"That shirt’s doing you no favors. Take it off."
If you're offering... ;D
(I'm sorry it's not spicy because the muse went for subtle angst 😔)
From HERE (Still taking suggestion) and if you want more, check HERE
Maiev had often stayed awake at night since the fateful battle at the top of the Black Temple — staring at the ceiling while being overly conscious of the crystal held within the depths of the Vault. In those sleepless nights, all that she could think about was what she would dare say to Illidan if she ever had the chance to stand in front of him again. What kind of words would leave her mouth if he could reply to her?
Dozens and dozens of possibilities went through her mind over the years.
And yet, as the day came, the answer surprised her.
“That shirt’s doing you no favors,” she scoffed while her eyes went up and down the Betrayer. “Take it off.”
Illidan looked back at her, and slowly lowered the glass that he was going to drink from. He raised an eyebrow as he took a better look at the night elf woman standing next to him, only to confirm that his ears weren’t mistaken, and that the fancy-dressed newcomer was indeed Maiev Shadowsong. As he looked back in front of him, his face went through the stages of questioning, realizing and accepting of the surprise apparition. Then, he braced himself and finally replied to her.
“Warden. Not what I was expecting to hear from you first.”
“Well, that shirt is ugly and clearly not fitting you. You’ll do better to remove it.”
“You’ll offend Khadgar. He tried really hard to get me a shirt made in time for this party. He thought it would be better to present his little plan to the other leaders.”
It had only been a day that the assault on the Nighthold had concluded with the highly debated Illidan’s resurrection. As the leader of the raid, Khadgar had the responsibility to act accordingly with the decision of the leaders of not only the Horde and the Alliance, but also of the different Class Halls. Together, they voted whether or not Khadgar had to bring back Illidan to life if the opportunity arose.
They ended up with a yes, but barely above the majority.
So, to persuade the rest of the leaders to give him a chance — and keep funding the counterattack against the Legion — Khadgar had hastily planned a fancy party in Dalaran where all leaders were invited, along with some key peoples from Azeroth, and there, Illidan would prove that he was on their side. But as it was meant to be fancy, the Archmage made sure that his clothes would be fitting.
Not that Khadgar wasn’t trusting Illidan’s word about the freshness of the pants, but he heard the rumors and jokes on how it was potentially over ten thousand years old. And he threw in a shirt for good measure as well.
Said shirt that clearly offended Maiev.
“I know you don’t have taste, but you could have told him to at least avoid the white… It looks like you’re going to burst into one of those human dances at any time.”
“And I’m actually surprised that you dropped the armor and helmet,” Illidan said as he knew it was useless to argue with Maiev. “Although I could imagine you wearing the helmet despite that dress. But really, you can’t wear any kind of colors that aren't green and gold? You should have just worn your armor in that case.”
“Stop looking at me,” she hissed as she gently tapped over his arm.
“You were the one looking at me first.”
“Yes, because you’re an obvious stain in this room.”
“Nice to know you haven’t changed Maiev,” Illidan rolled his eyes.
With that sentence, he was putting an end to the conversation. He chugged down what was left of the alcohol in his glass, almost regretting that this human beer was so light and moved away from the Warden. She was as lovely as usual — this was sarcasm — and for a second, Illidan wondered why she couldn’t wait a day or two before coming to talk to him. And why would she do it in public?
He was aware that there had been threats made towards her. Some people were trying to put a leash around her neck and force her to behave according to the dire situation that Azeroth was in. Her hate of him was well-known. After all, who in their right state of mind would have kept his body in a pristine state and imprisoned in a crystal made of his own blood for years? And kept that crystal hidden in the depths of an underground facility that only a handful of persons knew the existence of?
Her reputation wasn’t as good as it should have been when she was also the one to give the final blow to him.
Instead of being treated as a hero by the people of Azeroth, she was shunned and it would only get worse with his return. He had heard that if she was attempting anything against him, they would strip her from her role as the Warden; get the order dismantled and other Wardens to face consequences, and even her brother would have to face wrath in her stead. And it was without talking about those rumors of her banishment from Teldrassil and something terrible that would have happened after his death. He hadn’t been told exactly what it was.
The most surprising thing was that she dared to come talk to him despite the threats hanging over her head.
Illidan was sure that he would have been the one to initiate a conversation with her. To be the one going after her this time. He had thought that it would be funny to see how long that little game would have lasted until she would have accepted to talk to him — he had no idea what she could feel about him after all those years and he was intrigued.
