imagine cuddling with laios as you both fall into food comas after having dinner
laios only gets that full on certain occasions, days spent rationing food in the dungeon only lets him eat to a certain extent. so when there’s a chance, he takes it.
he’d groan and sigh, plopping on a couch with his head leaning a bit to the side.
“so full…” he murmurs. you quickly fall right beside him with a content moan.
“but so worth it.” you smile.
laios hums in agreement, reaching a hand out to splay it across your tummy. “i missed senshi’s cooking, and now without the limits to us having to save portions, he went all out.”
you could only mumble what you think was a small ‘yeah’, head leaning against his shoulder, you nuzzle against his warm body.
“what if we just passed out right here, right now?” you don’t even bother opening your eyes.
laios smiles, inching closer and wrapping his arms around you. “already on it.”
5.4 k words / warnings - misunderstandings, you're manipulative but in a marriage-seeker way, lame ass exposition dump at the beginning sorry
summary - you go to The Island in hopes of finding a suitor better than what your parents picked, you meet Laios. disaster ensues.
posting while bleaching my hair send hlep
~~~
When you were five, your father’s first hunting dog died. Matilda. A hound mix he praised as if she were his firstborn, and that would sound neglectful if she didn’t feel like your eldest sister. When she died, a true member of the family died. Your child heart exploding out of your little chest with the mosaic of grief ripping you this way and that. It was so ugly, you hadn’t expected to feel that way until your parents or a human sister croaked on you.
It’d also inspired you to do better for yourself than what destiny had in mind. As the youngest in a long line of children, you had little hope of a large inheritance from your well-off father. Instead, you would marry rich and smart and handsome.
Leading you, with a throbbing disinterest in the suitor picked by your parents, to set for The Island in the year 510.
Where you met a very strange man named Laios Touden.
Denial
Month 1 - your first proposition
“We should celebrate with drinks,” you skim a finger along the waistline of his cuirass, “Another dive with no deaths.”
“Oh, yeah,” Laios nods, grinning blandly at you, “You think I could rope Shuro into sticking around this time? He usually skips nights out unless Falin asks.”
“I was thinking something a little more private. Just you and me, maybe?”
“Sure,” suddenly his brows furrow, a serious ridge setting across his lips, “Is there something you need? I know rent in the western part of The Island is starting to go up, do you live there?”
“Laios, I- “ you cut yourself off before reminding him you two live on the same street because a sudden idea strikes you. He’s doing this on purpose. Of course, he is. He’s the type of guy that wants you to actually ask for it, “I mean, if you really want then I guess everyone coming isn’t so bad.”
But two can play at that game.
“Okay, great! I’ll let the party know,” he gives you a thumbs up and turns towards the rest of your group as they pack for the surface.
You watch him wrap an arm around Toshiro and beam at the withdrawn man. You deduce that he’s the type that likes to be chased. Which you feel is a little beneath you, but you’re willing to play a long game as long as he makes it worth your time.
Month 2 - the time you take him to dinner
“This place is so quiet,” Laios murmurs, both hands splayed across the table.
You study his fingers, thick and red at the joints -- you bet a gold wedding band would glitter nicely on his hand. Candle light flickers suddenly, a shadow sharpening across his face as he looks around. This snags your attention, you lean forward and curl both arms on the table, chest pressing into the well.
“Well, it’s nice, right?”
“I guess,” he avoids looking you in the face, instead focusing on your painted lips before flitting to the table, “I just feel like it's more for couples, right?”
This is it!
“Huh, you think so?”
“Mhm,” his eyes settle between your own, observing the curve from your forehead to your nose.
“I bet we make a pretty couple, then.”
“Oh,” he nods slowly, mulling over the suggestion, “Probably. I’d say we’re both decently attractive people.”
Is this it?
Just as you go to ask what exactly he means by that, your food is ready and Laios starts rambling about how hungry he was regardless of the awkward atmosphere. It makes no sense, but he’s the next village chief of his hometown so you let it pass.
Month 6 - the time you two take a walk
“Thanks for accompanying me.”
Laios waves off your gratitude, “It was nice to find out we live on the same street anyway.”
You bite your tongue from telling him that he should already know this in favor of boldly wrapping an arm around his. A rehearsed yelp splices your throat; practiced stumble rocking you askew. Immediately, you set to memorizing the feel of his beefy bicep around yours, wondering how his waist feels. His thighs. His neck and calves and cheeks.
“I saw a rat,” the lie slips easily, spare hand coming up to coyly cup your own cheek.
“Really?” he peeks over your head, “Where?”
“Laios, that’s not important!”
“I didn’t hear any squeaking, do you think it was trying to be quiet?”
