imagine a lilia with a human! gn! granny reader
warnings: none, just fluff with a bit of angst at the end! A FEW BOOK 7 SPOILERS. happy birthday peepaw
is the word granny gn? well, it is now :P this relationship is too cute not to write more about. anyways, 1.8k words
picture this:
a sweet looking elder, slightly hunched over with a smattering of wrinkles, strolling through the town of sage's island at a leisurely pace. right beside them... is a floating fae with coy scarlet eyes and boyish features!
when you first visit nrc, the students (with the exception of some diasomnia students like malleus, silver, and sebek) seem to think you're lilia's, or perhaps silver's grandparent. you have such kind eyes, such a caring demeanor, not to mention... rather grayed features.
you swat lilia when he picks his nose in public (yes, he does this) and thrust a self-embroidered handkerchief into his hands, you tenderly scold sebek whenever he's being too loud, you carefully place a blanket over silver when he falls into a sudden bout of drowsiness... why, you're not even afraid of the prince of briar valley, always urging malleus to socialize with students outside of his usual group!
HOWEVER, the other students are quite shocked when lilia lovingly kisses your cheek and calls you "dearie", or when you exchange sweet nothings in the common room as he wraps his arms around your sagging skin (really, even if you weren't as old as you are, you'd still make the others ill with your public displays of affection. lilia's a total sap for you). and... are those matching rings??? is this who the vice housewarden really is?! a man who chases after older individuals?!
it's a relief, albeit not as much as one might think, when it's revealed that you met lilia many years ago. it's a fairy tale-esque love story that you've regaled the ears of silver, malleus, and sebek with over and over until they bled.
you met lilia in a meadow in briar valley. your family was rather apprehensive about you falling in love with a fae, so you rendezvoused in private, eagerly listening as he delighted you with tales of his travels and exploits, serenaded you with his charming singing voice, and brought you all sort of shiny trinkets from all over twisted wonderland. eventually, you left your home to be with him, and moved into the cottage that he raised silver in. you were officially married when silver was but a wee one, wed in the meadow you met in with a bunch of silver's forest critter friends as your witnesses.
you still recall the day lilia ran home with a bundle in his arms. you were already getting on in years, but never before had you seen the fae so utterly panicked.
"whose child is this, darling?! are you cheating on me???" "my love, it's not so! i found him-" after a long-winded explanation, you end up heavily doting over silver and raising him like your own. he ends up calling you his parent as he does lilia. silver is the one who persuades you in private to cook dinner so lilia doesn't concoct a weapon of mass destruction. he trains extra hard until the calluses on his hands bleed, preparing to protect you as he notices the way you're slowing down (and you're there to tug him away, to wipe his sweat, tend to his wounds and gently admonish him for not better knowing his limits). you're getting on in age, now. what if you fall and break a hip? what if you're collateral for someone trying to usurp the briar valley throne because of your connections to lilia and malleus? silver must be there so he can protect you, and he needs to train to confidently stand by you as your son. the day silver found out you and lilia weren't his biological parents and fled from home, it was you who first ran out to comfort him. your assurance and unwavering love makes him feel like perhaps he does belong. silver considers you and lilia the closest family he has. sebek is not far off from silver. you're already respectable in your own right (despite your humanity), you've managed to ensnare the general of the right! sebek, at first, sorely underestimated your strength. you're fully human, after all, and you're getting older at a quicker pace than him! what can you do except be a human and bake (delicious) human cookies whenever he comes to sir lilia's cottage to train! sebek, however, switched his tune early on. when you gave him the look after he took his rivalry with silver a bit too far, loudly pestering him and waking him up to spar, he learned how fearsome you could be. it's no wonder lilia caves instantly to you. you hold an extra soft spot in malleus's heart. you're a human, and much more fragile than he is, after all. even so, he respects you greatly. you've softened lilia, and you've been the voice of reason to both him and malleus many times. you've helped put whatever biases malleus may have had toward humans to rest, you've looked him straight in the eye without a hint of intimidation, and challenged his ideals. malleus laments the cycle of life, that one of the few humans who genuinely cares about him will be laid to rest before what feels like a single blink of an eye to him. he contemplates using his unique magic to let you rest forever in a happy dream where you're all together as a family, but he knows that might tear your husband apart. so for now, he'll watch over you... you two bond over struggling with using technology.
you greatly confuse the students of nrc. why do you visit so often, anyways (because the thorn prince threatened put in a word with the old crow)? they become fond of you, though. who could hate the sweet old granny who bakes them gooey chocolate chip cookies and crochets them cute things?
snippets of nrc students and their opinions about you:
you remind epel of his grandma. you even met her once and baked apple pie together!
you and kalim feed the birds together. the crows like kalim because of his shiny accessories. in a way, they remind you a bit of your husband.
