connect with a tree trunk, white hot pain searing across her forehead as her vision blurred. Lyla’s shrieks were now full decibel, cutting through the forest with alarming intensity.
Elena - disoriented and beginning to reckon with the pain blistering all over her head - tried to steady herself, her breath ragged; unable to control it, she felt a wave of vomit rip its way up and out of her gut.
“MAMA! MAMA!” Lyla’s terror-stricken shrieks banged into Elena’s mind like foot long splinters. Suddenly, Lyla’s shrieks were met by another sound, a thunderous combination of metal-on-metal mixed with a guttural roar. Although Elena had never heard the sound before, she knew instantly and without a doubt what it was.
Instinctually, Elena turned to the source of the sound, directly behind her. The Deviant was massive, its flesh sinewy and rough like tree bark. Its head was easily the size of a small car, and its eyes had a ghostly, iridescent glow. But worst of all was its mouth, lipless and sneering, lined with ragged teeth, each one the length of a human hand, and sharpened into spikes.
Elena felt ice run through her veins. The Deviant was honed in on the sounds of Lyla’s blood-curdling wails, and Elena saw the beast’s body tense in an unmistakable pouncing posture. In the blindness of pure instinct, Elena launched off her uninjured ankle in an intercepting path between the Deviant and Lyla.
Millisecond to millisecond, Elena’s body tensed unconsciously, bracing for the bite of those vicious teeth.
But none came.
In what felt like an eternity, Elena’s body slammed to the ground, adding a few broken ribs to the rapidly expanding list of pains. Lyla, now mere inches from Elena, clawed desperately through the greenery to her mother, burying herself against Elena’s chest.
Still, no teeth ripped through Elena’s core.
In confusion, Elena risked a backwards glance. The Deviant was still far too close for comfort, but it seemed bewildered, its nostrils flaring and casting its head from side to side as if searching for its target.
In a flash of understanding, Elena glanced around, finally seeing Sprite, about twenty yards away with her palms splayed out in front of her, her face contorted in concentration.
“Run, Elena! I can’t hold it much longer!” Sprite called out, struggling to keep Elena and Lyla obscured from the Deviant’s vision by her powers.
Gritting her teeth, Elena rose up, every inch of her body screaming in protest and agony, Lyla once again clutched against her chest. She plunged into the vegetation once more, dots beginning to pepper her vision and her body threatened to give out on her. Elena vaguely registered the sounds of renewed combat behind her, Thena’s unmistakable battle cries earning a small sigh of relief.
Elena forced herself deeper into the jungle, slowing with each step. Her breath was broken and her knees threatened to buckle. With another lurch, Elena leaned over and vomited again.
“Mama,” Lyla cried, no longer shrieking but still sobbing, her terror only momentarily assuaged by the few hundred yards Elena had been able to put between them and the Deviant.
“I know, baby, I know,” Elena replied, her voice watery thin as the edges of her vision began to go black. As she struggled to stay upright, Elena staggered, catching her fall roughly against a tree trunk, the skin of her palm ripping against the coarse bark. Elena cursed her body, the quickness with which it had failed her, as she fought to stay conscious.
A few more steps forward, and Elena knew she wasn’t going to be able to make it much farther. As gently and controlled as she could, she let Lyla slide down the front of her body until her feet touched the ground.
“Run, baby,” she whispered, trying to push Lyla forward.
“Mam-”
“Go!” Elena’s cry was insistent and desperate, and she gave another forceful push. Lyla’s face was a portrait of fear, but she recognized the distress and urgency in her mother’s voice. Hesitantly, Lyla turned and began to run forward on the narrow path. Elena forced herself to stay conscious until Lyla’s back disappeared into the shadows of the jungle.
When Lyla’s honey colored hair and mint-green dress had vanished from vision, Elena gave in to the urge to collapse. Her knees turned to jelly underneath her, and she let the blackening edges of her vision overwhelm her.
Directly next to her, Elena vaguely registered a rustle as someone broke out of the undergrowth just before she felt her legs collapse under her. Strong, sure arms caught her before she hit the ground, a deep and familiar voice calling her name as she sank into darkness…
Okay so I have no idea what’s happening here bc I unfortunately don’t speak Spanish (at least I think it’s Spanish?? If it isn’t I am sorry I am an uneducated mess💀)
But if anyone does know what they’re saying and wouldn’t mind translating that’d be amazing bc uhhhh yeah I am super intrigued👀👀