“Laios!” you pinch his arm, apologetically rubbing over the tender skin when he whines, “I hate rats…”
“They’re just- “ your sudden furrowing brows and massive scowl halts the rest of his sentence, “Sorry. Are you scared of them?” before you can respond, he spins you towards his other side -- arms still linked tightly, “If you heard it over here, it’s probably best I stay on this side.”
“Aww,” you tilt your head against his shoulder, “That’s actually so sweet, Laios. Thank you.”
“Uh-huh,” you’re too blinded by the gesture to notice his intense stare scavenging along the dark ground, if you did then you probably would’ve realized he just wanted to see a rat.
Month 11 - the time you find his gourmet guide
“Is this why you started a party?”
“No,” his face flushes rogue from forehead to collarbones, eyes darting away from you. Hands twitching to rip the book from your own.
“You’re an awful liar,” you wave the stained, peeling green book -- careful to not rip any of his carefully placed tabs or note cards in the swaying, “Why hide this? Everyone already knows you’re chock full of monster trivia.”
Laios sighs quietly, reaching out for the book, and he seems genuinely surprised with what little fight you put up. He smooths one of the curling edges of the cover under his thumb, “This book hasn’t gotten the best reception before. It's easier to just avoid people seeing it.”
Somewhere in your chest, there’s a twinge and ache before you’re speaking again -- for once no plan or motive to your words, “That’s terrible, Laios. You should be able to show it off.”
“You think so?” he grins.
Technically comforting him will only advance your plan to wed, but strangely you’re finding that you just… want to. You don’t want him to filter himself to live, that sounds cruel.
“You can talk to me about it anytime,” you don’t find monsters so fascinating -- to you they’re no different from a common beast, what does it matter that they’re eaten by Laios? Despite your own indifference, you want nothing more than to indulge Laios, “I’d love to hear about how they taste.”
And you’re not sure where that desire comes from.
“I haven’t been able to eat one yet, but I’m hoping to. I can’t find time to traverse the first few floors by myself.”
You just know that it feels right to see him excited.
“You don’t have to go by yourself now, I can join. You’ll be able to go deeper that way, right?” you laugh at his flaming cheeks, “And what luck: I’m a support mage, you couldn’t ask for a better setup.”
“I’ll have to see when our next rest period is, that way we won’t be exhausted before going on our own.”
And when you’re in bed alone later that night, you justify to yourself that having a secret between one another will lay good foundation for future intimacy. You pretend that was on your mind the entire time you made the offer.
Year 2 - the time you invite him into your home
“I have lychees. It’d be a shame to let them go bad, you know?”
“What are lychee?” Laios glances from your neck to your room door.
“You’re kidding,” you twist the knob and swing it open with the weight of your body, thudding against the wall to allow Laios entry, “They’re fruits! Imports from the Eastern Archipelago, I would’ve thought you’d hear about them since you pester Toshiro about the area all the time…”
Laios’ head is on a full axis swivel to find anything unfamiliar, ready to taste all your excitement about the fruits, “No, never came up,” he watches you stride past him to a cabinet, “By the way, whose Toshiro?”
Quietly, you laugh to yourself, pulling down a rocky, pinkish ball. Laios is too busy thinking about the damage it’s looking to do to his bare hand to process the fact you never answered his question.
(you thought he was joking)
“Consider this a gift for walking me home again.”
“You asked,” he shrugs, watching as you squeeze around the fruit until it cracks in the middle, then peeling the shell away, “Besides, we live on the same street so it’s not out of my way.”
You hope he says that because he remembered, rather than having ‘discovered’ it for the fourth time. To stop yourself from asking clarification, you slice the pearly fruit in two, plucking the dark seed before handing both halves to Laios.
“I’ve heard some people just pop the whole thing in their mouth, but I’ve never tried it that way,” you confess, watching him roll the fruit from one cheek to the other before chomping down.
Laios’ eyes flutter shut, a muted moan following, “That’s sweet.”
“I know, right?”
“But I still get hints of citrus.”
“I know, right?!”
He points to the other lychee in your palm, “Do you have more, or…?”
You don’t.
“Have it,” you peel and deseed the one in your hand to press against his lips, “Say ‘ahh’!”
He smiles faintly at the cooing, popping his mouth open for you to slide the fruit past his teeth and onto his tongue. A soft kiss tickles your fingertips as he mutters, “Thanks.”
“Uh, yeah,” you pull back slowly, tangling your fingers behind your back and rocking onto the balls of your feet nervously, “Yeah, of course.”
You’ve never been nervous this way around a man before. You’ve felt fear and you’ve felt hatred and you’ve had crushes, but none of those have made your heart pound quite so hard.
It’ll be good to be attracted to your husband, you think, anybody can marry into power but it takes a real hunter to find power so handsome and polite.