After circling the party, doing small talks with random people as Khadgar asked him to, and refilled his glass, he looked around. The room wasn’t emptying at all — worse, it seemed that guests only kept coming — and yet, he didn’t have to search after Maiev. She was obviously alone, leaning against a wall, and probably regretting wasting that outfit for a party that she only attended because Khadgar asked her to.
Her role as a commandant of the Legionfall Army was still to be decided. If she could prove that she would cooperate with the others, and not bring discord into the group, she would get the position. Once more, some people were toying with her worth from the shadows.
Did she want the role to keep an eye on Illidan? Or to genuinely help save the planet? Maybe both. Yet, she accepted to drop the armor and appear defenseless. Illidan had a discreet snort at that thought as he knew that Maiev would never truly be defenseless, and that she probably had one or two knives concealed in that dress, or within the sleeves over her forearms.
As he passed by a table with drinks ready to be taken, he grabbed two glasses full of alcohol and made his way to the corner where the Warden was standing. Without a word, he held one of the glasses towards her, and waited for it to be taken. She raised an eyebrow at him, then audibly sighed before accepting the drink.
“I didn’t see at the Nighthold. It surprised me,” he said to start another conversation.
“I wasn’t there. There was nothing specific I could have done to help, and I was probably not welcomed anyway.”
“They were afraid you would kill me again right away?” Illidan chuckled as he tried to lighten the mood.
“I would have probably done it to shut them up,” she replied with a more serious tone than him. “Then, I would have grabbed your body and thrown it out from that tower to make sure all of your bones are broken. And I don’t know, maybe I would have thrown myself from it as well.”
For a moment, Maiev didn’t add anything more and the silence between them became heavy from the implication of her words. It took a few seconds for her to realize that she should probably say more.
“And blink, of course. It would be the fastest way to reach your corpse. Then, I would have taken you away in an even more secret place and no one would have ever found your body ever again.”
“Sounds like something you would do.”
Illidan brought the glass to his lips, slowly drinking. He knew that the conversation could only be awkward, especially in the beginning, and the longer he would make his drink last, the less likely he’ll have to leave. After all, all the conversations he had that evening were awkward, but with Maiev, there was some kind of warmth to it.
He glanced at her, noticed something, and before he could really think about it, he brought a hand to her face and gently brushed his thumb over a scar that went from her cheek to her throat.
“That one wasn’t there last time.”
“Got it in Black Rook Hold when they imprisoned me. A demon cut me and I made sure to send them back to their master,” she replied.
Illidan’s hand was still against her skin. She did nothing to remove it.
As he noticed it, Illidan intensified his spectral sight and glanced around them, trying to find out if anyone was looking at them right now. If it had been the case, he would have simply taken back his hand, but he wasn’t quite sure that he wanted to do it yet. But if anyone had noticed the odd couple, they had been nice enough to quickly look away.
“Have you told anyone,” he lowered his voice. “That you almost killed me before the attack on the Black Temple.”
Maiev’s face gradually took a red tint as the memories were flooding back.
The words. The tears. The intimacy.
She shook her head and instantly cooled down. Whether Illidan was doing that to humiliate her, or because he just wanted to talk about that night that happened so long ago, wasn’t clear.
“Why would I when I failed? And before you talk more about it, I was only doing an act to make you lower your guard.”
A sad smirk grew on his face.
“If it was an act, you should resign from your Warden’s job and start doing theater. You will do numbers with how good it was.”
“Why do you care?” she sighed and finally pushed away his hand from her face. “You shouldn’t even talk to me. I killed you, remember.”
“Oh, I remember and well. It’s just that while I was dead… Might be hard to explain but… I was conscious. In the Nether. And I was stuck in a loop. Living through you killing me, again and again.” Illidan winced at the memories, and the pain it was bringing back. “And while it was happening, I couldn’t stop remembering what you said that night. And I wondered… If I had noticed… That I had talked to you… Would I be there? Dying by your hand, again and again and again and again…”
“You know you deserved it,” she whispered back.
“Didn’t say I didn’t. Maybe it would have been someone else I’d been seeing.”
Silence settled between them. They drank, avoiding each other’s gazes. It wasn’t a conversation they should have had that early with Illidan’s return, and yet, it was happening. Maybe that it was for the better, and to allow them to move forward while taking Azeroth’s best interest in mind. After all, for the next weeks — if not months — they would have to forget all personal problems and only think about the future of the planet before said future would be taken away by the Legion.
A long and deep sigh left Maiev as she broke the silence.