vil recommends you anti-aging products and skincare routines to make you look more youthful. you pat his head, calling him "such a sweet young man!" (he doesn't know how to react. he's never been called that before. he's always the villain on tv, and he's not exactly known for being sweet)
ruggie tries to pickpocket you once (because an elder is an easy target). your husband puts an end to that with a playful smile and a glint in his eye, and ruggie ends up helping you cross streets and carrying your things. in return, you sew up the rips and tears in his worn uniform.
whenever deuce gets into a scuffle, you give him a right smack on the head and chastise him. you're a bit like his mom, and he doesn't want to disappoint you, so he'll try to be better!
somehow you get idia to take breaks. he spends too much time staring at a screen! he has the opposite problem of your son silver: he needs more sleep. whenever lilia games too late and his gaming friend also happens to be online, you take reins of the keyboard and send messages with extreme amounts of typos and voice messages in the game chat to gloomurai, telling him he needs his eight hours. idia eventually relents, because the wholesome granny meta is god-tier. he is confused, however, about the age and life of the man he's gaming with. it's rare to see a gamer with a healthy relationship. and you type like unc.
rook thinks your relationship with lilia is the pinnacle of love. when he's curious about you, he'll watch you. "pull up a chair, dearie," you'll say, crow's feet prominent as you give him a smile, "knitting is more enjoyable with company." rook is a bit surprised you're able to sense him. then again, your husband also has a habit of sneaking up on others. perhaps you've grown a sixth sense for these sorts of things.
it's still weird for the students and staff of nrc to see the youthful visage of lilia clinging to your grayed and aged appearance, even if they know the truth behind your relationship. it doesn't help, once again, that you're a pair of lovebirds. lilia's all over you whenever he sees you, throwing his arms around you with a cheerful "darling!". silver is the constant victim of "your parent this-" and "your parent that-", and great seven forbid anyone asks lilia about his relationship, or they'll be witness to an old man's hour-long ramblings about his soulmate.
lilia never thought he'd fall in love with a human. he used to fight wars against them, and now he's deeply smitten with one of their kind. he's mellowed out over the years, with no small part by you, and he enjoys learning more about human traditions and customs from you very much. for example, he's come to expect chocolate from you each valentine's day. after all, dear, no one makes it like you do~
when he looks at the life you've built together, a warmth swells in his chest. pride and love mix together and he thinks he's never felt so content in his entire life. he's still learning about you, though. humans are so interesting when they grow old!
enjoys tracing every new wrinkle, every mark and all the textures of your skin with his hands. his body has not changed much over hundreds of years, so seeing yours is quite fascinating to him. certainly not just because he enjoys touching you, khee hee~
explains lingo to you.
"my love, lowkenuinely is a combination of lowkey and genuinely. how novel, aren't the youngsters so creative? language evolves so fast!"
"i'm too old for this." you press a gentle kiss to his forehead and go back to embroidering a towel for silver and sebek to wipe themselves off after their training sessions. your husband doesn't seem to mind, relishing in the attention. honestly, despite being hundreds of years older, he can be such a baby! he uses his cuteness to his utmost advantage. "darling, don't play favorites. won't you embroider a towel for little ol' me, too?"
idia had to do a spit take when lilia called you a cougar/gilf.
relationship unnerving or not, nrc sees how you change lilia, how you fill every day of his with joy. you tidy up the messy hoard that is his room, you crochet him fuzzy mittens and sweaters that he proudly struts around in ("my darling partner made it. go on, feel it, isn't it comfortable? khee hee hee."). when you fix his uniform tie, they see the dopey grin that spreads across his face. also, they don't have to be the victims of his cooking with you around to deter him! lilia always listens to you when it comes to these things. after all, you helped raise silver into a strapping young man!
admittedly, you take a lot of stress off of him. he's had to raise and keep watch over quite a few rowdy whippersnappers over the years, and he feels he couldn't have done it without you. you allow him to breathe. you're his respite.
it's easy to see the joy lilia brings you, too. your crow's feet and laugh lines tell a story of a life filled with smiles and laughter.
lilia is painfully aware of your mortality, though he tries to push it out of his mind. he's lost too many people in his storied life. for now, though, he'll do his best to enjoy your embrace while your arms are still warm. he'll massage your aching muscles. he'll make you a cup of steaming tea when you get the chills, the one tasty refreshment he's made efforts to perfect, all for you. he'll match your languid pace. he'll stare at you for as long as he can until the world demands him, because he wants to soak up every image of you that he can, while he can. he'll hold his hands in your wrinkled ones, trying not to stare too hard at the difference between your fingers and his. he'll lay his head on your heart, listening to your heartbeat and letting it lull him to rest. he'll carve your warmth into every crevice of his memory.
this old man loves you so much that sometimes it feels like his heart will spill out of his chest. you were lovely decades ago, and you're ethereal now.
even with your wrinkles and sagging skin, you're the most beautiful thing in the world to him.
end note: wouldn't it be funny if lilia used his unique magic on himself or tokens from your relationship to relive your memories together after you die hahahah just a thought...