Year 3 - the time you ask him to marry you
“We should get married,” you blurt, interrupting Laios as he ponders aloud the best way to safely boil a scorpion.
Laios darts up from his book, wide eyes unabashedly boring into your soul, “What?”
“You and me,” you’ve chased enough, now you’re ready for him to get serious -- you can’t live like this. Dangling just out of reach, only to be abruptly yanked at his whim. Your parents want to meet your fiance, the one you’ve abandoned home to find: the one you’re apparently certain is better than their choice for you. You need him to admit defeat before you go insane, “We should get married.”
“That’s what I thought you said, but I wasn’t sure,” he closes his beloved gourmet guide around a bookmark you crafted specially for him from braided yarn and beads. It had multiple tassels for slotting various spots through the guide simultaneously to more easily find sections he was currently occupied with rather than sort through tabs. He loves its practicality, and he loves it more when he thinks about how you made it with him in mind.
He thinks you’re nice. He thinks you’re charming. He likes spending time with you. You even already know about his monster obsession, and you’re on-board!
Which is basically the best he can get, right?
Dinners with his parents were silent, and the room’s temperature would sink to match their chilly demeanors.
Dinners with you would be warm, and the quiet moments would be comfortable.
“Sure,” he eventually answers, when he finds no protesting nausea bubbling in his gut he takes it as a good sign, “We can get married.”
Not the exact response you’d been hoping for. Though, you should’ve been more direct, Laios is stubbornly socially inept after all.
You’ll mark it as progress anyway, overjoyed Laios is baseline willing. Which is enough for you.
Definitely enough.
Definitely. Just. Enough.
Anger
Upon arrival to the dungeon three years ago, you found it difficult to acclimate to the fact that death was not the end down here. When you saw your first corpse on the second level, you were nigh inconsolable in the weary arms of Toshiro as he mumbled assurances in your ear.
Now, as a seasoned adventurer, you’re reasoning that coldblooded murder isn’t immoral in the dungeon.
(of course, it is, and also of course, you won’t murder anybody. but- )
You rather like the image of the woman flirting with Laios exploding
Honestly the longer he goes without refusing her, the more you like the image of him exploding too.
“Laios is an idiot,” Toshiro again is the one to comfort you, “It’s best not to watch.”
You’re sure he’s right. You’re also sure you want to keep watching -- which will entirely ruin your mood for the crawl ahead of your party. This is only your first day, on the first level, during the first meal before you all officially set off. And Laios is explaining to a strange, yet beautiful, woman the way a slime can seep out overhead and suffocate her to death. She isn’t even appreciating the knowledge, she’s just staring at his stupid pink lips.
“Once she hears what he’s saying, she’ll lose all interest,” Toshiro adds, then continuing as your glare fails to subside, “It isn’t like you two are actually married. She probably thinks he’s single.”
“He is single,” Chilchuck buds in, hands locked behind his head, “Inter-party relationships are bad news, you know? I’ve seen lots of people fall apart because of jealousy and cheating,” he shoots daggers at Toshiro briefly, “Pining is just the first step to an all out collapse.”
You gasp at the accusation. You are not pining!
“I don’t even like him that way. We should just get married for the land and wealth advantages!”
You entertain his monster fantasies for the money, you feed him lychees for the status, and you’re fiending to rip that woman away for the property expansion. That’s all! His being handsome is just a bonus, not a factor. His soft heart is a neat detail, not something you dream about holding.
Chilchuck doesn’t believe you. And you don’t think you believe yourself at this point either.
Depression
In the wake of Chilchuck’s ominous warning: you’ve been avoiding Laios. You’ve been avoiding most of your party, actually. First to lay and last to rise from your bedroll to most effectively close yourself off from nipping at Laios again.
He hadn’t even managed the nerve to ask what had you so perturbed following his conversation with the floozy on the first floor. He just strolls along, normal as he could hope to be while you languish in the back of the party with Toshiro. You wonder if Laios notices you’re not at his side, you wonder what precisely is going through his head. Did he notice she was flirting? Did he care? Is he still keen on marrying you?
Was he ever?
Toshiro catches the sudden exasperated huff you let out, you rub at your aching eyes. While he detests Laios’ clueless and overly familiar nature, he does feel grateful to work with you. He’d consider it a massive shame if you were to drop from the party because of emotional duress.
“Read any good books lately?”
Your hands lower, eyes blinking sluggishly until you’re staring at him with full inquisition, “What…?”
Maintaining a forward stare, Toshiro reaffirms his resolve, “Humor me.”
“Uh, well…” you comb through your brain for any answer other than the honest one, exhaustion and melancholy blurring your lying ability, “Just one.”