“That shirt really, really doesn’t do you any favors.”
“Maybe, but at least you’re not being distracted from the conversation,” Illidan joked back.
“Not really. I would be less distracted without it actually.”
“Well,” he began to say as the last syllable went on while he checked their surroundings. “I can’t really remove it as long as we’re here. But if we left the party, I could probably take it off and be able to breathe better.”
“I guess that we stayed long enough for what was expected of us.” Maiev agreed as she moved away from the wall. “And I wouldn’t say no to some fresh air.”
Illidan reached his hand to her as an invitation, but she only shook her head and moved past him. As she passed in front of a table, she put down the glass on it and then kept walking — knowing that Illidan was following her as it was his idea. He mimicked her, and then hurried to match her pace — hoping that Khadgar wouldn’t be disappointed in his sudden disappearance.
Soon enough, they were out of the big ballroom from the Violet Citadel. Although they wanted some night breeze, they quickly noticed that they weren’t the only ones who thought about it as they saw dozens of people standing outside. With just a glance between them, they decided to switch their direction and they stayed within the walls of the Citadel. They walked a little through the empty hallways, until they reached the one with the empty rooms for the exhausted adventurers.
“Do you want some privacy?” Illidan asked as he showed one of the rooms that had an open door as a sign of availability.
“And if someone sees us-”
“Do you care about what people would say?”
One side of her lips curled up in a half-smile.
“Not really.”
They entered the room and closed the door for the promised privacy. What would it entail? They didn’t know yet but anything was better than the suffocating party they were forced to attend. Lots of words were left unsaid, but they also knew that they would have the time to say them.
Probably.
Maiev sat down on the bed as she untied her hair, allowing it to flow freely over her body. The small green scarf around her neck was also removed and put on the nightstand close to her. Meanwhile, Illidan opened the window to allow the air to refresh the room, and he finally took off the white shirt that he had been wearing all evening.
“I hope Khadgar won’t throw out parties every week”, he tried to joke to lighten up the mood.
“It’s not me that you should ask that,” Maiev replied from the bed. “I’m not really his friend. I’m just here to do my job.”
“Protecting your home or keeping an eye on me?”
“You know it’s the same thing.”
“I do.”
The mattress lowered down with Illidan’s weight as he sat next to Maiev. He noticed another scar that wasn’t on her the last time he had seen her without her armor.
“So, what’s the plan now?” he asked.
“Nothing sure yet. Khadgar will need the leader’s approval for your addition to the counterattack, and then, whether he has it or not, he will have to finalize the structure of the Army of Legionfall. Currently, only he and Velen are sure to have a role in it. So, I guess we can expect at least one week without anything being really done. Then, we’ll set up the counterattack on the Broken Shore.”
“I meant right now,” Illidan corrected, although he had let her finish speaking instead of interrupting her right away. “What do you want to do? Or say?”
“Oh. I… I don’t know.”
“In that case, can I ask a question?” She hummed to say yes. “When there was the vote to bring me back, what did you say?”
Maiev looked away before answering. She could feel Illidan’s gaze burning on her and she was aware that her response would end up shaping their relationship for the future. Yet, she wouldn’t be able to lie as anyone who had taken part of that vote would be able to tell the truth to Illidan.
“I said yes.”
Before she could say anything more, she felt his arms wrapping up around her waist and his weight growing against her side. If she was allowing it, they would have been already lying down on the bed, but she stayed strong — even as his face ended in the hollow of her neck and that her face was between his imposing horns. Yet, that sudden demonic warmth against her had never felt so good. Against her will, her hands moved to his back, her nails slowly stabbing the thick skin and her arms closing around his body as well.
“Illi-”
“One word.” His voice was really low, like a low growl in her ears. “One word and I take back from where we left it.”
She had thought that this one night at the Black Temple had been enough. That she would be past her feelings for Illidan. Even if she would have needed a rejection back then, she didn’t get it. And now, it felt so different, yet so similar. She couldn’t explain it. Her life had always been a mess, and it would probably always be the case.
Yet…
“We can say that we were drunk,” he began to find excuses. “That I didn’t recognize you. That you were going to kill me.”
Maiev laughed at the attempt. She wasn’t even sure that she wanted to find herself an excuse for the night.
After all, she had spent countless nights staring at a ceiling, wondering what would be the first thing she would tell Illidan if he was coming back to life. And even if she couldn’t have foreseen the white shirt hiding his chest from here, she knew what she would have ended up saying at some point.
“Please,” she begged him
The outfits in question:
