@duskcrown asked: ❝ i know when you’re here, the real monsters can’t touch me. ❞ cadestraea 😭😭😭 / a meme i didn’t actually reblog but told flora to send me.
𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄’𝐒 𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 atmosphere in enke dalen — he’s not sure if it’s the otherworldliness of the moon elves, or astraea’s family with their chins held high, but cade hasn’t felt relaxed since they pushed through the boundary of the forest. it’s not until they enter her grandfather’s garden that he manages a deep breath, hand still tightly holding hers. and it’s not until she speaks that the tension begins to fade, at least temporarily, and he’s smiling slightly despite it all. “i’m not going to let anyone hurt you.” the fighter has never sworn something with so much confidence; they may be in uncharted territory, but he knows he’d keep her safe or die trying. (he worries about what the future holds, for the day he may not be able to keep that promise, and if astraea will continue to love him regardless). blinking the thought away, cade nods, leaning down and pressing a kiss against her forehead. “i know you’d do the same for me.” the archer is a lover not a fighter, but he’s seen her eyes when the people she loves get hurt. THERE’S A FIRE THERE, just the same as his own eyes, and he has no doubt she would keep him safe.
𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐎 pull him along the paths, and he can’t help but grin with her, allowing himself for just a moment to experience the joy she found in the simplest of things. it’s then he lets himself talk with no filter. “i wish i could show you my home, but — well, it was never home, i guess.” it wasn’t a complete lie to say that either. there were bits of his past where he felt at home: sitting in his mother’s garden, thinking of the few memories he had of her, or his time spent with kai, not allowing himself to think about anything else. but it wasn’t home. (if anything, cade has always found home to be more of a person than a place, which is why his definition of the word is so much more loose). he traces his fingers along a flower’s petal, before turning to look at astraea, admiring her beauty more than anything else around them. of course home is a person; HE’S LOOKING RIGHT AT IT. “home’s here. with you.” and he thinks it means more, considering they’re in her kingdom of all places. this certainly isn’t somewhere he’d like to spend the rest of his days, not with the way astraea had been treated all day. (hell, he’d probably get in a fight with one of them within the next day or so if they didn’t keep their mouths shut). but he manages a soft smile, squeezing her hand gently. he’d follow her anywhere. that much he knows.