Eager to strengthen your bond and hopefully secure your stay in the party when this Laios fiasco fully explodes, Toshiro smiles softly at you, “Tell me about it.”
“It’s, well, old. Really old. A little gourmet guide…” you pout, “Laios and I read it together.”
“Oh,” Toshiro clears his throat, “Sorry.”
Bargaining
Laios could not seem to care less as the handsome dwarf perched at your side pays you yet another compliment. A shred of you feels terrible, terrible pity for the man as every other second your attention sears across the packed tavern to your party. To the blondie still in his armor; the blondie not even looking your way.
“Another drink, then?”
“Hm?” you beat ungracefully, forgetting you were meant to be charming the man.
“Would you like another drink?” he gestures to the barrels behind the bar, “On my coin, of course,” his tone falters, head shifting to follow yours, “I get the idea you need to forget this night.”
“Oh, I- no, it’s nothing…” you risk another peek at Laios, finding him somehow more disinterested in you than before -- thoroughly enjoying a one-sided conversation with Toshiro, “I’m not…”
“Better ways to get your mister’s attention than flirting.”
“Oh,” you’re embarrassed to be figured out like this, “I’m sorry. Really, I can’t- God- I’m sorry.”
“He’s lookin’ this way.”
Chancing it, you confirm that Laios is now looking at the both of you. His amber eyes flit from your face to the man beside you, to the floor. He returns all focus to Toshiro.
“Wow.”
From pitier to pitied at breakneck speed is more jarring than Laios’ carelessness.
“He said he wanted to marry me,” you reason.
“Did he now?” the dwarf so obviously disbelieves you, you’re sick just hearing his voice.
“Yeah!”
The dwarf nods slowly, a sarcastic lilt in his following words, “Seems like he meant it.”
“I’m not drinking anymore…” you slide off the bar stool, pausing when the man’s voice punches your gut once more.
“You should find someone more attentive to you.”
Racing away from the dwarf, you tug Laios away from your party’s table by his elbow. You’re glaring, you’re glaring so hard and so viciously that it genuinely startles him.
“Are you okay?” his neck cranes to gaze upon the dwarf, “You were talking to that guy, right? Did he freak you out?”
“So you knew I was with him?” you scoff, “Don’t you care at all?”
Laios shrugs, he didn’t see flirting -- he has no idea what you’re talking about, and he doesn’t want to seem like a nightmare boss, so… “Not really, I guess.”
“Are you serious?!”
“It’s not a crime for you to unwind at a bar. Besides, it isn’t like we belong to each other or something.”
You turn suddenly, back completely to him before charging out of the bar -- Laios chases, disliking how this conversation is slated to end. He slams into you at the edge of the street, and when he tries balancing you by the shoulders you knock his hands away.
“I thought- “ you circle back to stare at his face, “I thought we were… I was always on top of you, and we- I said- you said we should get married.”
Laios squirms with humiliation, then irritation, “Well, you said it weird. Marcille says that stuff to Falin all the time. Why didn’t you just ask to be together?”
“I did!”
“Did you?”
“All the time…”
Acceptance
Laios squirms with humiliation, then irritation, “Well, you said it weird. Marcille says that stuff to Falin all the time. Why didn’t you just ask to be together?”
“I did!”
“Did you?”
“All the time…”
“I never knew,” he blinks at you, and the most dreadful thing is you know he’s not bluffing. Laios is a terrible liar, you’ve prided yourself on plucking his fibs apart in the past, but this is not one of those times.
“You didn’t notice?” you’re lightheaded at his nonchalance, arms coiling around your waist as if to belt your insides right where they are, “You seriously didn’t notice?”
“No,” Laios’ pretty lips tear in a frown, “Should I have?”
He means it literally: are you terribly sad or can we start all over again?
You assume he’s being himself, oblivious and avoidant and so, so, so annoying.
“I’m…” you stumble back, face so hot you’re seconds away from blacking out with terror. Stretching out to steady you, Laios continues to play the kind leader, and it only makes your dinner lurch up your throat. Instinctually, you clasp a hand over your mouth, shaking your head and taking a step back toward the bustling dirt path, “I’m going home.”
“Are you sure? You don’t have to, we can- ”
You shush Laios, memories whacking you over the head every millisecond just to taunt how stupid you were. Indignity blinds you, eyes snapping shut, “I’m going home, Laios.”
Panicked, you stammer a goodbye before lugging yourself away. Laios watches you fade into silhouette, drowning under the clogging crowd by townsquare until not even your head is visible. His fists screw at his sides, knuckles burning white, his feet feel the phantom pummeling of a rush against the ground; urging him forward. That might scare you though, and you already seemed awfully upset, so Laios figures it better to let you sleep off tonight. The two of you can rekindle tomorrow.
