Pairing: Seraphina x reader
Prompt: How about Seraphina/Reader first I love you being almost unintended, they're leaving for work and say like "I need to go, so bye babe. I love you." With a small kiss and reader just responds "okay. I love you too" and they only realise what happened when they are at work. (by anonymous)
You’d been trying to work up the courage to say it for weeks. It was always in the back of your mind, waiting there for what you were sure would be the most perfect moment. Well, perhaps, perfect wasn’t quite the word for it. When it came to romance, you weren’t necessarily a fan of excessive planning, but this…it felt important—defining, even. Because after five of the best months spent in each other’s company, you were going to tell Seraphina Picquery that you loved her. Because you did. God, you loved the woman more than you ever thought it was possible to love anybody. It was a beautiful feeling, nuanced and always changing shape inside of you. It kept you up at night sometimes, the thought of her. It gave you butterflies, made the world stop spinning at least six times a day. Everything was just more with her—she was more.
“Do you ever just…think?” You asked her one evening, more than a little dazed and staring up at the ceiling, book sprawled across your chest. You’d reread the same page about four times by then, and still couldn’t remember a single word of it. “Not about anything in particular just…you just let your mind go.” Seraphina shuffled from her place at the desk, dropping her pen carefully beside the growing pile of documents that seemed to constantly require her attention. She leaned back in her chair, sighing drowsily. Her eyelids looked like they were getting heavy. Even her shoulders were starting to fall, a sure sign that sleep was quickly becoming an urgent necessity. But even so, she seemed to consider your words for a moment, biting her lip thoughtfully and looking up at the ceiling, rocking in her chair all the while.
“I think…,” she hummed, thoughtfully, “that it’s late. And you need to sleep.” A playful smile stretched across her lips, but didn’t quite reach her eyes. Her eyes were still wide and shimmering. Unfocused, even. Yes, you thought to yourself, you were both in rather desperate need of sleep.
“No, I’m not letting you get away from this one,” you laughed, still watching her carefully. She was dressed down for the evening, sitting only in her slip and a housecoat, feet bare and hair down. She was beautiful like that. Well, truthfully, she was beautiful always. In fact, you were entirely convinced that sorcery had to be involved in that particular feat. But there was something about seeing her so at ease that just made your heart flutter. “So, Madam President,” you began, “does that mind of yours ever stop working long enough to itself be occupied elsewhere?” She let out a soft chuckle, gazing out towards the window and folding her hands in her lap, looking pensive as she always did this time of night.
“Well,” she murmured, her voice raspy and tired, “I can think of a few instances in which…that might be the case.” Silence followed, if only for a few, short seconds. It was a gentle silence, not awkward or compromising, but…reflective. But finally, Seraphina yawned and you yawned moments later.
“You’re right. We should get some sleep.” She nodded, slowly pushing herself to her feet. And you stepped up, too, folding your arm around her waist and relishing in the way she leaned into your shoulder. You fell asleep that way, wrapped up in her just like you always were.
“Honey, Do you know where I left the folder for foreign affairs? It's not on my desk.” It took a second for those words to register so early in the morning. As a matter of fact, when you first heard them they didn’t sound like words at all. But you shook yourself awake quickly enough, ignoring what had to be quite the bedhead and trying to make sense of what Seraphina was asking.
“What was that?” You managed through a yawn, completely baffled as to how Seraphina could get up so early and not feel like she’d just been trampled by a stampede.
“I asked if you’d seen the folder I’m supposed to deliver to foreign affairs. It has the speech I wrote yesterday evening,” she explained, walking into the room looking disgustingly immaculate for six o’clock.
“Yeah, it’s in the kitchen,” you mumbled lazily. “I proofread it.” She rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face betrayed her, just like it always seemed to.
“Well, thank you,” she muttered, pressing a kiss to the corner of your mouth. “Now, as much as I would love to stay in this bed with you forever, I'm going to be late to a meeting if I stay for one more second.”