Peeking over your shoulder, you spot no broad shoulders or sandy blonde hair looming over the rest of the townsfolk.
Call it melodramatic and frustrating, but you were hoping Laios would follow just to grab your hand and ask you to stay. Not that you should be surprised. More often than not recently, you’d felt a burden on the party. Perhaps Laios is content you’re removing yourself. Perhaps he’ll be relieved you’re no longer pestering him. Perhaps he’ll walk inside and out your feelings to the rest of the party for them to share a laugh over.
(you should know him better than that, but you’re not in your right mind: storming into your room, a teary-eyed mess, to throw your things into bags)
Laios feels a lithe hand dig nails into his arm, he squeals sharply at the sensation and rips back to see Marcille gaping up at him. She throws an arm out toward the dirt road, “What are you doing?!”
Falin gently pries the elf off from Laios before humming thoughtfully at her brother, “They seemed really distraught. What happened?”
“Where’d you two come from?” Laios twists toward the tavern door, “I didn’t hear you at all…”
Flustered at the questioning, Marcille scoffs and drags Laios inside toward their table, “This isn’t about us! Have you never read romance before?! That was terrible!”
“They were upset, they probably wanted space,” Laios reasons, slumping into his seat at the head of the table, “We’ll see them tomorrow, we’ll talk again.”
“What’d you do now?” Chilchuck lifts a bottle of wine to his lips and tosses it back in a way that makes Toshiro cringe.
Namari quirks a brow at the man, waiting until he’s finished gulping to ask, “I thought you hated personal relationships and work?”
“I do, but if he just got rid of our other cleric then we should probably know about it.”
“I didn’t get rid of them!” Laios folds his arms with a sigh, “We’ll sort everything out tomorrow when we’re well-rested.”
Toshiro debates even opening his mouth. Laios is a one-man paradox, somehow well-meaning and belligerent in one breath -- overbearing and entirely hands-off. Laios’ spot in Toshiro’s heart is a complicated one: at this very moment the spot is incredibly tender. Down to that part of a night out where Toshiro empathizes with how clueless the bumpkin is, and it's that part of his brain that chastises him. After all, if it were him and Falin, he would want someone to say something.
“They’re going home,” Toshiro mumbles.
“Huh?” Laios cocks his head at the input, “I know, buddy, she told me she was heading home.”
“No,” be nice, be nice, be nice, be nice, “Home off The Island. No returning to the dungeon.”
“How’d you get all that?” Marcille leans onto the table with both elbows, nervously brushing long flaxen locks behind her ears.
“When we first met, it was something we talked about,” Toshiro confesses, “If they couldn’t marry on The Island, they’d have to take the suitor arranged by their parents back home. This rejection must be the final one.”
With Falin around, he decides to bite back his next statement: I’m not sure why Laios caught their eye in the first place, though.
“Pretty ditzy of you, party leader,” Chilchuck’s jab echoes into the bottle already resettled against his lips.
Laios stands, unsure of why except for the fact he cannot take the news lightly. His heart is racing in protest, one word jamming another in his hurry to speak, until he finally stutters out, “So?”
So, what should I do?
So, why wouldn’t you mention that?
So, why did he let you walk home alone?
“So…” Falin jumps to respond first, settling a massassing hand on Marcille’s shoulder to subdue the fuming woman, “If you want to smooth things over, you should probably go.”
Laios charges from the tavern despite Namari’s scolding that tonight was supposed to be on his tab.
Quickly coming to terms with the fact you’re long gone, Laios heads straight for the inn he and Falin live above. Certain once on that road, the memory of which hostel you’re renting out of will flood back to him.
.
.
.
You’re jamming bags puffy to the clasp when overzealous knocks threaten to rattle your door from its hinges. The only reason you don’t flee via window to shake the banging madman is because you recognize his voice: Laios, calling your name.
You sigh, forfeiting, “Come in, Laios!”
Despite your own disinterest, you want nothing more than to indulge Laios. It seems that this is something you’ll let devour you.
Flinging the door open and shut behind him, Laios stares at you -- slack jawed and pupils eating away irises. He stares into your face.
“What is it, Lai- “
“We can actually get married!” he blurts, stunning you into utter bewilderment, “You don’t have to take a suitor, you can marry me for real! I don’t care much for inheriting the village, but we can tell your parents I do.”
“Laios…”
“I don’t have much to throw for a wedding, though, so it’ll have to be something quieter than you probably imagined.”
“Laios.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t marry you,” you turn away from his confused pinch, now sweeping a finger along the scratched edge of your nightstand, “You don’t get it.”
“So make me get it,” he says so casually, you almost believe it’s really that easy.
“I can’t marry you because I don’t care about your dad,” he’s struggling to hold in the confused puppy-head-tilt of questioning, you can sense it, “I stopped throwing myself at you for stupid titles a while ago. For a long time I did it genuinely. Because I wanted to.”
“Because you liked me.”
“Now he gets it,” you huff bitterly.
“I can hear you,” Laios steps bravely to be beside you, “Do you still like me?”
You laugh because that’s all you can think to do. The sun just asked a daisy if it enjoys photosynthesis. A rhino wonders if the oxpecker is well fed. A black cat curls around an orange one in a window sill. Weeds grow so tangled up they need to be ripped as a knot. Two moth-gnawed coats hanging in the back of a rich man’s closet. Stars scorching at one another, colliding lightyears ahead. Squiggly stick figures holding hands in a defaced oil painting. Two eagles clawing at one another as they plummet from the sky.
“I don’t know if there’s a plane where I don’t.”
His morbid fascination and tactless enjoyment of life have you in a chokehold, one so fatally unshakable you’re certain he’ll someday kill you. Eventually, he’ll say something so thoughtlessly true to himself, with so much excitement it oozes from his pores, that you’ll have a heart attack then and there.
“So, why not stay?”
One day, he’ll lead you so deep into the dungeon that you cannot escape.
“You know what you’re implying, right?” your voice catches behind chattering teeth, a nervous whisper all you can manage, “I couldn’t, not if you’re just saying this out of guilt.”
“I know what I’m saying, I want you to stay so we can be together,” his face flushes, “I know how selfish it is, but I don’t want you to go home and marry someone else for your family. I want us to marry each other because I like you.”
His abrupt and daring confession has you petrified. Only your jaw is capable of movement, and the most it can do is dumbly drop before you gargle out a stunted, “Okay.”
“Okay!” he excitedly flails out both arms before crushing you against his cuirass, intensely aggressive and deeply endearing at once, “Do I have to meet your parents now?”
“Yes, that’s kind of the reason they let me stay here, you know? To see who I’d find on The Island instead of home.”
“I hate meeting adults… they’re so… weird.”
You choose not to point out that he, as well as everyone he associates with, is an adult.
“Just be yourself,” a sudden, maybe minorly manipulative, plan roars behind your eyes, “You’ll impress them so much, they’ll leave me alone forever!”
Hope
“And since they’re slimes, if you poke their eyes they stay perfectly calm! Which is another good way to tell them from the human they’re mimicking,” your dad made the mistake of asking Laios what he studied, misinterpreting your use of ‘fascinated by nature’ to mean ‘biology scholar’. Laios immediately began ranting and neither of your parents had reawakened from their shock yet, “Succubi can also duplicate people, but that’s usually when taking the most desired form their target has. Which is mainly sex appeal, so for me it’d probably be, well you know!” he affectionately squeezes your hand in view of your parents. You watch a little more of your dad’s soul crumble within his eyes, “The strangest is probably mirror monsters though, since they reflect what they see. They rely on flattery and illusions to swap with humans. I’d love to meet one so I could see their lure techniques in real time.”
“Wow, honey,” you grin, peeking at your parents across the table, “Can you circle back to how the shapeshifters make their copies? I just can’t wrap my head around why they’d use memories instead of the real things!”
“Oh, so it’s actually pretty simple!” Laios devolves into another ramble, eyes alight with excitement.
You’re just as glad to be feeding his need to talk about monsters as you are to be terrifying your parents.
“And you have a village in the North?” your father finally coughs out, holding a hand up to silence Laios.
“It’s my father’s,” Laios glances at you through his peripherals, visibly unsure how to carry out the conversation. To his credit, he’d pestered you about what exactly you wanted him to say about his father, and you only brushed it off as something you’d take care of.
“You’re the eldest, right?” your mom chews her thumbnail nervously, “A son at that!”
“Yes, yes, he’s a firstborn son,” Dad looks to you, “It was in the letter!”
“I am,” Laios’ foot taps beneath the table. Again glancing at you for further prompting.
“We’re not moving from The Island anytime soon,” you return Laios’ previous hand-squeeze, hoping to ease his nerves. You sit up straight, “We want to keep exploring the dungeon.”
“Yes, but after that?” Dad’s eyes are wet with concern and dread, “You’ll have to settle down eventually.”
“We’ll be fine, Dad. I’m fine living like this, I’ve had lots of fun -- I want to keep having fun. I’m excited to marry Laios, and he’s excited to marry me,” to add to your point, Laios nods enthusiastically, “I’m happy marrying for love, and I don’t care what it implies about me as your child.”
Meeting Laios was like striking gold. He’s different from anybody you grew up with, and you’re content to be with him as you continue to grow old.