“Go on then,” you chuckled, “go do important things. I’ll still be here when you get home.”
“I love you,” she said, waving as she went.
“I love you, too,” you muttered sleepily, smiling when she stopped at the door and just beamed, baring her soul to world, to you. She always did have the most beautiful smile, you thought, before drifting back to sleep.
“Now, does anyone need clarification about how this is going to proceed?” Seraphina’s voice commanded attention. Hell, everything about her commanded attention, from her clothes to very way she held herself. A chorus of “no ma’am” followed, accompanied by the nodding heads of a handful of officials.
“That’ll be all then,” she sighed, placing her materials back in their case. “You’re dismissed.” The room began to clear out, and soon enough, only she remained, standing in the centre of a suddenly very empty room. She sighed, eyeing the time and being utterly disappointed when it was only half past eleven. She didn’t usually want the time to pass more quickly. She enjoyed her job, but…something felt different. More urgent, perhaps you could say. Her thoughts drifted, just like you’d said they would, and she let them, for once. And just as they ceaselessly seemed to, the drifted back to you, her partner, her girlfriend.
“Thinking hard about something there, Picquery?” Graves called from the door, but the words barely even registered as that because…that was it. It came to you, then and there that the words hadn’t been completely digested on more than one occasion that morning. She had said…and then you had said…the one thing Seraphina had been waiting for since…well, since forever.
“She said she loved me,” Seraphina muttered mindlessly, a goofy grin—one that was quite out of character, mind you—forming on her face. “She said…she said she loved me, too.”
“Uh…Okay?” Percival mumbled, clearly quite lost. “Look, I just came to drop off these papers.” He put them down on the table, still watching her with a slightly bemused smirk painted on his features.
“I need to go,” she said, suddenly, frantically beginning to gather her papers into a messy pile and stuffing them desperately into their respective folders. “Inform the council that I’ll won’t be back today.” Percival opened his mouth to speak, but she was gone before her could get a word in.
And he was left standing in the hallway, more at loss than he ever remembered feeling.
You heard the door open and shut midday, an uncommon occurrence, and quite frankly, an alarming one.
“Seraphina…,” you shouted, “is that you?"
“Yeah,” she called back, and you instantly breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s me.” You scrambled wildly to your feet, rounding the corner into the kitchen to find Seraphina, looking entirely shaken.
“Is everything okay?” You asked, because this was all odd to say the least. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she whispered, casting her eyes down to her feet. “Everything is fine…it’s just that-“ she paused, tongue darting out to wet her lips, “this morning, before I left…I said…well, I said that I loved you,” she rambled, her breath suddenly coming in short bursts, “and you said you loved me, too.”
And you laughed, before you could help yourself. Not because the idea was outlandish, no, but because it had been something you’d been planning so meticulously, something that you’d fret over for weeks, and it had been snatched up my fate, just like that. But Seraphina stood there frozen, her cheeks dusting themselves red in a matter of seconds because god damn it. She let doubts flood her mind, terrifying her almost to the point of madness.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep, I understand if-“
“No, Seraphina, I’m not laughing at you,” you assured her quickly, stepping closer to her and taking her hands in yours. “I’m laughing because of how it happened. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to tell you I loved you? Do you know how much time I spent worrying you wouldn’t feel the same?”
For a moment, the air between you was still. Her eyes bore into your own, searching for something they couldn’t quite find. Perhaps, any sigh that you were being insincere. Her eyes started to water, her hands trembling inside yours, and you saw something in her that was so intensely vulnerable.
“What’s wrong?” You whispered, unlacing your fingers to wrap your arms around her waist, to pull her closer. She welcomed the embrace, falling into you easily. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”
“I just…I was afraid you wouldn’t…,” she choked back a sob, burying her face in your neck. “I’m just happy. I’m happy.” You rubbed her back, feeling her smile against your skin and just feeling bliss.
“I’m happy, too,” you murmured. “I’m always happy with you.”