“If you’re sure,” Mom lays a hand on your father’s back, as if to wrangle a dog before it bites, “Just visit more often, okay?” she catches how Laios perks up at the mention of more traveling, “And bring Laios, too. He’s very… interesting…”
You know. That’s why you courted (suffered) him for actual years.
Hey for the the twelve Days of Fluffmas, can you do one with Laios from dungeon meshi baking sweets? Or decorating?
Fluffmas - Day Four
Baking ft. Laios Touden
Pairing: Laios Touden x Gn! reader
Warnings: N/A
A/N: Thank you for requesting, I hope you enjoy! Sorry it's a bit late, I haven't been feeling well recently
Masterlist
You should've known that 'baking' with Laios means using monster parts, but a small part of you had hoped that he wouldn't make you eat monsters.
"Please, just try it!" he exclaims, holding up a treasure insect cookie to you. It's not that you're against eating monsters, it's just that, as someone who loves cookies, you just wanted to eat some traditional sugar cookies. "I promise it won't hurt you!"
You sigh, reluctantly taking the cookie from Laios. "Are you sure we can't eat normal sugar cookies?" you ask.
Laios shakes his head. "We can't make normal sugar cookies in the dungeon," he reminds you. "And besides, these are much better!"
You take a bite of the cookie. It's good, of course, but you still miss the flavor of sugar cookies. "I'll make you some traditional ones we get out of here," you tell him.
He smiles widely at that. "I've missed your sugar cookies, anyways."
"And yours aren't too bad," you reassure him, a small smile on your face.
comparing hand-sizes to hold their hand against the other's and then just holding hands + Laios 😭😭😭💞💞💞💞
I can never write Laios like you king but hope you like this Oxy ilyy<33🫶🫶
wc: 703 ; gn!reader
“Hey, so…” a voice interrupts the silence. “What if all those physical differences we displayed weren’t just an effect of changeling spores, more like revealed by them?” Laios asks, looking at his hand deep in thought.
Few groans and hums raise in their air, Chilchuck for one isn’t happy in the slightest for having his sleep interrupted. At least Marcille seems a little interested, or maybe just trying to end the conversation before Laios’ mind can spiral to depths no one wishes to know about.
“You mean the body shaping accordingly to your life style?”
“Yes! But not exactly.” some faces drop as his voice raises a tone higher, whatever remnants of exhaustion wiped off his body. “What if the occupations we would take and the lives we would live were already predetermined by the bodies we were going to inhabit?”
He sounds excited, the heart in the right place but probably not explaining what’s on his mind as he wished.
“You mean like ‘nature vs nurture’?” your voice rings in the air and immediately you can see Marcille’s face dropping. Probably an option she thought of as well, but chose not to voice for the moment.
Meanwhile Laios, more than happy to have someone else join in on his brainstorming, rushes to your side like a giddy puppy, hands up, palms facing you.
“Like Senshi–” “Hmm, he looked quite slender and fragile, even for elven standards when he was an elf himself…” “And and–”he counts every small detail he has noticed and saved into his memory without taking a breath. Happy and in his element, he looks fascinating.
“Despite all that, I’ve noticed hand sizes to not have gone through a drastic change.”
“Oh, really?” you ask, now a little curious. Has he really paid individual attention to each and everyone’s hands? “Yes! I even compared them with mine for good measure.” he says matter-of-factly, earning a snort from you.
“Well, then in this case,” you draw in, “your research is flawed I’m afraid.” Unfazed by your close proximity, he only looks confused at your claim. The ‘how so’ waits on his tongue but you beat him to it.
“I don’t think you ever compared with mine.” he seems relieved, as if letting out the breath he was holding. Taking your words as an invitation, Laios grabs your hands and brings them up, facing his palms against yours.
First thing he notes is how close they are to his in size. Sure, for a tall-man, he is not exactly the tallest but he was told he has big hands. Your fingertips passing his distal interphalangeals barely, his brows furrow without noticing. At his reaction, you stick your tongue out at him victoriously. Unfazed by your reaction he continues to inspect. Staring at your hands against his with fascination, he moves each finger, grazing against your skin as if to test some sort of parameter only he knows of.
What feels like forever passes.the two of you, enthralled in your own bubble now, everyone else busy with something, their attentions diverted.
Laios realizes then, that he has been staring for a while. With this first moment kicks back in his senses; the world suddenly isn’t drowned out, everything but you isn’t covered by a dark curtain– and how painfully warm, and so nice to the touch your hands are.
As if sensing him snapping back into reality, you let your fingers slide across the gaps between his, clasping his hands in a demeanor that mimicked his observant self a while ago.
“See?” you break the silence for the two of you. “Told ya you were missing out on data.” you say with a grin. Finding himself at ease with you, he brings his right hand to scratch his head reluctantly.
He couldn’t possibly be blushing now, could he?
Laios tries to return the smile and still feels his shyness taking over. A breath let out and he allows himself to sit down more properly, letting his muscles relax. Taking out his little notebook to read, he stays, and his left hand drops to the ground, between the two of you, hand still clasped to yours, not letting go until you do.
the man is BUILT for being the big spoon but a relationship is all about give and take, no? he gives you the sweetest puppy dog eyes when he asks if you can hold him, even though he knows he doesn't have to but it makes both your hearts jump: you because of how damn adorable he looks and him because he loves seeing your affection for him bloom before his very eyes.
if you're shorter, he likes to dock his head on top of yours. sometimes even takes a quick snooze that way with his arms wrapped around your body so nice and snug. if you're about the same height, give or take, he's resting his head on your shoulder or goes for temple-to-temple.
he isn't shy about expressing his feelings for you... which is a total 180 from how he behaved before your feelings were out in the open. he would always retreat to his armor like a turtle, just barely able to hide his blush when someone (cough cough CHILCHUCK) points out that he's staring at you for too long.
one night, the party is in a pretty sketchy area of the dungeon so laios volunteers to keep watch. you can't sleep, so you stay up with him. either one of you was supposed to wake one of the others but you two stayed up talking all night, listening to the other rant and rave about anything and everything (but of course, you can't have a conversation without indulging laios' permanent hyperfixation on monsters). that night is when he realizes he loves you.
both laios and reader learning to kiss w eachother and laios gets needy and touchy 😭🩷
and if I cried?
imagine you're childhood friends too... (keep in mind I haven't finished the series so this might be canon divergent) maybe you give each other an innocent peck in your adolescence, just to see what was the big fuss, only to pretend it wasn't a big deal when you parted.
the subject comes up around the campfire, the two of you much older now, though with just as little experience as you both had back then. everyone else has gone to bed, leaving just you and laios with your thoughts.
"did you mean... what you said? earlier?" laios has to clear his throat, the redness that sweeps his face made more intense by the flickering flames in front of him.
there was only one thing he could be referring to: kissing. it came up when marcille spun a web of her latest dream, where she had envisioned a scenario that seemed straight out of a fairytale. a "mysterious" lover (though everyone had a pretty good guess who this was), true love's kiss, and a happy ending.
you had giggled, remarking that you haven't even been kissed in your dreams, much less in real life. everyone else had moved on from the discussion, but not laios.
"o-oh, that? yeah, of course... I mean, unless you want to count the one when we were kids?" your chuckle is a tad on the sheepish side, your own cheeks starting to heat up.
"n-no, no, of course." laios nearly parrots your response, fiddling with his fingers. a quietness settles in the air, his mind and yours racing with ways to fill in the silence. but you didn't need to fret your pretty little head about it because laios was about to take the plunge, ask you if you wanted to try again.
you said yes, a little too fast for your liking but you won't have to worry about words for long.
the first kiss is as clumsy as the first, your lips and his pressed together with little finesse. you're both still as boards but determined to try again. laios' hands rise to cup your face, his golden gaze searching yours for... desire.
he holds you, from your face to his waist, until you both get the hang of it. your lips move languidly against his until it becomes second nature. you hear laios' breath hitch, a soft whine in his throat when you kiss him again.
you had your first kiss with him that night, but it wouldn't be your last.
Laios in a flower crown. That's it that's the post
that you make together... he wants to make one for you and you want to learn, so it's something you do one afternoon and you find out he's really good at it. his threading, flower placement, and colors would make a florist bow in praise. you ask him how he got so good and he tells you that he would make them for falin all the time.
"anytime she asked." he answers without taking his eyes off the crown for the finishing touches.
"you're such a good big brother." the best, you correct in your head.
satisfied with his handiwork, laios gingerly places the crown on your head, grinning ear to ear when he tells you, "well... i like making the people i love smile."
hi i love your laios posts 🫶 how do you think he would react to reader's pregnancy cravings?
omg tank youuuuu <3
and um, are you kidding me?! (/pos) he's the KING of meeting your every craving.
in fact, i'd say it was just one of the many things he was most excited for when you discovered you were pregnant. he made that known too, asking you if you had any cravings because honestly? he's down to try whatever your hormones cause you to desire.
laios will learn how to cook anything and everything you like or want. he's the type of guy to rush in the middle of the night to get whatever it is you're fiending for, even if it's 3 AM and he's dead tired too.
omg, he probably keeps track of your cravings too, in a journal that will totally go into your memory box you've been keeping during your pregnancy...
